A composer of concert music using both traditional forces and interactive digital instruments. My compositions include works for solo instruments and voice to grand orchestra.

Noel Zahler was born in New York City. He has studied music composition with Milton Babbitt, Jack Beeson, Chou Wen-chung, Mario Davidovsky, Franco Donatoni, and Henry Weinberg. Dr. Zahler has earned degrees from Columbia University (DMA), Princeton University (MFA), L'Accademia Musicale Chigiana (Certificato di Perfezionamento) Siena Italy, and C.U.N.Y. Queens College (BA/MA).

His awards and prizes include a National Endowment for the Arts Consortium Commission, a Fulbright/Hayes Fellowship to Italy, two McDowell Colony Fellowships, an Aaaron Copland Foundation Grant in support of recording, a Connecticut Commission on the Arts Individual Artists Grant, and a Connecticut Public Television (CPTV) prize for the sound score to the computer-realized video Gothic Tempest. He is a fellow of the Associated Kyoto Program, a recipient of an Italian National Research Council Award, a New York State Council for the Arts grant in support of recordings, and a National Endowment for the Humanities Scholarship.

Dr. Zahler's compositions include a wide range of vocal and instrumental works, as well as electroacoustic, interactive and multi-media works. His compositions are published by Associated Music Publishers (G. Schirmer, Inc.), American Composers Edition, and APNM music publishers. Recordings of his music: REGIONS I, FOUR SONGS OF DEPARTURE, and HARLEQUIN are available on the OPUS ONE record label. Agarttha, for chamber orchestra is available on the Centaur label with the Ensemble of the Center for New Music, David Gompper, conducting. His compositions have been performed by the American Composers Orchestra, The Arden Trio, The Charleston String Quartet, the Meridian String Quartet, the League of Composers/ISCM, The Center for New Music at the University of Iowa and other ensembles throughout this country, in Europe and Asia. In addition, Dr. Zahler is the co-author of three computer software programs including the Artificially Intelligent Computer Performer, Score Follow and Music Matrix.

Dr. Zahler is presently Director of the University of Minnesota School of Music, Minneapolis, Minnesota. His writings on and about music include three articles in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, six articles in the New Grove Dictionary of Music in the United States, a critical edition of Charles Ives' The Unanswered Question (Peer Southern Music Publishers, 1986), and numerous articles on music theory and composition, artificial intelligence and music, and computer music. Dr. Zahler was recently elected Vice President of the American Composers Alliance, a national organization founded by Aaron Copland and Roger Sessions in 1937. He listed in Who?s Who in the United States and Wh's Who in the World.

Einstein once stated, "imagination is much more important than knowledge." My work is entirely taken up with the exploration of ideas that stimulate my imagination. I build worlds of sound that live in my imagination. This is true whether I'm writing compositions for traditional instrumentalists or for more recent instruments and synthetic performers. How we combine the power of musical sound and its interpretation through performance into works that speak to each of us, with or without words, is, for me, what making music is all about! I try to build musical worlds that exist in my imagination and hope that they resonate with emotion and meaning differently for everyone who hears my work.

for violin and piano (2004); Concerto for clarinet, interactive electronics and chamber orchestra (2003); au volant, interactive music for dance (2000); Agarttha, for chamber orchestra (1998); Movement and Magic (David Smalley Retrospective, Lyman Allyn Museum) sound track for the documentary film (1998);Tears, for soprano and piano (1997); Songs from Salamandra (1997); For Clarinet Alone (1997); C?zanne Set, a virtual reality soundscape (1996);String Quartet No. 1 (1995); Olin Fanfare, for computer generated magnetic tape (1995); "Within the dome of time...," for flute and AICP (Artificially Intelligent Computer Performer); reCollections, for guitar alone (1992); Piano Etudes (1990); Sculler's Dream, sound track for a computer animated video (1989); Symphony (1988), for grand orchestra; Gothic Tempest (1987), music for a computer animated video;Automata (1985), a chamber opera in one act and four scenes (libretto by Robert Ornstein, based on the short story by E. T. A. Hoffman); Trio (1984), for violin, violoncello, and piano; Electronic Study No. 4 (1983);All Night (1983), sop., cl., vln., vlc., and pno.; Rhapsody, for violoncello alone (1982); Harlequin, concertino for piano and Chamber Orchestra (1980); Charms, for nine instruments (1978); Tableau, for violin alone (1977); Four Songs of Departure, soprano and piano (1977); Regions I, for piano alone (1976); Three Yeats songs for soprano and chamber orchestra (1975); Electronic Study No.3 (1975); Computer Study No. 2 (1974); Sonatina for Flute and Piano (1973); Kriss Kross, for electro-magnetic tape (1972); Computer Study No. 1 (1972); Study for Violin and Cello (1972).