Kerem Ergener
(He/Him)
School of Performing Arts
- School of Performing Arts
- Virginia Tech, School of Performing Arts, 313 Henderson Hall 195 Alumni Mall, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, United States
BIO
Kerem Ergener is an electronic music composer and multimedia artist known for his architectural approach to sound, melding minimal, glitch-driven electronics with spatial audio, light, and atmosphere to create immersive performances and installations. His artistic output and research interests focus on embodiment through sound and the phenomenology of atmosphere — shaping space and place by developing holophonic and immersive listening experiences through Wave Field Synthesis (WFS), and advancing the democratization of music-making through live coding.
He earned his undergraduate degree in Mechatronics Engineering at Bahçeşehir University, where he helped establish the BAU Stanford Robotics Research Project Laboratory and conducted research on advanced robotics applications. He continued his graduate education at Istanbul Technical University MIAM, receiving his Master of Arts in Sonic Arts. From 2019 to 2022 he lived in Bangkok, Thailand, where he served as a lecturer at King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Institute of Music Science and Engineering.
He received his Ph.D. in Experimental Music and Digital Media at Louisiana State University, with a graduate minor in Architecture, studying electronic music and composition with Reuben de Lautour, Jeremy Woodruff, Brian Raphael Nabors, Jesse Allison, and Stephen David Beck. He founded the label Le Horla Records in 2016 to bring unheard avant-garde and experimental sounds to listeners, and has been featured on numerous compilations, including the Music from SEAMUS series, releasing solo work under his name and the pseudonym Le Horla. His works have been performed internationally in concerts and conferences, including Electric LaTex, SEAMUS, and the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC). He was honored with the American Prize Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for his visual work for David Walters' Makrológos.
Ergener serves as an Assistant Professor of Music Technology at Virginia Tech's School of Performing Arts. He is also active in academic service and community-building within experimental music and music technology. He chairs the Ethics Committee of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME), was a founding member of Algorave Louisiana and Istanbul Coding Ensemble, and was part of the Laptop Orchestra of Louisiana (LoLs) and Algorave Istanbul. His current research focuses on holophony, immersive audio, and the future of spatial audio experiences. His work with Wave Field Synthesis includes The AURA, a 192-channel WFS system designed and built with Jesse Allison, which became a foundational project in his investigation of communal, embodied, and architecturally informed listening. At Virginia Tech, Ergener continues to develop research and creative work at the intersection of sound, design, architecture, and technology, exploring how holophonic audio can reshape the way listeners experience space, atmosphere, and place.
ACADEMIC POSITIONS
- Assistant Professor of Music TechnologyVirginia Tech, School of Performing Arts, Blacksburg, United States10 Aug 2026
- Graduate AssistantLouisiana State University, Experimental Music and Digital Media, Baton Rouge, United States15 Aug 2022 - 15 May 2026
- LecturerKing Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Institute of Science Music and Engineering, Bangkok, Thailand1 Sep 2019 - 1 May 2022
DEGREES
- PhDLouisiana State University, Baton Rouge, United States2022 - 2026
- MAIstanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Türkiye2016 - 2019
- B.Sc.Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul, Türkiye2011 - 2015
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
- 4 Quality Education
- 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
AVAILABILITY
- Collaborative projects
- Career advice
- Media enquiries
- Masters Research or PhD student supervision
- Mentoring (long-term)
- Membership of an advisory committee
- Join a web conference as a panellist or speaker
- Industry Projects