Otto Laske was born in Olesnia, Silesia (today part of Poland), in 1936. After spending the large part of his childhood in Bremen, Northern Germany, he began his long, in-depth journey into education.
Laske attended Goethe University; he studied a wide variety of subjects, to name a few, musicology, English and American literature, and the history of science (especially Islamic and Chinese). However, Laske concentrated his studies in sociology and empirical social research, and his Ph.D. was in philosophy.
After studying piano at Hoch's Conservatory, Otto Laske began his study of composition with Konrad Lechner at the Akademie fur Tonkunst, in Germany. From there on, he also briefly worked in composition under such composers as Milton Babbitt, Earl Brown, Pierre Boulez, Lejaren Hiller, Gottfried Michael Keonig, Gyorgy Ligeti and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
In 1966, Laske went to New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts to continue his academics in music theory; however, his main concern was to learn more about computer music (his most critical period for computer music occurred between 1970-75).
Between the 1960's and 80's, Laske traveled back and forth between various countries and the U.S., expanding his knowledge in computer music, the study of psychology, theory of composition, and computer simulation of the compositional process.
In 1981, Laske and Curtis Roads founded the New England Computer Music Association; Laske served as its Artistic co-director until 1991. In that time, Roads and Laske produced 65 concerts in Boston and Europe and held an annual NEWCOMP Computer Music Competition.
Laske studied critical theory with Theodore Adorno; however, his interest in music cognition was particularly influenced by Noam Chomsky's linguistics. Psychologists Allan Newell and Herbert Simon's use of computer simulation was also instrumental to Laske's work.
Over a span of twenty-five years, Laske has written dozens of articles pertaining to what he has coined as "cognitive musicology"; a large portion of these articles deal with the use of artificial intelligence in cognitive musicology. Laske's main goal was to explain the method by which one composes, or "a theory of making music". Much of this research has been surrounded by Laske's use of artificial intelligence and computers, to try and simulate the compositional process.
Laske strongly believes that composition and musicology are inseparable, and that researching music history is a kind of music-making in itself. His one-of-a-kind view of musicology leaves behind the standard notions and moves towards something accounted for more by process than language.
Laske is currently an active poet, composer, clinical-developmental psychologist, and cognitive scientist. His future goals include bringing cognitive science and psychiatry together; Laske believes that cognitive science can help us understand more about mental illnesses and human development in general. Another long-term goal is to make more of his sixty-five compositions, particularly those for vocalists, better known than they are, especially since some of them have not yet been performed. At heart, Laske is primarily a composer; in his biography, Otto Laske: Navigating New Music Horizons, he says in an interview with Nico Schuler, "If I could do what I wanted, I would let science be science, and only concern myself with composition and poetry...But because you cannot live from art making, research is a way of earning a livelihood."
Laske, Otto. Personal website: http://www.emf.org/subscribers/laske.
Tabor, Jerry (ed.) Otto Laske: Navigating New Musical Horizons. Greenwood Press, 1999.