About me
William A Thompson IV or "WATIV" is a composer, pianist, electronic musician and educator. His unique music has attracted the attention of NPR’s “All Things Considered” and the BBC. Thompson’s art has been most profoundly impacted by his one-year tour of duty spent in Baghdad during the Iraq War in 2004 as a Counterintelligence Agent. Thompson studied jazz piano at the University of New Orleans and earned a Masters degree in jazz studies. In 2022 Thompson earned a PhD as a part of Louisiana State University’s Experimental Music and Digital Media program and began synthesizing music and human speech as sound compositions. Today, Thompson is an Assistant Professor of Sound at The University of Southern Mississippi where he teaches and researches audio technology and music. In addition, he continues his career as an improvising pianist and computer musician in the New Orleans area, Mississippi, and abroad.
