Professor Martin Herman, Chair of Design and Director of the Gerald Strang Electronic Music Studio, has been a faculty member at CSULB since 1990. He holds a B.A. from Duke University, an M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD in composition from the University of California, Berkeley. At CSULB he teaches composition/theory as well as electronic music classes in synthesis, computers and sound, and musical interactivity.
Professor Herman is the Artistic Director of Bentstrings Productions, which supports the creation and production of new media and sound art works. He directs the Los Angeles-based BCCM Laptop Ensemble, which has given performances at the MERGE Festival 2012 and SoundWalk 2012. He has collaborated on sculpture/sound installations as sound designer and programmer “Arquitectura Sonora” with sculptor Mayte Alonso in 2012, 2008 and 2006. In the fall of 2009 he worked with director, Byungkoo Ahn, on a one-act opera that was performed at LaMaMa Theatre, New York City. Recent conducting and composition projects have taken him to Berlin, Germany where he has worked with Das Sinfonie Orchester Berlin and soloists.
His awards and honors include a Fulbright Grant to France, the Ladd Prix de Paris, the Eisner Prize in composition, a Dramalogue Award, Meet the Composer Awards, and a Camargo Foundation Residency. He has also had commissions and performances from the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, the National Orchestral Association, the California E.A.R. Unit, the Berkeley Contemporary Opera, and has received international recognition through performances at the International Computer Music Conference in Tokyo, the Music Now Festival in Prague, and the International Music Festival in Brno, Czech Republic.