Thomas Patteson is a scholar and musician who studies 20th-century music and its connections to intellectual history, technology, and society. Thomas is Professor of Music History at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he has been a member of the faculty since 2013. He has studied at New College of Florida, the Universität zu Köln, and at the University of Pennsylvania.
He is the author of Instruments for New Music (University of California Press, 2016), a study of the musical, social, and political ramifications of experimental sound technologies developed in Germany during the Weimar Republic. His book received the 2017 Lewis Lockwood Award from the American Musicological Society, which recognizes "a musicological book of exceptional merit produced by a scholar in the early stages of their career."
Thomas' current research project (working title: Sound/Systems) explores new concepts of compositional subjectivity in music since 1945, from the use of machines and algorithms to improvisation and chance procedures, and connects these efforts to the emerging fields of cybernetics and system theory.
An avid supporter of the digital humanities, Thomas was the author of the music blog Acousmata (2009-2013) and is co-curator of the Museum of Imaginary Musical Instruments, an online archive of speculative organology. Other areas of interest include modular synthesis and alternative education.
Beyond his scholarly work, Thomas is actively involved in the Philadelphia music scene. He is an associate curator at Bowerbird, where he helped launch the Arcana New Music Ensemble in 2016. He has also collaborated extensively with the experimental art platform <fidget>, and joined their Board of Directors in 2019.
He is the author of Instruments for New Music (University of California Press, 2016), a study of the musical, social, and political ramifications of experimental sound technologies developed in Germany during the Weimar Republic. His book received the 2017 Lewis Lockwood Award from the American Musicological Society, which recognizes "a musicological book of exceptional merit produced by a scholar in the early stages of their career."
Thomas' current research project (working title: Sound/Systems) explores new concepts of compositional subjectivity in music since 1945, from the use of machines and algorithms to improvisation and chance procedures, and connects these efforts to the emerging fields of cybernetics and system theory.
An avid supporter of the digital humanities, Thomas was the author of the music blog Acousmata (2009-2013) and is co-curator of the Museum of Imaginary Musical Instruments, an online archive of speculative organology. Other areas of interest include modular synthesis and alternative education.
Beyond his scholarly work, Thomas is actively involved in the Philadelphia music scene. He is an associate curator at Bowerbird, where he helped launch the Arcana New Music Ensemble in 2016. He has also collaborated extensively with the experimental art platform <fidget>, and joined their Board of Directors in 2019.
