Percussionist, technologist, composer, and educator Dr. Scott Deal died on Jan. 23, 2026. William Scott Deal was born on April 11, 1957, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In 1975, the day after his high school graduation, Scott spent a year as the drummer for the rock band Blue Dawn, playing in clubs throughout the central U.S. As an undergrad in music at Cameron University, in Lawton, Oklahoma, he won a prestigious national marimba competition held in Washington, D.C. His passion for performing contemporary classical music flourished while working towards his master’s degree at University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

After working as a minister for a church, Scott earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the University of Miami Frost School of Music in 1994, with a thesis topic in Music Technology. Within months of graduation, he landed a tenure-track professorship in percussion at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. 

In 2007, Scott and his wife moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, where Scott started a new position as Professor of Music Technology and Director of the Donald Louis Tavel Arts and Technology Research Center at Indiana University Indianapolis. From 2006 to 2022, he also served on the faculty of the New England Conservatory Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice, in Boston.

As a percussionist, Scott had a great passion for live performance. Throughout his career, Scott was well-known as a dynamic interpreter of complex works by some of the world’s premier art-music composers, notably John Luther Adams and Elainie Lillios. Scott was also an accomplished composer. He created numerous compositions for solo percussion and small ensembles, two operas (the AI opera, Lexia, using AVATAR co-developed with Jason Palamara, 2025, and the telematic opera, Auksalaq, with co-creator and composer Matthew Burtner, 2010), and the annual internet Earth Day Art Model festival, a 24-hour stretch of live online multimedia performances by over 200 artists located around the world. 

Scott was a published author, penning peer-reviewed articles on various topics in music technology, including many from his own perspective as a pioneer of music performed over the internet. He released and performed on numerous recordings (one listed in the New Yorker Magazine’s Top Ten Classical CD Picks for 2011) and held a patent for the Vibraphone Modulator. 

A memorial gathering will be held at Aaron-Ruben-Nelson Mortuary, 11411 North Michigan Road, Zionsville, Indiana, on Thursday, April 9, 2026. Friends are welcome to gather from noon until the time of the service at 2 P.M.