Perry Cook

Perry R. Cook is professor emeritus of CS (also Music) at Princeton University, where he founded the SoundLab, and co-founded the MacArthur Fellowship funded Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk). He received his PHD in EE from Stanford University, then served as Technical Director, then Acting Director, of the Stanford Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA).  

Cook has worked for, consulted, and advised many companies, including Media Vision, Xenon/Chromatic, and Interval Research.  He is founding advisor and IP Strategist to social music company Smule, and was co-founder of online arts education company Kadenze.  Cook has authored over 200 papers and books on sound synthesis, digital signal processing, computational acoustics, human perception, and novel controllers for sound and music.  

He is an inventor on 80 US and 15 Foreign patents.  With Ge Wang, Cook is co-author of the ChucK Programming Language.  His newest book is “Programming for Digital Musicians and Artists: An Introduction to ChucK,” with Ajay Kapur, Spencer Salazar, and Ge Wang.  The recipient of a 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship, Cook is (still) working on a new book, “La Bella Voce e La Macchina (the Beautiful Voice and the Machine), A History of Technology and the Expressive Voice.” 

Under the moniker P-Ray, Dr. Cook also writes and records music, makes various art projects, and publishes speculative future fiction.  Perry lives in Southern Oregon where he researches, writes, composes, farms sunlight, and eats lots of locally grown food.