Search People Result | Academic Influence

Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines

Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.

Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.

We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.

To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).

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School

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Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Communications,

#11001

Carl Allen

#163030

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (65 years)

Carl Allen is an American jazz drummer. Allen attended William Paterson University. He has worked with a wide variety of musicians, including Freddie Hubbard, Jackie McLean, George Coleman, Phil Woods, the Benny Green Trio, and Rickie Lee Jones.

#11002

Conrad Cummings

Conrad Cummings

#169982

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Conrad Cummings is an American composer of contemporary classical music. His compositions include works for orchestra, as well as operatic and chamber works. Many of his works are composed in a minimalist style reminiscent of that of Philip Glass.

#11003

Robert Chen

#140362

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (57 years)

Robert Chen is a Taiwanese-born violinist who is the Concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He received Bachelor's and Master's of Music degrees from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Dorothy DeLay and Masao Kawasaki.

#11004

William Chapman Nyaho

#181058

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (68 years)

William H. Chapman Nyaho is an American concert pianist specializing in solo piano music by composers from Africa and the African diaspora. He graduated from the Achimota School in Achimota, where he studied piano with John Barham. He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in music from St Peter's College, Oxford University, an M.M. from the Eastman School of Music, and a D.M.A. from the University of Texas at Austin. He has also studied at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève. He has taught at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Colby College and Pomona College, Willamette University. He is currently on the faculty of Pacific Lutheran University and the Interlochen Arts Academy Summer Camp.

#11005

John Caldwell

#185388

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (88 years)

John Anthony Caldwell is an English musicologist and composer. Life Caldwell was born in Bebington, Cheshire and studied the organ at the Matthay School of Music in Liverpool, becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists in 1957. He studied at Keble College, Oxford, obtaining his B.A. in 1960, B.Mus. in 1961 and D.Phil. in 1965. For his doctorate, he transcribed and edited a manuscript of English liturgical organ music from between 1548 and 1650. He was an assistant lecturer at Bristol University from 1963 to 1966, before returning to Oxford University as a lecturer in 1966, holding this position until 1996 when he was appointed a Reader.

#11006

Gordon Fergus-Thompson

#181297

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

Gordon Fergus-Thompson FRCM is an English concert pianist. Biography Fergus-Thompson's first piano teacher was Christine Brown, a pupil of Denis Matthews. Subsequently, he became a student of Gordon Green at the Royal Northern College of Music. Later, he studied with Alexis Weissenberg and John Ogdon and was a student of Peter Katin at the Royal College of Music.

#11007

Martynas Švėgžda von Bekker

#181021

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (59 years)

Martynas Švėgžda von Bekker is a Lithuanian violinist and musical educator. Life Švėgžda von Bekker started taking violin classes at the age of five from his grandmother E. Strazdas-Bekerienė, student of Leopold von Auer, Jan Mařák, J. Feld and Jacques Thibaud. He gave his first recital at age seven and played his first concert with the “Vilnius Symphony Orchestra″ at age 11.

#11008

Douglas Mews

#117838

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (70 years)

Douglas Christopher Mews , is a New Zealand classical organist and harpsichordist and he is also a composer. He holds the position of City Organist, Wellington, New Zealand. He is the brother of Constant Mews.

#11009

Keith Clark

#182322

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (82 years)

Keith Clark is an American composer, conductor, and music educator who is best known for founding the Pacific Symphony and the Astoria Music Festival. Active globally as a conductor, he has an extensive discography with symphonies internationally, including the London Philharmonic, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Slovak State Philharmonic, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and Pacific Symphony among others. He is currently Principal Guest Conductor of the Siberian Chamber Orchestra in Omsk, Russia, Principle Conductor of the Amadeus Opera Ensemble in Salzburg, Artistic D...

#11010

Daigo

#180889

Overall Influence

1978 - Present (48 years)

, formerly known as Daigo Stardust, is a Japanese singer-songwriter, actor, talent, and voice actor. He debuted in 2003 as Daigo Stardust under Victor Entertainment. In 2007, he formed the rock band Breakerz. With the solo debut of Akihide, Daigo continued his solo project in 2013, but dropped the pseudonym surname "Stardust".

#11011

Troels Svane

#178804

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (59 years)

Troels Svane is a Danish cellist. He is a part of the Zapolski Quartet. He studied with David Geringas at the Lübeck Academy of Music in Germany. He graduated from the soloist class with distinction and the highest grade in all subjects. He was taught by Anner Bylsma, Frans Helmerson, Ralph Kirshbaum, György Ligeti, Yo-Yo Ma, Siegfried Palm, Boris Pergamenschikow, Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniil Shafran, Paul Tortelier and the Amadeus Quartet.

#11012

Carl Schalk

#169352

Overall Influence

1929 - 2021 (92 years)

Carl Flentge Schalk was a noted Lutheran composer, author, and lecturer. Between 1965 and 2004 he taught church music at Concordia University Chicago. During this time he guided the development of the university's Master of Church Music degree, which has since graduated more than 140 students. Schalk was a member of the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship, which produced the Lutheran Book of Worship in 1978. He was also the editor of the journal Church Music from 1966 to 1980. Additionally, he was a published composer for Choristers Guild, a member of the Music Advisory Committee of Concordi...

#11013

Hedwig Fassbender

#179946

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Hedwig Fassbender is a German operatic mezzo-soprano and academic voice teacher. She has appeared in leading roles at major European opera houses, including some soprano roles such as Wagner's Isolde and Sieglinde.

#11014

Albert Fuller

#184804

Overall Influence

1926 - 2007 (81 years)

Albert Fuller was an American harpsichordist, conductor, teacher, impresario, and prominent proponent of early music. He was the first artist to record the complete keyboard works of Jean-Philippe Rameau.

#11015

Olga Blinova

#167887

Overall Influence

1930 - 2020 (90 years)

Olga Iosifovna Blinova was a Soviet and Russian linguist. The daughter of Iosif Ignatievich Leytan , deputy director of the Omskaya Pravda publishing house, and Filiziya Vikentyevna Leytan , Blinova had three brothers. She graduated from the Tomsk State University, where she later served as a professor of Philology. Blinova died in Tomsk on 2 July 2020, aged 89.

#11016

Jacob Young

#182102

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Jacob Albert Young is a Norwegian jazz guitarist, arranger, composer, and band leader. He has recorded with Karin Krog, Arild Andersen, Larry Goldings, Nils Petter Molvær, Bendik Hofseth, Terje Gewelt, Per Oddvar Johansen, Arve Henriksen, Jarle Vespestad, Trygve Seim, Mats Eilertsen, Vigleik Storaas, Christian Wallumrød, Bendik Hofseth, Håkon Kornstad, Knut Reiersrud, and Audun Erlien.

#11017

John Richards

#122274

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (60 years)

John Stephen Richards is a British musician and composer working in the field of electronic music. Since 1999, he has predominantly explored performing with self-made instruments and creating interactive environments for composition.

#11018

Cathy Lee Crane

#185643

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (64 years)

Cathy Lee Crane is a North American experimental films director and producer, based in Ithaca, New York. She was a Guggenheim Fellow in 2013. Her films include Pasolini's Last Words, focusing on the death and legacy of filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini.

#11019

Florian Pumhösl

#142517

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (55 years)

Florian Pumhösl is a contemporary artist based in Vienna, mainly known for his works that employ abstract visual language to reflect on the diverse manifestations of modernity. His interests include "historical formal vocabulary of modernism," and "the genealogical derivation of a particular form" and its sociopolitical setting. His work has been described as being "between the two poles of formalism and historicity." Often taking the form of a series, his works span a wide range of media, including films, installations, objects, and glass paintings.

#11020

Nicholas Goluses

#184527

Overall Influence

Nicholas Goluses is a professor of classical guitar at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. Goluses has held the Andrés Segovia Chair at the Manhattan School of Music, as the founder and chair of that school's guitar department. He has recorded seven albums for Naxos including "Bach: Sonatas Transcribed for Guitar" and "Sor: Fantaisies / Progressive Studies." He is one of the only guitarists to have transcribed and recorded all three of Bach's violin sonatas. James Jolly in the Gramophone Classical Music Guide 2010 wrote that Goluses' Guitar Collection: Sor set "a benchm...

#11021

Neal Kenyon

#123939

Overall Influence

1929 - 2008 (79 years)

Neal Kenyon was an American theatre director, choreographer, and actor. Born in Hammond, Indiana, Kenyon graduated from Louisiana State University with a degree in theatre. He began his career working in television, and then made his off-Broadway stage debut in 1958 in The Boy Friend.

#11022

Fredrick Barton

#106954

Overall Influence

Fredrick Barton is an American novelist and well-known New Orleans film critic. He is the author of five novels: The El Cholo Feeling Passes, Courting Pandemonium, With Extreme Prejudice , A House Divided and In the Wake of the Flagship. He has also published a book of essays on “faith, love, politics and movies” titled Rowing to Sweden.

#11023

Sara Jobin

#161457

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Sara Jobin ['JOHBIHN] is an American conductor. She is currently the principal conductor of the Center for Contemporary Opera. Early life and education Jobin was born in Norwood, Massachusetts and grew up in various suburbs of Boston and New York. At age 16, she was accepted into Harvard College where she attended from 1987 to 1992 and earned a bachelor's degree in Music and Women's Studies. During her time at Harvard, she would take private piano lessons with Patricia Zander, a faculty member at the New England Conservatory of Music. Between 1992-1996, she studied at the Pierre Monteux Scho...

#11024

Robert Parris

#185931

Overall Influence

1924 - 1999 (75 years)

Robert Parris was a composer and professor of music. He was born in Philadelphia, attended the University of Pennsylvania, then the Juilliard School in New York. Among his teachers were Otto Luening, Aaron Copland, Jacques Ibert, and Peter Mennin . After a year of study on a Fulbright Fellowship in Paris , and a year teaching at the University of Washington in Seattle, he settled in the Washington, D.C. area in 1952. Parris joined the faculty of The George Washington University in 1963 where he taught theory and composition.

#11025

Dan Locklair

#156454

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (77 years)

Dan Locklair is an American composer. He holds the position of Composer-in-Residence at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina where he is also a Professor of Music. Locklair has written numerous works ranging from organ solos to compositions for full orchestra, but he is most often noted for his sacred music.

#11026

Andreas Gruber

#173828

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Andreas Gruber is an Austrian screenwriter and director of both television and film. From 1974 to 1982 he studied screenwriting and directing at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna. In 1979 he was directing assistant to Axel Corti. In 2000 he won the Golden Romy for best directing. His 2004 film Welcome Home was entered into the 27th Moscow International Film Festival. He teaches at the University of Television and Film Munich, Germany.

#11027

Robert Moffat Palmer

#181293

Overall Influence

1915 - 2010 (95 years)

Robert Moffat Palmer was an American composer, pianist and educator. He composed more than 90 works, including two symphonies, Nabuchodonosor , a piano concerto, four string quartets, three piano sonatas and numerous works for chamber ensembles.

#11028

Wenzel Fuchs

#172353

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (63 years)

Wenzel Fuchs is an Austrian clarinetist. He studied clarinet at the Innsbruck Conservatory with Walter Kefer and at the Vienna Music Academy with Peter Schmidl. He has performed with the Vienna State Opera, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Volksoper, and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.

#11029

Hildegard Westerkamp

#104669

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (80 years)

Hildegard Westerkamp is a Canadian composer, radio artist, teacher and sound ecologist of German origin. She studied flute and piano at the Conservatory of Music in Freiburg, West Germany from 1966 to 1968 and moved to Canada in 1975. She received a Bachelor of Music from the University of British Columbia in 1972 and a Master of Arts from Simon Fraser University in 1988. She taught acoustic communication at Simon Fraser University from 1982 to 1991.

#11030

Larry Gray

#172681

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Larry Gray is a Chicago musician known for his compositions and skill on the double bass and cello. His primary teachers were Joseph Guastafeste, longtime principal bassist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and cellist Karl Fruh.

#11031

Michael Alcorn

#177973

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (64 years)

Michael Alcorn is a full-time academic and current Director of the School of Music and Sonic Arts at Queen's University, Belfast and a partite composer. He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Michael Alcorn studied at the University of Ulster and completed a PhD in composition with John Casken at the University of Durham. In 1989 he was appointed composer-in-residence at Queen's University, Belfast, where he continues to teach in the School of Music. He is particularly active as a promoter of new music technologies and was appointed director of SARC, the Sonic Arts Research Centre based at Queen's University, Belfast, in 2001.

#11032

Ruth Posselt

#181493

Overall Influence

1911 - 2007 (96 years)

Ruth Pierce Posselt was an American violinist and educator. Studies and early career Posselt studied violin with Emanuel Ondříček, a former student of Eugène Ysaÿe, and made her Carnegie Hall debut in 1923. She won the Schubert Memorial Prize in 1929, toured France, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, the Soviet Union in the early 1930s and made her first tour of the United States in 1935. She performed with the National Orchestral Association, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Columbia Symphony Orchestra and frequently with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She was invited to perform at The White House by President and Mrs.

#11033

Joan Faber McAlister

#168444

Overall Influence

Joan Faber McAlister is an American rhetorician, associate professor and researcher of women's studies in communication. Her research primarily focuses on how images and space communicate messages in public culture through perceptions of beauty and critical theory. From 2014 until 2017, McAlister served as the editor of Women's Studies in Communication.

#11034

Gheorghi Arnaoudov

#182515

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 years)

Gheorghi Arnaoudov is a Bulgarian composer of stage, orchestral, chamber, film, vocal, and piano music. His work has roots in minimal music. Life Gheorghi Arnaoudov was born in 1957 in Sofia and graduated in composition with Alexander Tanev and contemporary music with Bojidar Spassov from the State Academy of Music Pancho Vladigerov. At the same time, he attended summer courses working with Brian Ferneyhough and Ton de Leeuw.

#11035

Frances Blaisdell

#173990

Overall Influence

1912 - 2009 (97 years)

Frances Blaisdell was an American flautist, widely recognized as one of the first female professional flautists. She held positions with the National Orchestral Association, the New Opera Company and the New Friends of Music. In addition, she was the first woman to appear as a soloist and wind player in concert with the New York Philharmonic. In addition to playing, she also held teaching positions at the Manhattan School of Music, New York University, Dalcroze School, Mannes School of Music, and Stanford University where she taught for over 35 years. Blaisdell's teachers included Georges Bar...

#11036

John Oliver

#180382

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

John Oliver is a Canadian composer, guitarist, and conductor. An associate of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community, his music has been performed throughout North America, Europe, and China. In a 1989 article in The Music Scene, Oliver stated that he intended his music "to make sense without falling back on traditional models".

#11037

Michael Ward

#119921

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (59 years)

Michael Ward is an American guitarist from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Biography Michael was a founding member of the early 1990s alternative rock band School of Fish on Capitol Records, his unique tone provided the underpinning hook for the Band’s hit single "3 Strange Days" which has been covered by several artists, most recently by Dave Navarro and Tommy Lee in a live performance at the Troubadour in Los Angeles.

#11038

Travis Wilkerson

#181298

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (57 years)

Travis Wilkerson is an American independent film director, screenwriter, producer and performance artist. Named the "political conscience of 21st century American independent cinema," by Sight & Sound magazine, Wilkerson is heavily influenced by the Third Cinema movement, and known for films that combine "maximalist aesthetics and radical politics." This is owed, in part, to his meeting Cuban filmmaker Santiago Álvarez. Following the meeting, Wilkerson made the feature documentary Accelerated Under-Development about that meeting, and he was heavily involved in the rediscovery of Alvarez's film...

#11039

Jack Harrold

#183511

Overall Influence

1920 - 1994 (74 years)

Jack Harrold was an American operatic tenor and voice teacher. Admired for his comedic skills, he specialized in the tenor buffo repertoire. He had a particularly long association with the New York City Opera from the 1940s through the 1980s. He also appeared in several Broadway musicalss. Danny Newman of the Lyric Opera of Chicago stated that, "Jack Harrold was one of American musical theater's most beloved and most versatile performers, possessing a clarion tenor voice that practically bounced off the back walls of the biggest theaters."

#11040

Ronald Senator

#177772

Overall Influence

1926 - 2015 (89 years)

Ronald Senator was a British composer who divided his time between New York City and London. Early life Senator, from a Jewish family, studied at Oxford University with Egon Wellesz, a distinguished pupil of Arnold Schoenberg, and later with Arnold Cooke, a pupil of Paul Hindemith, at London University.

#11041

Allen Vizzutti

#172140

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

Allen Vizzutti is an American trumpeter, composer and music educator. Biography Born and raised in Missoula, Montana, Vizzutti learned the trumpet from his father, Lido Vizzutti. At age 16, Vizzutti won the concerto competition and was awarded first chair in the World Youth Symphony Orchestra at Interlochen, Michigan. He earned a B.M., M.M., a Performer's Certificate, and the Artist's Diploma from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.

#11042

Peter Lynch

#174330

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 years)

Peter Lynch is a Canadian filmmaker, most noted as the director and writer of the documentary films Project Grizzly, The Herd and Cyberman. Career Lynch's 1994 short film Arrowhead, starring Don McKellar, won the Genie Award for Best Theatrical Short Film at the 15th Genie Awards.

#11043

Kamilló Lendvay

#177857

Overall Influence

1928 - 2016 (88 years)

Kamilló Lendvay was a prominent award-winning Hungarian composer, conductor, and music educator of the 20th and 21st centuries whose works have been performed throughout the world, including in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

#11044

Robert Cohen

#182434

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

Robert Cohen is a British concert cellist. Early life and education Cohen was born on 15 June 1959 in London to violinist Raymond Cohen and pianist Anthya Rael. Having begun playing the cello at age 5, at age 10 he entered the Purcell School for Young Musicians. He also began studies with William Pleeth. At age 12 he made his concerto debut at the Royal Festival Hall, where he performed the Boccherini Concerto in B flat. His Wigmore Hall recital debut followed at age 17. In 1975 he began studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, he graduated with a postgraduate Diploma of Advanced Solo in 1977.

#11045

James Cox

#177333

Overall Influence

1975 - Present (51 years)

James Cox is an American film director. His short film Atomic Tabasco received an honorable mention at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival and a Bronze Medal at the 1999 Student Academy Awards. Cox then directed Highway in 2002 and Wonderland in 2003.

#11046

Scott Major

#135606

Overall Influence

1975 - Present (51 years)

Scott Ian Major is an Australian actor and TV and film director, known for his roles as Peter Rivers in the 1994 television teen drama series Heartbreak High and Lucas Fitzgerald in soap opera Neighbours. After leaving Neighbours in 2013, Major returned to direct over 200 episodes of the serial. He has since gone on to direct episodes of Playing for Keeps, and two miniseries Lie With Me and Riptide. Major reprised his role as Rivers in the 2022 reboot of Heartbreak High.

#11047

Richard Nance

#178394

Overall Influence

Dr. Richard Nance is an American musician. He is a former professor of music and conductor of the Choir of the West at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, United States. Education Nance holds bachelors and master's degrees from West Texas A&M and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Arizona State University. Dr. Nance has studied conducting with Hugh Sanders, Douglas McEwen and David Stocker, and studied composition with Joseph Nelson and Randall Shinn.

#11048

Dave Burns

#187816

Overall Influence

1924 - 2009 (85 years)

David Burns was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, arranger, composer, and teacher. Burns began playing trumpet when he was nine years old, and heard bebop performances at Minton's Playhouse as a teenager, including Dizzy Gillespie. His first ensemble was Al Cooper's Savoy Sultans, with whom he played from 1941 to 1943, then joined the Army Air Force and led a band from 1943 to 1945 that included James Moody as a sideman. He joined Gillespie's band in 1946 and appeared with Gillespie in Jivin' in Bebop in 1947. After leaving Gillespie's band in 1949, he worked with Duke Ellington from...

#11049

Noah Bendix-Balgley

#109863

Overall Influence

1984 - Present (42 years)

Noah Bendix-Balgley is an American classical violinist. He is currently First Concertmaster with the Berliner Philharmoniker. He served as concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra from 2011 to 2014.

#11050

Justin Lavender

#185601

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (75 years)

Justin Lavender is an operatic tenor, a professor of vocal studies at the Royal College of Music and co-founder and Musical Director of Arcadian Opera. He was educated at Bedford Modern School, Queen Mary College London and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Although he initially intended to train as a nuclear engineer he was persuaded by Sir Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten to pursue a career in music. Following his debut in 1980 as Nadir in Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles at the Sydney Opera House, Lavender has performed with most of the world's major orchestras and opera companies. In...

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