Background
Austin was born on September 12, 1930 in Duncan, Oklahoma, United States; the son of Jess Clemens Austin and Thais Sylva (Newburn) Austin.
415 Avenue C, Denton, Texas, United States
Austin received a Bachelor of Music degree in 1951 and a Master of Music degree in 1952 from the University of North Texas College of Music.
5000 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland, California, United States
Austin studied at Mills College in 1955.
University of California, Berkeley, California, United States
Larry studied at the University of California, Berkeley from 1955 to 1958.
Austin was born on September 12, 1930 in Duncan, Oklahoma, United States; the son of Jess Clemens Austin and Thais Sylva (Newburn) Austin.
Austin received a Bachelor of Music degree in 1951 and a Master of Music degree in 1952 from the University of North Texas College of Music. In 1955, he studied at Mills College. Also he took graduate study at the University of California, Berkeley from 1955 to 1958.
Austin studied with Canadian composer Violet Archer at the University of North Texas, French composer Darius Milhaud at Mills College and with American composer Andrew Imbrie at the University of California, Berkeley.
Austin began his career as an assistant professor of the music faculty at the University of California, Davis in 1958. Also he was a professor at the same university, where he worked until 1972. Also Larry was active there as a conductor, performer, electronic music practitioner and composer. In 1966, he co-founded, edited and published the seminal new music journal "SOURCE: Music of the Avant Garde".
In 1972, Larry was appointed a professor of music at the University of South Florida. Then in 1978, he took the same position at the University of North Texas, where he worked until his retirement in 1996 as a professor emeritus. In addition, in 1986, Austin founded and served as president of CDCM: Consortium to Distribute Computer Music. He was a producer of the CDCM Computer Music Series on Centaur Records. Larry helped create the Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia, where he was a director from 1982 to 1991 and in 1993-1996.
After his retirement from the University of North Texas, he worked in and out of his Denton studio. He continued his active composing career with commissions, tours, performances, writing, recordings, and lecturing, anticipating future extended composer residencies in North America, Asia, and Europe. Larry worked with the San Francisco Tape Music Center and the Artificial Intelligence Center at Stanford University.
Austin was a member and president of the International Computer Music Association (ICMA) from 1990 to 1994. He served on the Board of Directors of the ICMA from 1984 to 1988 and from 1990 to 1998.
Larry started his music career as a child in Vernon, Texas when he began playing trumpet only because his arms were too short for the trombone.
Quotes from others about the person
Tom Johnson: "His style is neither uptown nor downtown, nor is it minimal, eclectic, hypnotic, or European. But it works, it is strongly personal, and it has something to say in all these directions... The real source of Austin's music, however, is clearly Charles Ives, who also liked musical symbols, enjoyed collaging them together as densely as he could, and never had much of a knack for prettiness."
On October 31, 1953 Larry Austin married Edna Austin. They have five children, thirteen grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.