Jeff Pressing
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Jeff Pressing | |
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| Born | San Diego |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | CalTech University |
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Jeff Pressing was an American musician, composer, and researcher who moved to Australia aged 29 and was for many years the head of the Cognitive Science Master's Program at the University of Melbourne in Australia and senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology. He published two very influential and highly cited papers on a computational model of musical improvisation.
Pressing was born in 1946 in San Diego and went to CalTech University aged 15 , eventually receiving a PhD in Physical Chemistry in 1972, but not long after changed his focus to studying music. He moved to Australia in 1975 to teach in the LaTrobe University Music Department eventually becoming head of department. He was primarily a keyboard player but also studied many kinds of world percussion and spent time in West Africa doing this.
He published his two papers on improvisation in 1984 and 1988, the second as a chapter in John Sloboda’s book ‘Generative Practice in Music. The model outlined in this chapter is still widely cited, including in fMRI studies of improvisation. In 1993 he moved to Melbourne to become a senior lecturer in psychology. Pressing was an active composer. He died suddenly in 2002 aged 55 leaving a wife and 2 children, and was a widely loved figure in his musical and academic community.
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