Douglas McCausland

Douglas McCausland is a composer and performer of electroacoustic music currently based out of the Bay Area in California, USA. Fascinated with new sonic territories and processes for creating music, his work engages with the extremes of sound and the digital medium. As an artist, he has focused in recent years almost exclusively on the creation of experimental electronic music and digital art. This focus has led to his current compositional output and research particularly centering on interactive systems, real-time performance of electronic music with handmade interfaces, working with higher-order ambisonics, experimental sound design, and DIY electronics / hardware-hacking.

His works have been performed internationally at festivals and symposiums such as: SEAMUS, Splice, MISE-EN, Klingt Gut!, Sounds Like THIS!, Electronic Music Midwest, NYCEMF, Sonicscape, CEMEC, Eureka!, and many more. Notable recent events include a performance and installation series at the Talbot Rice Gallery and the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh, UK, and an installation at Stanford University’s Anderson Collection as part of “CCRMA x Anderson: Sound Happenings”. Additionally, his love of collaboration has led him to create works that cross-pollinate into other artistic disciplines, such as sound art, graphic design, computer science, physics, and poetry.

Doug is currently a doctoral fellow at Stanford University, working towards his DMA in Composition while studying with Chris Chafe, Patricia Alessandrini, and Fernando Lopez-Lezcano. In the year preceding his doctoral studies he completed a second master’s, an MSc in Digital Composition and Performance, at the University of Edinburgh under Martin Parker and Tom Mudd. Prior to that, he completed an MM in Music Composition at Michigan State University, studying with Mark Sullivan, Lyn Goeringer, and Ricardo Lorenz. Doug additionally holds a BM in Music Theory and Composition, Saxophone Performance, and Music Education from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, where he studied composition with Kimberly Archer.