Lost Atlantis: An Evening With Barry Schrader

Lost Atlantis: An Evening With Barry Schrader

EMEAPP is pleased to present an exclusive interview with composer Barry Schrader, conducted and recorded specifically for this event. EMEAPP's own Mike Hunter sits down with Schrader for a wide-ranging conversation tracing the arc of a remarkable career that has helped define the landscape of American electro-acoustic music.

The discussion begins at the beginning: Schrader's formative years as a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh, where he first began composing electronic music in 1969, and follows him westward to the newly founded California Institute of the Arts, where he earned his MFA in composition in 1971. He would go on to join the CalArts faculty that same year, remaining a cornerstone of its composition program for over four decades — a tenure that shaped generations of composers working in electronic and electro-acoustic music.

Central to the conversation is Schrader's early and deeply formative work with Buchla modular analog systems (both the 100 and 200 series Electric Music Box) and how those instruments shaped not just his sound, but his entire philosophy of composition. Schrader will discuss how the Buchla's distinctive approach to timbre, control voltage, and signal flow influenced the way he thinks about music at its most fundamental level — ideas that continued to animate his work long after he made the transition to digital composition in 1985.

The interview will be followed by a live airing of the original quadraphonic version of Schrader’s seminal album Lost Atlantis which was composed on one of the first Buchla 200 systems (Schrader was on the faculty of CalArts, which purchased two of the earliest 200 systems in 1971). This version has been rarely heard publicly and includes the original narration from Plato’s Critas spoken by Nicholas England. The narration was not included on either the LP or CD releases of the work, making this a rare chance to hear the album as it was originally conceived by Schrader.

Schrader hopes to join virtually for an interactive Q&A session after the listening event. 

There is no admission fee but donations are encouraged.  Seating is limited, so please contact us if you have signed up and can no longer attend so we can make your seats available to others. 

BARRY SCHRADER

Barry Schrader is a pioneering electronic music composer known for his innovative use of analog synthesis. He was appointed to the composition faculty at California Institute of the Arts in 1971 and is currently a Professor Emeritus. His landmark album Lost Atlantis (1977) remains a touchstone of modular synthesis artistry with sweeping textures and richly layered timbres that were realized entirely on a Buchla 200 system. Schrader continues exploring new approaches to electronic music: his first album of new music in more than ten years, Ambient: Aether, was released in September 2025.

This event is part of EMEAPP/MMT's special exhibition Instruments That Talk Back: Celebrating the Legacy of Don Buchla. Funding for this exhibition has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. We are deeply grateful for their support.