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Janet Beat was born on December 17, 1937, in Streetly, Staffordshire. She graduated from Birmingham University in 1960 with a Bachelor of Music degree and continued her studies to Masters level, focusing on early Italian Opera, for which she received the Cunningham award in 1962. She studied composition under Alexander Goehr and worked as a freelance horn player and teacher during the 1960s. In 1972, Beat moved to Scotland, where she became a lecturer at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) and established their electronic music and recording studios. A pioneer in electronic music composition in the UK, her earliest ‘musique concrete’ pieces date back to the late 1950s. She owned the first commercially available synthesiser in the UK and composed many early electronic pieces on it. Since moving to Scotland, Beat has significantly contributed to the musical scene, co-founding the Scottish Society of Composers in 1980 alongside Thomas Wilson. In 1987, she was a founding director of the Scottish Electro-Acoustic Music Society, and in 1988, she formed the contemporary music ensemble Soundstrata. In 1992, she served as a visiting composer at the Meistersinger-Konservatorium in Nuremberg. In 1996, she began lecturing in Music Technology at Glasgow University, where she is now an Honorary Research Fellow.

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