Anthony Jay Ptak is an altermodern artist and composer, influenced as a child by growing up near the Brookhaven National Laboratory and the RCA Radio Central testing facility. Ptak was first introduced to the theremin in 1987 by improviser Eric Ross. An inveterate autodidact, he studied with Tony Conrad, Paul Sharits, Lydia Kavina, and Herbert Brün and enjoyed technical consultations with Robert Moog. In 1995, Ptak began playing an etherwave theremin kit 0017, and ten years later, in 2005, he was among the founding members of the New York Theremin Society. Ptak performed at the first International Theremin Festival, and has been a guest theremin artist under director Scott Wyatt at the historic Experimental Music Studios at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign since 2000, where he also has taught sound art and musique concrète for new media artists. Ptak’s work has been presented widely, including the Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS), School of the Art Institute, Chicago Cultural Center, St. Louis Art Museum, Krannert Art Museum, FFMUP Princeton University, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Roulette Intermedium, and both the Kitchen and Issue Project Room in New York City.