Scott Deal has performed throughout North America, Asia, and Europe. He has premiered solo, chamber, and mixed media works, and can be heard on the Albany, Centaur, Cold Blue, and SCI labels. Deal's recordings have been described as “soaring, shimmering explorations of resplendent mood and incredible scale" and “sublimely performed". His recording of John Luther Adams' Four Thousand Holes, for piano, percussion, and electronics was listed in the New Yorker magazine's 2011 Top Ten Classical Picks
Continually inspired by new and emerging artistic technologies, Deal is the founder of the Telematic Collective, an Internet performance group comprised of artists and computer specialists. In this capacity he has performed at Supercomputing Global, Zerospace, SIGGRAPH, Chicago Calling, IEEE CloudCom, Ingenuity Festival, Internet2, and with groups that include ART GRID, Another Language, Digital Worlds Institute, and the Helsinki Computer Orchestra. He is a founding member and percussionist for the computer-acoustic trio Big Robot. In 2011, Deal and composer Matthew Burtner won the coveted Internet2 IDEA Award for their co-creation of Auksalaq, a telematic opera called “the single best and most important realization of meaningful opera for today's world".
Deal's work has received funding from organizations that include Meet the Composer, Lilly Foundation New Frontiers, Indiana Arts Council, Clowes Foundation, IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute, ConocoPhillips, and the University of Alaska. He resides in Indianapolis, Indiana where he is a Professor of Music and Director of the Donald Louis Tavel Arts and Technology Research Center at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). He also serves as artist-faculty for the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice at the New England Conservatory. Deal was a Professor of Music at the University of Alaska Fairbanks from 1995 to 2007, where he founded the percussion and technology programs. He is formerly the Principal Percussionist of the Fairbanks Symphony and Timpanist of the Arctic Chamber Orchestra.
Early in his career he was the Timpanist and Principal Percussionist of the Miami Symphony, and taught at the New World School of the Arts, where he was voted Teacher of the Year in 1994. As a student, he was winner of the Music Teacher's National Association Collegiate Artist Competition and the Cincinnati College-Conservatory Concerto Competition. He also placed 2nd in the Percussive Arts Society International Marimba Competition. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the University of Miami, a Master of Music degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cameron University. Deal is a Yamaha Artist and a Black Swamp Percussion Artist.
