Herbert Brün

Herbert Brün was born in Berlin in 1918 to a Jewish family at a time of political upheaval that would shape his life and work. In 1936, as the situation in Germany grew increasingly dangerous under the Nazi regime, he left for Palestine and studied piano and composition at the Jerusalem Conservatory. He also worked as a jazz pianist during this period. After World War II continued his training through scholarships at Tanglewood with Aaron Copland and at Columbia University. He went on to work as a professor at the University of Illinois.

In the 1950s, Brün was active in electronic and computer music at WDR in Cologne and at Siemens in Munich. From 1955 to 1961, he conducted research in Paris, Cologne, and Munich on electro-acoustics and composition, while also composing theater music in collaboration with directors including Fritz Kortner. In 1962, after a lecture tour in the United States, he joined the University of Illinois at the invitation of Lejaren Hiller. There he developed computer compositions and graphics, collaborated with Heinz von Foerster at the Biological Computer Laboratory, and co-taught interdisciplinary courses between 1968 and 1974. He also took over the Seminar for Experimental Music, a bi-weekly meeting of composers, artists, and students that continued for more than 30 years, and in 1974 his class published The Cybernetics of Cybernetics. Brün participated in the 1968 exhibition Cybernetic Serendipity in London and in 1980 founded the Performers’ Workshop Ensemble.

Brün received the Norbert Wiener Medal from the American Society for Cybernetics, the SEAMUS Award for Lifelong Achievement in 2000, and an honorary doctorate from Goethe University Frankfurt. The University of Illinois honored him with two festivals, in 1988 and 1998, and further festivals in New York and Urbana were dedicated to his work and his students after his passing in 2000.