James Gott (1955-1998) : Associate Artist
Born in 1955, James Gott's early music education was of an informal nature. The child of an unmusical family, he taught himself the guitar and music theory from books and records. Later he taught himself to play the piano and eventually enrolled at La Trobe University to study for a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music. He studied with Theodore Dollarhide and graduated with his degree in 1981. In 1984 he completed a Graduate Diploma of Education at the Hawthorn Institute of Education. Additional studies have included tuition from Felix Werder as part of a course in composition and electronic music at the Council of Adult Education in 1976, and jazz lessons with Bob Sedergreen in 1983.
He has taught music as a classroom teacher (secondary school level), and as an instrumental teacher since 1983, and since 1993 has also taught piano improvisation privately.
Gott has a particular interest in the use of electronics in music. He was the founder of Midifile Music, a project which supplies a wide variety of works (including commissioned pieces) sequenced on disk, and has published and given seminars on the use of computers in music education and composition.
James Gott died on 30 July, 1998.