Scott Meister, born in Elyria, Ohio in 1950, received the Doctor of Musical Arts in composition and the Master of Music in percussion and composition/theory from the University of Miami. His Bachelor of Music degree in education is from Ashland College in Ashland, Ohio. He holds the Sharpe Chair Professorship of Composition at Appalachian State University where he has been a professor in the School of Music since 1974. He teaches composition, directs the Steely Pan Steel Band¨, the Middle-Eastern Ensemble,and is the director of the Electronic/M.I.D.I. Studio. Dr. Meister has over fifty published works and has received commissions for bands, choirs, and a variety of chamber ensembles. He has won numerous composition awards, the most recent being his sixth A.S.C.A.P. Composers Award. His composition "Gravitons" for orchestra and piano, was premiered by the Indianapolis Symphony and his "Feles Galactica" was performed by the Virginia intercollegiate Symphonic Band. As a guest composer at the Spoleto Festival, his composition, "HIGAZ" was performed and recorded by the Charleston Symphony. He has won the Hinda Honigman Gold Cup for Composition twice and he is listed in Contemporary American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary.

Because of Dr. Meister's interest in Arabic, Irish and Caribbean music, instruments from these cultures are incorporated in many of his works, ie., doumbecs, zills, frame drums, steel drums, etc. Over the past several years he has devoted much of his time to the study of the making/tuning of steel drums.

Website: www.acs.appstate.edu/~meisters/