About

PLOrk: the Princeton Laptop Orchestra

First performing in 2006, the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, or PLOrk, takes the traditional model of the orchestra and reinvents it for the 21st century. Each laptopist performs with a laptop and custom designed hemispherical speaker that emulates the way traditional orchestral instruments cast their sound in space. Wireless networking and video augment the familiar role of the conductor, suggesting unprecedented ways of organizing large ensembles.

Originally founded by Dan Trueman and Perry Cook, the group is currently directed by composer and instrument designer Jeff Snyder, and features new electronic instruments that arise from his research. Assisting in leadership of the group are Jason Treuting (Associate Director) and Matthew Wang (Assistant Director). Performers and composers who have worked with PLOrk include Zakir Hussain, Pauline Oliveros, Matmos, So Percussion, the American Composers Orchestra, and others. Since 2006, PLOrk has performed widely—presented by Carnegie Hall, the Northwestern Spring Festival in Chicago, the American Academy of Sciences in DC, the Kitchen (NYC), 92Y and others—and has inspired the formation of laptop orchestras across the world, from Oslo to Bangkok.

A History of Electronic Music at Princeton

"A revolution in music happened in the Princeton Engineering Quadrangle, but chances are, you don’t know the story. Sixty years ago, some music-loving computer engineers happened upon some musicians who were enamored with a new computer installed on the third floor.The work they did together helped turn computers – at the time, a hulking, silent machine – into a tool to produce music. Their innovations made it easier to hear that music. Then they made it possible to make more nuanced music, and made those tools better. Pretty soon, the computer was singing. The work of musicians and computer engineers at Princeton planted the seeds of music synthesis technology in widespread use today."
-Aaron Nathans

A beautiful history of electronic music at Princeton is told in Aaron Nathan's podcast Composers & Computers, which includes interviews with PLOrk's director, Jeff Snyder, and PLOrk's co-founder, Dan Trueman. A brief timeline from the podcast is below.


1955 Harry Olson and Herbert Belar build the RCA Mark I, one of the earliest analog music synthesizers in Princeton, New Jersey
1957 RCA builds a second generation synthesizer, the RCA Mark II
1957 Max Matthews (Bell Labs, later Princeton) creates MUSIC - the first computer program widely used for sound generation
1958 Max Matthews releases MUSIC II with 16 different wave forms created by oscillators.
1959 The Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center purchases the RCA Mark II.
1962 A computer center opens in the engineering quadrangle at Princeton, housing an IBM model 7090.
1961 Max Matthews makes a computer sing “Daisy, Daisy” - the first computer voice example
1963 MUSIC III is installed on the computer in Princeton’s engineering quadrangle
1964 Princeton’s computer is upgraded to an IBM 7094
1967 Princeton’s computer is upgraded to the IBM 360/67
1969 The computer center is moved from the EQuad to 87 Prospect Avenue, and computer is upgraded to IBM 360 91
1973 Paul Lansky creates and completes his first song on a computer (”mild und leise”, which was sampled by Radiohead)
1978 Paul Lansky makes CMix
1986 Barry Vercoe creates CSound at Princeton
1989 Princeton buys NeCT brand computers, which had an onboard digital-to-analog converter
1995 RTCMix is created by Brad Garton and Dave Topper off of Lansky’s CMix.
1996 Princeton hires Perry Cook, the first-ever formal cross appointment between engineering and music at Princeton
2003 Ge Wang creates ChucK as part of his PhD dissertation
2005 The Princeton Laptop Orchestra is founded by Dan Trueman and Perry Cook
2006 First PLOrk concert
2013 Jeff Snyder becomes director of PLOrk