The SEAMUS Board is thrilled to announce that Elainie Lillios will be honored with the SEAMUS Award for 2026. The SEAMUS Award is a prestigious honor given annually to an outstanding musician, technologist, composer, or other professional who has made important contributions to the culture of electro-acoustic music in the United States during their career.
Dr. Lillios is an influential composer, pedagogue, performer, and researcher who has made a significant mark on the field of electroacoustic music. We are incredibly pleased that we could recognize her contributions to our field with this award. Dr. Lillios will be presenting her work at the 2026 National SEAMUS Conference at UT San Antonio.
You can learn more about Dr. Lillios’s work at her website https://elillios.com.
“Acclaimed as one of the “contemporary masters of the medium” by MIT Press’s Computer Music Journal, Elainie Lillios creates works that reflect her fascination with listening, sound, space, time, immersion, and anecdote. Her compositions include stereo, multi-channel, and Ambisonic fixed media works, instrument(s) with live electronics, collaborative experimental audio/visual animations, and installations. She also performs live electronics with ESC Trio collaborators Chris Biggs and Scott Deal, and with Origami Sound Society collaborator Mark Nagy.
Elainie’s work has been recognized internationally and nationally through awards, grants, and commissions from the Fromm Foundation, Barlow Endowment, Fulbright Scholar Program, and the Johnstone Foundation. She won First Prize in the Concours Internationale de Bourges, Areon Flutes International Composition Competition, Electroacoustic Piano International Competition, and Medea Electronique “Saxotronics” Competition. She has also received awards from the Destellos International Electroacoustic Competition, Concurso Internacional de Música Electroacústica de São Paulo, Concorso Internazionale Russolo, Pierre Schaeffer Competition, and others. She has received grants/commissions from INA/GRM, Rèseaux, International Computer Music Association, La Muse en Circuit, New Adventures in Sound Art, ASCAP/SEAMUS, LSU’s Center for Computation and Technology, Sonic Arts Research Centre, Ohio Arts Council, and National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts. She has been a special guest at the Groupe de Recherche Musicales, Rien à Voir, festival l’espace du son, June in Buffalo, and at other locations in the United States and abroad.
Reviews of Elainie’s compact disc Entre Espaces (available on Empreintes DIGITALes at electrocd.com) praise her work for being “… elegantly assembled, and immersive enough to stand the test of deep listening” and as “…a journey not to be missed.” Other works are published by Centaur, Innova, MSR Classics, Ravello, StudioPANaroma, Musiques et recherches, La Muse en Circuit, New Adventures in Sound Art, SEAMUS, Irritable Hedgehog and Leonardo Music Journal.
Elainie attributes her success to the many professors whose patience and fortitude helped her explore and understand creativity, intent, technique, experimentation, professionalism, composition, and other important life lessons: at Northern Illinois University – Tim Blickhan, Robert Fleisher, Joe Pinzarrone, Harry Castle, and Jim Phelps; at the University of North Texas – Larry Austin, Jon Christopher Nelson, Joe Klein, Tom Clark Cindy Mc Tee, and Phil Windsor; at The University of Birmingham – Jonty Harrison. She has also been and continues to be inspired by her many former students whose explorations and successes make her proud to have been a small part of their journey as musicians and humans. Elainie counts herself fortunate to have numerous colleagues and friends in the field who have become her “other” family – her collaborators and performers, her SPLICE colleagues, her UK and European acousmatic composer clan, and her SEAMUS friends. Thank you ALL for making this journey an AWESOME one!
Elainie retired from Bowling Green State University in May 2025 but continues sharing her offbeat and often eccentric ideas about composition and experimentation through part time applied lesson teaching at Western Michigan University. She serves as SPLICE Institute Director (www.splicemusic.org) and teaches workshops there as well. At other times she can be found fundraising for and building homes at Project Mexico (www.projectmexico.org/homebuilding) and exploring #vanlife with plans to visit all National Parks accompanied by husband Michael Thompson and dog Deuteronomous Maximus (Dude for short). Elainie is always up for a road trip; reach out and let’s visit! [email protected]”