John Chowning D.M.A. ’66 on winning ‘the award he never sought’

At 91, John Chowning D.M.A. ’66 still goes home and composes music after a long day. “I’m not a composer,” he told The Daily. “I’m a musician who loves to compose using computers.”

On Feb. 1, the Stanford professor emeritus of fine arts received the 2026 Grammy Technical Award for a discovery he made nearly six decades ago: frequency modulation synthesis, which allows for complex, bright, metallic synth sounds. 

Chowning called the Grammy “an award I never sought.”

“Most...