About BEAM

Board of Directors

Keith McMillen composer, inventor, entrepreneur, is BEAM’s founder and director. Keith founded Zeta Music in 1979 and managed to reinvent the violin. Zeta is the world’s leading purveyor of modern violins, cellos and basses. Keith has started and sold multiple audio companies and has spent 25 years developing MACIAS - an integrated composition performance system. His invention, vision and money are the root cause of BEAM

Jaron Lanier is best known for his pioneering work in the field he named “Virtual Reality”. In the early 1980s he founded VPL Research, the first company to sell VR products. He co-developed the first implementations of virtual reality in surgical simulation, vehicle interior prototyping and virtual sets for television production. He has the world’s largest private collection of musical instruments and is a noted composer, musician, author and artist.

Max Mathews started it all. Working at Bell Labs in 1962 he taught the first computers to sing (memorialized by HAL singing “Daisy” in 2001 a Space Odyssey) using his program Music V. He is currently Professor of Music Research at Stanford University and continues to pioneer in human machine interfaces and new musical instruments.

John Katovich was General Counsel of the Pacific Stock Exchange from 1980 until 1995 when he became a founding member of ePit, one of the first internet based trading companies. He has participated in multiple financial startups and represents the monetary and legal interests of BEAM.

Richard Boulanger is a Professor of Music Synthesis at the Berklee College of Music where he has been honored with both the Faculty of the Year Award and the President's Award. He has published articles on computer music education and composition in all the major electronic music and music technology magazines. Most recently, Boulanger edited a definitive textbook on computer music that was published by The MIT Press entitled: The Csound Book.

Naut Humon has been staging underground events that have inverted and blurred the roles of audience and participant for over 40 years. He is the co-founder of Asphodel Records, and was the primary catalyst, producer, arranger and performer of Rhythm and Noise. He later founded Sound Traffic Control in 1991 with two intentions: first, to replace Rhythm and Noise's group form by a more flexible collective; and second, to focus on using an orchestral setting to explore three-dimensional space.

Daniel Kobialka has been Principal 2nd Violinist with the San Francisco Symphony for over two decades, occupying the Dinner and Swig Families Chair. In addition to his many performances worldwide, he is the founding concertmaster and annual soloist with San Francisco's annual Midsummer Mozart Festival Orchestra under George Cleve, with whom he has recorded Mozart's Violin Concerto No 1. Michael Tilsen Thomas states, "Daniel Kobialka...brings to life music of the past, present and future, and communicates true joy."

George Alistair Sanger, The Fat Man, has been creating music and other audio for games since 1983. He is internationally recognized for having contributed to the atmosphere of over 250 games, including such sound-barrier-breaking greats as Loom, Wing Commander I and II, The 7th Guest I and II, NASCAR Racing, Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo, and ATF. He wrote the first General MIDI soundtrack for a game, the first direct-to-MIDI live recording of musicians, the first redbook soundtrack included with the game as a separate disk, the first music for a game that was considered a "work of art," and the first soundtrack that was considered a selling point for the game. On a 380-acre ranch on the Guadalupe River, The Fat Man hosts the annual Texas Interactive Music Conference and BBQ (Project Bar-B-Q), the computer/music industry's most prestigious and influential conference.

BIOS

keith Keith McMillen has been working his entire adult life on one single problem — how to play live interactive music in an ensemble using extended instruments moderated by computer intelligence. This goal has required him to create scores of new instruments, patented technologies and multiple successful companies in order to advance the technology sufficiently to reach his performance objectives. Keith began his audio career in 1979, when he founded Zeta Music. The company's revolutionary electronic instrument designs created a new market in the music industry, and the brand “Zeta” is synonymous with the modern violin. Later, as Vice President of R&D at Gibson Guitars, Keith worked with UC Berkeley’s CNMAT and created a new technology group focusing on audio networking, synthesizers and string instruments. As Director of Engineering at Harman Kardon, he formed an innovative new software product division dealing with audio processing and distributed networks. Keith founded Octiv in 1999 to solve major issues with live audio and led the company as both technologist and business guru raising over $20M from VCs such as 3i and Intel Capital. In April of 2005, Keith successfully sold Octiv to Plantronics (NYSE:PLT) and is personally funding the current operations of the BEAM Foundation. Keith received his BS in Acoustics under James Beauchamp from the University of Illinois where he also trained in classical guitar and studied composition with Herbert Brun and Sal Martriano. Keith has spent 25 years developing MACIAS — an integrated composition performance system that is the foundation of TrioMetrik’s music. He now works full time at composing, creating and performing while pursuing his original goal of a next generation music he has termed NuRoque.

jaron Jaron Lanier is probably best known for his work in Virtual Reality. He coined the term ‘Virtual Reality’ and in the early 1980s founded VPL Research, the first company to sell VR products. While at VPL, he co-developed the first implementations of virtual reality applications in surgical simulation, vehicle interior prototyping, virtual sets for television production, and assorted other areas. He led the team that developed the first widely used software platform architecture for immersive virtual reality applications. As a musician, Lanier has been active in the world of new "classical" music since the late seventies. He is a pianist and a specialist in unusual musical instruments, especially the wind and string instruments of Asia. He maintains one of the largest and most varied collections of actively played instruments in the world. Lanier has performed with artists as diverse as Philip Glass, Ornette Coleman, George Clinton, Vernon Reid, Terry Riley, Duncan Sheik, Pauline Oliveros, and Stanley Jordan. Current recording projects include his "acoustic techno" duet with Sean Lennon and an album of duets with flautist Robert Dick.

max Max V. Mathews directed the Acoustical and Behavioral Research Center at Bell Laboratories from 1962 to 1985. This laboratory carried out research in speech communication, visual communication, human memory and learning, programmed instruction, analysis of subjective opinions, physical acoustics, and industrial robotics. Mr. Mathews' personal research is concerned with sound and music synthesis with digital computers and with the application of computers to areas in which man-machine interactions are critical. He developed a program (Music V) for the direct digital synthesis of sounds and a program (Groove) for the computer control of a sound synthesizer. Music V and its successors are now widely used in the United States and Europe. His past research included development of computer methods for speech processing, studies of human speech production, studies of auditory masking, and the invention of techniques for computer drawing of typography. He is currently investigating the effect of resonances on sound quality. He was Scientific Advisor to the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM), Paris, and is currently Professor of Music (Research) at Stanford University. He holds a Silver Medal in Musical Acoustics from the Acoustical Society of America, and the Chevalier dan l'order des Arts et Lettres, Republique Francaise. Max plays violin.

john John Katovich has been in-house and external counsel to companies for the last 20 years. He became General Counsel for the Pacific Exchange in the mid '80s after several years as both a trader and regulator. John was also the in-house General Counsel for two software-trading companies, OptiMark Technologies and ePIT Systems. John currently provides general, licensing and regulatory counsel to several technology, software and trading companies in the Bay Area. He graduated from the University of Illinois in 1976, and Southern Illinois Law School in 1979. He is licensed to practice in both California and Illinois. He plays Saxophone.

Mark Russo is a seasoned marketing communications professional, with over 20 years experience in public relations, advertising and marketing. His career spans working with pr and advertising agencies, and in-house marketing counsel for the likes of Oracle Corporation and other tech companies. He opened and operated a highly successful integrated marketing agency in San Francisco, ProductCom, with a roster of blue chip clients and nationally known brands. Mark is recognized by his peers for exceptional creativity and leadership in marketing communications, with numerous national awards in pr and advertising. His background includes extensive knowledge of competitive marketing and communications strategies, and experience in launching business initiatives, new product launches and “go to market” launches. As a skilled professional in wine, food and spirits he’s garnered several awards and is currently Chair Emeritus of the American Institute of Wine and Food Norcal. He is the US Brand Ambassador for Macallan Scotch Whisky. In 2001 he created a unique luxury lifestyle company hosting wine, food and spirits events and luxury lifestyle programs, Angel’s Share. The company has a vast following and creates high end proprietary events and across the US and internationally with a host of luxury lifestyle partners and brands.

Richard Boulanger was born in 1956 and holds a Ph.D. in Computer Music from the University of California, San Diego where he worked at the Center for Music Experiment's Computer Audio Research Lab. He has continued his computer music research at Bell Labs, CCRMA, the MIT Media Lab, Interval Research, and IBM and worked closely for many years with Max Mathews and Barry Vercoe. Boulanger has premiered his original interactive works at the Kennedy Center, and appeared on stage performing his Radio Baton and MIDI PowerGlove Concerto with the Krakow and Moscow Symphonies. His music is recorded on the NEUMA label. Currently, Dr. Boulanger is a Professor of Music Synthesis at the Berklee College of Music where he has been honored with both the Faculty of the Year Award and the President's Award. He has published articles on computer music education and composition in all the major electronic music and music technology magazines. Most recently, Boulanger edited a definitive textbook on computer music that was published by The MIT Press entitled: The Csound Book.

Naut Humon has been staging underground events that have inverted and blurred the roles of audience and participant for over 40 years as STC creator, curator and conductor. He is the co-founder of Asphodel Records, and was the primary catalyst, producer, arranger and performer of Rhythm and Noise. He later founded Sound Traffic Control in 1991 with two intentions: first, to replace Rhythm and Noise's group form by a more flexible collective; and second, to focus on using an orchestral setting to explore three-dimensional space. More recently, he is the co-founder and curator of Recombinant Media Labs, and experimental new media facility in San Francisco that fosters radical methodologies for spatial media synthesis, and is the premiere institution presenting emerging surround cinema works.

Daniel Kobialka has commissioned over 30 works from such composers as Pulitzer Prize winners Charles Wuorinen, William Bolcom, and Wayne Peterson. Kobialka has premiered both solo works and concertos for violin, including Ben Weber's Violin Concerto, dedicated to him, with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under Robert Shaw. With the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, he gave both the American premiere of Toru Takemitsu's "Far Calls, Coming Far," and the world premiere of Charles Wuorinine's "Rhapsody," a work written especially for Kobialka. Musical America wrote, "With de Waart conducting, Kobialka played the kind of heart-and-soul, totally secure performance composers dream about but all too rarely get to hear." He premiered Henry Brant's Litany of Tides with the San Jose Symphony and George Barati's Violin Concerto with the Santa Cruz Symphony. Other composers who have written and dedicated works for Kobialka include George Rochberg, Meyer Kupferman, Olou Harrison, Vivian Fine, Henry Brant, Fred Fox, Arthur Custer, Theodore Antoniou, Marta Ptaszynska, and Benjamin Lees. Kobialka served as concertmaster for the premier of Leonard Bernstein's Mass, which opened in the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Prompting Bernstein to state, " Kobialka is a musician of unusual strength and devotion."

George Alistair Sanger, a.k.a The Fat Man, is a well-respected leader in the field of game audio. He is the cofounder and host of Project Bar-B-Q, the premier interactive music conference, an annual event since 1996. He has worked for many years to improve, simplify, and promote interactivity in game audio. His recent efforts in this endeavor helped to form the IASIG's Interactive XMF working group, of which he is a member. He is the audio advisor for Game Developer Magazine and is responsible for that publication's audio column. He is also on the advisory boards for Full Sail, the Austin Community College game department, and the Game Audio Conference. He is a member of NARAS, the IGDA, the Kealing Middle School PTA, and the Rolls Royce Owners Club. The Fat Man's innovations include the first General MIDI score for a game, the first soundtrack CD that shipped with the game, the first game music considered a work of art, the first game featuring a live band recorded to MIDI, the first game music considered a selling point of the game, and the first context-sensitive soundtrack to attract industry attention.