David Lidov is a composer of many works, primarily for solo instruments, small ensembles and voice. His music has been performed in North and South America and in Europe. His work is noted for its psychological subtlety and for its inventiveness in maintaining attention.  He teaches in the Faculty of Fine Arts of York University in Toronto.  In the 1970’s he devised an automatic computer grammar to write melodies, beginning a series of enquiries which gradually lead him to research in the theory of signs and to write the book, Elements of Semiotics (St. Martin’s 1999).  His papers and publications span work in experimental psychology, general semiotic theory and on applications of semiotics to music.  Several of these appear in his new collection, Is Language a Music? (Indianna University Press, 2004)  He was a principle contributor to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Semiotics and Cultural Studies and a past president of the Toronto Semiotic Circle.   David Lidov studied at Columbia University in New York.