Tom Endrich

British electroacoustic composer, researcher and computer scientist of US origins; since 2015, lives and works in Plymouth, Devon (b. 25 February 1942, Schenectady, NY). Archer (Tom) Endrich is best known as co-founder and director of Composers' Desktop Project (CDP), which developed one of the world's first software suites for direct-to-disk computer recording tailored for music composition. He has operated Hither Gate Music private imprint since the early 2000s. Endrich grew up in the United States and began playing piano and composing in high school. He studied philosophy at St Hyacinth College, Massachusetts, between 1962 and '65, graduating "cum laude" with a Bachelor of Arts degree. As his interest in music evolved, Tom Endrich attended Peabody's summer schools in 1967–69, earning a Master's degree from Union College, Schenectady, after studying composition with Edgar Curtis. In 1971, Archer Endrich migrated to the UK and enrolled in the University Of York for postgraduate studies in electronic music with Richard Orton (2) and composition with Bernard Rands. He gradually developed an original compositional style inspired by Indian music and the Arabic "maqam" and focused on the melodic origins of each component. In 1974, Tom completed his first commission, Amoeba, for an orchestra/choir, soprano, and two conductors. He also participated in the "Clap Now" experimental music theater group led by Rands, collaborating with composers Roger Marsh, Jonty Harrison and vocalist Melody Lovelace. Endrich earned a Ph.D. degree from York in 1975. As a self-employed composer, he received several commissions from The Yorkshire Arts Association, Merseyside Arts Association, Midlands Arts Centre and various other British institutions. Endrich worked as a music editor for publishers Edition Eulenburg and Edition Kunzelmann GmBH via Heinz Herschmann and taught part-time at Bingley College of Further Education, University of York, Sheffield Polytechnic and Open University. In the early 1980s, Tom Endrich joined INTERFACE, an informal meeting group at York focused on computer programming for music. Subsequently, the meeting led to the Composers' Desktop Project (CDP), officially established in 1986. Over the years, the group upgraded from Atari ST (with custom MIDI hardware designed by David Malham) to Atari TT030 and Atari Falcon030, later switching to Silicon Graphics/SGI and finally porting to Windows PC in the mid-90s and later to Apple Mac. In 1996, Endrich moved to Chippenham, Wiltshire, bringing CDP development to PACT (Partnership for Advanced Computer Technology) in Bristol. With technical help from Trevor Wishart, Archer re-wrote and assembled the project's reference documentation in HTML format. He also taught sound design for a year at Wiltshire Community College and was a Research Fellow at the University of Bath. Tom Endrich developed the LHCsound data sonification project with University College London and CERN Geneva, with audio output rendered by data from the Large Hadron Collider. Between 2006 and 2013, Endrich worked closely with Richard Orton (2) on ProcessPack, an innovative "high-level" compositional tool driven by their research in musical micro-forms. He oversaw the transition of CDP to a Social Enterprise in 2014, with all software now available for free, and currently primarily works on algorithmic scripting in composition.