Karlheinz Essl (* 1960 in Vienna) is a composer, electronic performer, media artist and software designer. He studied composition with Friedrich Cerha and musicology in Vienna and completed his doctorate on Anton Webern in 1989. Composer in residence at the Darmstadt Summer Courses, at IRCAM in Paris and at the Salzburg Festival. Since 2007 Professor of Electroacoustic Composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. In addition to instrumental works and compositions with live electronics, he develops generative composition software, improvisation concepts, sound installations and performances. He has collaborated with artists such as Harald Naegeli ("Sprayer von Zürich") and Jonathan Meese, the writers Andreas Okopenko and Erwin Uhrmann and the choreographer Andrea Nagl. As an improviser, he performs with self-developed software instruments and, more recently, with analog modular synthesizers.