George Lewis

George Emanuel Lewis (born July 14, 1952) is an American composer, trombonist, and musicologist. Lewis is the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music, Composition & Historical Musicology at Columbia University. His music spans genres including avant-garde jazz, contemporary classical and experimental music.

He is renowned for his work as an improvising trombonist and considered a pioneer of computer music, which he began pursuing in the late 1970s; in the 1980s he created Voyager, an improvising software that he has used in interactive performances. Lewis's honors include a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the American Book Award received for his book A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music. He has been a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1971, when he joined the organization at the age of 19.