Perry Cook Ph. D.

Few people may think music can be played using a coffee mug or that music and computers are compatible. Thanks to Perry Cook’s contribution to music and technology, people can hear music played on unusual instruments and music and computers are forever intertwined. Cook has brought international recognition to the computer music industry and to UMKC.

Cook (B.A. Music, ’85, B.S. Electrical Engineering, ’86), the 2005 Conservatory of Music Alumni Achievement Award winner at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, is the first person in the university’s history to receive alumni achievement awards from two academic units. In 1992, he was honored by the School of Computing and Engineering. What has he done to earn his second honor?

Cook’s summation is deceptively simple: “I do computer music,” he said.

“Music is organized sound, that’s what differentiates it from noise,” said Cook. “I came to UMKC to study voice and trombone, hoping to conduct both a choir and band in a small high-school somewhere. Then, I got a job in the recording studio and have worked with music and technology ever since.” After that experience, Cook’s goal was to combine technology and music in all aspects of his life.

According to Cook, before computers were widely used in music like they are today, he worked in the area of sound synthesis to provide algorithms to computers to make sound, either realistic or interesting.

“I believe the two are separate and that the computer is a new musical instrument,” said Cook. “It can make new sounds that we never have been able to hear or easily produce before.”

When you listen to the radio, watch TV or play video games, you are experiencing Cook’s applications of computer music. In the future, he hopes to build new music controllers, new devices or sensors to sense performers’ gestures. His interest lies in expanding the musical palette using the computer, manipulating sounds in unique ways.

“Perry is extending the tradition of musical instrument and performance practice from a clear historical understanding and personal experience of that practice,” said Paul Rudy, UMKC’s assistant professor of composition. “From this foundation of music, his expertise in physics and computer science bridges gaps between art and science on a level that few have achieved.”

Cook has fused existing instruments and enhanced others, creating new instruments like his DigitalDoo (sensor-speaker array enhanced digeridoo), or SqueezeVox (accordions that sing using computer models of the human singing voice). He devotedly studies physics of sound production, researches human perception of sound, creates tools for digital libraries and search engines, writes papers and gives lectures. Cook also performs.

By fusing technology and music, Cook found his niche. He has held positions at two prestigious universities. Currently, Cook is associate professor in the Computer Science and Music departments at Princeton University (the first joint arts/engineering appointment in Princeton’s 250 year history. Previously, he was acting director, senior research associate and technical director at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics.

In recognition of his unique work, Cook was elected president of the International Computer Music Association; recipient of the 2003 Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship; made more than 80 conference presentations. He has 20 peer-reviewed journal articles and is the author of two books and the editor of another. Cook has eight patents on devices as diverse as a calibration system for hearing aids, realistically modeling the sympathetic string vibration in pianos, and a physical articulatory model of the human singing voice. He has received more than $2 million in grant funding from state, university, private and federal sources.

The University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), one of four University of Missouri campuses, is a public university serving more than 14,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students.  UMKC engages with the community and economy based on a three-part mission: visual and performing arts, health sciences, and urban affairs.

This information is available to people with speech or hearing impairments by calling Relay Missouri at (800) 735-2966 (TT) or (800) 735-2466 (voice).