Donald Louis Tavel Memorial Fund
In 1976, Donald Louis Tavel became the first person to receive a Master of Music degree from the Indiana University Center for Computer and Electronic Music. Mr. Tavel was a pioneer in developing new uses for computers. He established a computer graphics and animation department at Indiana University while also teaching courses in computer music at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. For a period of time, Mr. Tavel simultaneously served on both faculties while also functioning as vice president of advertising of the Doctor Tavel Optical Group.
Mr. Tavel held seven patents on computer hardware as well as numerous copyrights on computer software and musical pieces. Mr. Tavel was an early experimenter in a form of musical reproduction known as Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), a means of linking electronic instruments and computers. In 1974, he developed an early version of a device known as a resynator - an electronic synthesizer that allows a musician to take any instrument and make it sound like any other. His interest in art led to innovations in computerized graphics and animation.
Family, friends, and former students established the Donald Louis Tavel Memorial Fund in 1988 to honor a true pioneer in the field of computerized music and art.