Wayne Kirby’s compositions and artworks have been performed and exhibited at Carnegie Recital Hall, Symphony Space, MoMA PS1, 80 Washington Square East Galleries, North Carolina Museum of Art and other venues. His collaborations with New Media artist Lei Han have been exhibited in Finland, Russia, Spain, Brazil and the United States. He is a graduate of Juilliard and also holds graduate degrees in music and studio art from Yale and New York University. He served on the faculty of New York University as director of the Music Technology Program. Since 1983, Wayne has taught at UNCA, nineteen of those years as Chairman of the Department of Music. In 2009, he founded the Bob Moog Electronic Music Studio. He retired from UNCA in 2019 as the Ruth Paddison Distinguished Professor.
Much of Wayne Kirby’s research and activity as visual artist, musician and author are rooted in the mathematical, mythical, mystical and scientific aspects of sound as it relates to humanity and beyond.
Dr. Kirby has also written several computer programs to facilitate the explorations of artists into alternate ways of thinking, creating and presenting their work. He has also applied some of his research to the development of an investigational sound therapy for use with children on the autistic spectrum as well as others with other special needs.
He created the Serious Composer Algorithmic Toolbox to enable composers to apply a compositional approach to music based on chaos theory (dynamical systems). It is commonly used to generate sequences of pitch, rhythm and dynamics based on Pi, Phi and other mathematical relationships.
Dr. Kirby’s Phi-Music Microtone/Brainwave Generator program enables composers and performers to generate tuning systems based upon virtually anything that can be represented by numbers. Many people interested in sound healing/therapy, sacred geometry, and other sonic explorations use his software. In addition to historical and ethnic tunings, the software also provides preset tunings for the periodic table, Phi, Pi and other values.
One of his sound sculpture installations entitled “Theta Phi” is rooted in “Sacred Geometry.” Kirby thinks of Sacred Geometry, in part, as the art and science of applying mathematical concepts to gain insight into the nature of universal consciousness. Wayne Kirby’s “Theta Phi” sound installation is a meditation on the plane of existence between Heaven and Earth. One of those mathematical concepts is the Golden Ratio, 1.618. This ratio is often considered the Perfect Proportion. It is seen in the art of the great classical painters, as well as in patterns associated with conch shells, galaxies, weather patterns, DNA, and other phenomena of the universe. The “Phi” part of the title refers to the tuning of the sustained musical pitches heard in the background. It also refers to the speed at which the percussion sounds are heard. For instance, one of the percussion sounds occurs 100 times per minute, another occurs at 161.8 (100 beats-per-minute * Phi).
The musical drones heard in the background are tuned to frequencies created in Phi intervals. They do not exist in any other type of man-made tuning system. Each of the “Phi tones” is recreated in a second loudspeaker. These second notes are slightly out of tune from the others. This causes a perceptible “shimmering” of the notes. This effect occurs at a very low frequency that corresponds to a range of brainwaves known as “Theta.” These types of brainwaves are associated with deep meditative states. The Theta frequency occurring in this piece was calculated by multiplying the magnetic frequency of the earth (“Schuman Resonance”) by Phi.
This sound sculpture is dedicated to the memory of the late electronic music pioneer, Bob Moog,
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Wayne Joseph Kirby was born in Paterson, New Jersey in 1946. In the mid-1960s, he moved to New York City to attend Juilliard, where he pursued composition studies and was a student of New York Philharmonic double bassist Frederick Zimmerman and bass virtuoso Gary Karr. While at Juilliard, he formed a rock group (“Psychedelic Rock/ Psychedelic Folk”) with singer/actor Deborah Harry (later of Blondie). They recorded two albums on Capitol Records and performed on shows that also featured Jimi Hendrix, Leslie West (Mountain), Traffic, Bette Midler, Spooky Tooth, Rhinoceros, and others. Kirby left the group to pursue work as a performer, composer, arranger and conductor in New York theater, television, and records. From the late 1960s until the early 1980s, he wrote arrangements and conducted for television shows including the Tonight Show, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, Dinah Shore, and Julie Andrews shows.
Following graduation from Juilliard, he traveled to Spoleto, Italy to perform as principal double bassist with the Juilliard Orchestra under Thomas Schippers of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Later that year, he accepted a scholarship to Yale University for graduate studies in electronic music composition and double bass performance.
His principal composition teachers have included Jacob Druckman (Columbia/Princeton Electronic Music Laboratories, Pulitzer Prize, 1972, Yehudi Wyner (Pulitzer Prize, 2006), Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki (Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, St. Luke Passion) and electronic music pioneer Bulent Arel (Columbia/Princeton Electronic Music Laboratories).
He has performed under the batons of Leopold Stokowski, William Steinberg, Gustav Meier, John Nelson, Dennis Russell Davies, et al. After receiving his master’s degree from Yale, he traveled internationally as music director, arranger, record producer and conductor for the tenor, Sergio Franchi. Later, he enrolled at New York University where, in 1981, he received the doctoral degree in studio and environmental art (sound as a sculptural medium).
His compositions for large and small ensembles and his multimedia installation artworks have been performed and exhibited at Carnegie Recital Hall (NYC), Symphony Space (NYC), P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center (MOMA/NYC), 80 Washington Square East Galleries (NYC), North Carolina Museum of Art (NC), Walker Art Gallery (MO), Spirit Square (NC), International Electronic Music Plus Festivals (NC, MO), Cumberland Science Museum (TN), Belcourt Theater (TN), River Sculpture Festival (Asheville, NC 2006 & 2007), and numerous other venues.
He is the author of several computer programs that are used by composers and performers internationally. “Serious Composer” is a program that allows composer to generate compositions based on the science of chaos (dynamical systems). “Phi Music” is a program the facilitates the performance of micro-tonal scales based upon an infinite number of possibilities. He has created tunings based upon the phi ratio, periodic table, harmonics of the earth, and a large number of Western and non-Western tunings.
In 1999, Dr. Kirby developed the Kirby Method of Auditory Integration Training, a therapy used principally by children with autism. This technique is delivered using the Kirby Auditory Modulation System (KAMS), which is a computer-based auditory delivery system developed for classroom, clinical, home and research applications. He has given numerous presentations concerning the use of Auditory Integration Training with children and adults diagnosed with autism and learning disorders. In 2006, he was invited to present the results of his study, The Effects of Auditory Integration Training on Children Diagnosed With Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, at The 10th International Otolaryngology Conference in association with Suez Canal University, Port Said, Egypt. He also served as panelist for Auditory Integration Training (AIT): A New Frontier for Rehabilitative Audiology with Iman Sadek, MD; Mona Hegazy, MD; Manal Omar, MD, and Aladin Abou-Setta, MD.
In October 2007, Dr. Kirby presented the keynote address at the “Tratamiento de Integración Auditiva” conference hosted by the Instituto Educativo para Niños con Lesión Cerebral, in Zacatecas, Mexico.
He is ranked as a 9th degree black belt Grandmaster in Taekwon-Do. In 1962 he began the study of Goju Ryu Karate. He became a student of Tai Chi Chuan Grandmaster William C. C. Chen (student of Great-Grandmaster Cheng Man-Ching) in New York City in 1967. In 1973 he began training in Matsumura Orthodox Shorin-ryu Karate-do under Shihan Gene Briscoe (student of Great-Grandmaster Hohan Soken) in Nevada. He also studied Shorin-Ryu under Zenko Heshiki in New York City. In 1991, he began the study of Taekwon-Do under R. Yun Ju Ahn (Master of Tang Soo Do and Taekwon-Do) at Ahn’s Taekwon-Do Institute. He currenly studies with Grandmaster Robert Dunn, the founder and president of the Jun Tong Traditional Taekwon-Do Federation. Kirby taught the Taekwon-Do: History, Culture and Martial Arts of Korea courses offered through the UNCA Asian Studies Program. He was nducted into the US Black Belt Hall of Fame (2019) and International Taekwon-Do Hall of Fame (2022).
He has served on the faculty of New York University as director of the Music Technology Program. He is Paddision Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina Asheville.