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Otto Luening (15 June 1900 – 2 September 1996) was a German-American composer, conductor, flutist, and music educator, recognized as a pioneer of electronic and tape music. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to German parents, he moved to Europe at the age of 12, where he studied music in Germany and Switzerland. He returned to the United States in 1920, settling in Chicago before joining the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, in 1925 as an assistant opera director. Luening's teaching career included positions at various institutions, such as Columbia University, where he began teaching in 1944 and served as the director of Columbia's Opera Theater. He conducted premieres of significant works, including Virgil Thomson's The Mother of Us All and his own Evangeline. His collaboration with Russian composer Vladimir Ussachevsky at Columbia led to groundbreaking work in electronic music, culminating in a landmark performance in October 1952, which is often regarded as the first American electronic music concert. In 1958, Luening co-founded the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, which became the first academic electronic music studio in America. He continued to teach and innovate in the field of electronic music until 1970, leaving a lasting impact on the genre and influencing many students throughout his career.

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