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Greg Schiemer (b.1949) studied composition with Peter Sculthorpe, graduating from Sydney University with a Bachelor of Music in 1972. Between 1972 and 1975, under the tutelage of Phil Connor and Arthur Spring, he learnt the craft of practical electronics and eventually worked as a computer technician for Digital Equipment Australia 1976-81. He was awarded a PhD in Electronics from Macquarie University in 1999 while studying under David Skellern. He has lectured in electronic music composition at the Canberra School of Music (1983-85), the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (1986-2002) and currently lectures, having begun in 2003, at the Faculty of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong.

From 1970 to 1973, he was an active member of Sydney-based experimental music group AZ Music which was founded by David Ahern.

Since that time, much of his work has been associated with musical applications of new technology. He collaborated in the theremin-based electronic dance performance projects devised by choreographer Phillippa Cullen in 1972. A year later, in collaboration with Connor, he created a computer generated piece called Brolga for Ruth Galene's New Dance Theatre.

From 1977 to 1983, he designed and built the Tupperware Gamelan; a set of electronic instruments built for performance by ensembles of non-expert performers and collaborated in dance music productions with One Extra Company. In 1984, he modified microcomputer hardware called the DATUM made by Gammatron, and in collaboration with percussionist Graeme Leak, used this to produce firmware-based interactive MIDI compositions Monophonic Variations and Polyphonic Variations.

He developed a microcontroller-based interactive composition system called the MIDI Tool Box, from 1989 to 94, to implement live-performance algorithmic composition in firmware. In Spectral Dance and Token Objects, the composer performs using remnants of the Tupperware Gamelan as an interface and interacts with firmware algorithms on the MIDI Tool Box. Spectral Dance was performed in Delphi in 1992, while Token Objects was performed a year later at ICMC in Tokyo.

He was awarded an Australia Council Composer's Fellowship in 1994 to work on new musical instrument design at CSIRO Division of Radiophysics.

As Chief Investigator for a collaborative ARC project in 1994, he developed musical applications of 3D audio with Lake Technology as industry partner. His current ARC Discovery project will adapt mobile phone handsets for composing and playing new music in just intonation with particular focus on the work of contemporary tuning theorist Erv Wilson. Another current ARC Linkage project, conducted with Haptics engineer Fazel Naghdy and international carillonist Timothy Hurd, will develop a new performance interface using Haptic technology.

Biography provided by the composer