18 Facts About Peter Zinovieff

Peter Zinovieff was a British composer, musician and inventor.

Peter Zinovieff bought his first computer from the proceeds gained from auctioning his first wife's tiara.

Peter Zinovieff used this computer to control an array of oscillators and amplifiers he had bought from an army surplus store.

Peter Zinovieff claimed that "This was the first computer in the world in a private house".

Peter Zinovieff's work followed research at Bell Labs by Max Mathews and Jean-Claude Risset, and an MIT thesis by David Alan Luce.

Paul McCartney had visited the studio, but Peter Zinovieff had little interest in popular music.

Peter Zinovieff claimed that he invented sampling in his work on Chronometer.

Peter Zinovieff worked with Hans Werner Henze, and the section Tristan's Folly in Tristan included a tape by Zinovieff.

Peter Zinovieff's equipment was put into storage, and later destroyed in a flood.

Peter Zinovieff then moved to the remote Scottish island of Raasay,.

Peter Zinovieff's cottage had no mains electricity supply and he powered his remaining synth equipment from batteries hooked up to a windmill.

Peter Zinovieff subsequently moved back to England, settling in Cambridge, and in the 1980s received two commissions from Clive Sinclair including a piano-sampling project and consultations on sound support during the development of the Sinclair QL.

Peter Zinovieff continued to work mainly in collaboration during this time.

In 2015 Peter Zinovieff was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree by Anglia Ruskin University.

In 1960, Peter Zinovieff married Victoria Heber-Percy, daughter of Robert Heber-Percy and Jennifer Ross; in 1978, he married Rose Verney.

Peter Zinovieff later married Tanya Richardson, and was survived by his fourth wife, Jenny Jardine.

Peter Zinovieff had seven children: Sofka, Leo, Kolinka, Freya, Katia, Eliena, and Kyril, who died in 2015.

Peter Zinovieff was 88, and had been hospitalised ten days earlier after falling at his home.