Editing Thomas Dolby (section)

==Other endeavours==
===1985 Grammy Awards===
In 1985, Dolby, along with [[Stevie Wonder]], [[Herbie Hancock]], and [[Howard Jones (British musician)|Howard Jones]], appeared at the [[Grammy Award]]s, which were televised. All four musicians were successful in the mid-1980s music scene, and they were also all keyboard and synthesizer experts.

===Virtual reality===
Dolby's first experiment with [[virtual reality]] took place in the fall of 1992, when he was invited by the [[Guggenheim Museum in New York|Guggenheim Museum]], New York,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://peabody.jhu.edu/faculty/thomas-dolby/|title=Thomas Dolby |publisher=Peabody Institute}}</ref> to design and install a sonic VR experience. This led to The Virtual String Quartet programmed by Eric Gullichsen, and sponsored by [[Intel]] Corp. The experience ran on an IBM 386 processor with a Convolvatron 4-channel audio card. Users wore a head-mounted display and found themselves in the midst of a [[computer-generated holography|computer-generated]] [[string quartet]] playing [[Mozart]]. The sound was fully spatialized as the user moved around the physical space. Tickling a player with the joystick resulted in that musician switching to improvisation in a '[[Dixieland|hot jazz]]' or Appalachian bluegrass style.

In the fall of 2018, Dolby created a New Media workshop at The Peabody Institute of [[Johns Hopkins University]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://peabody.jhu.edu/academics/instruments-areas-of-study/music-for-new-media/|title=Music for New Media |publisher=Peabody Institute}}</ref> with VR equipment donated by HTC Vive. Students in his course are learning to compose music for VR and AR.

On 4 October 2018, Dolby performed a live score for the High Fidelity VR event 'Escape from Zombie Island.'<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://tockify.com/hifieventscalendar/detail/353/1538697600000|title=Escape Zombie Island: A Pop-Up VR Arcade|website=Tockify.com}}</ref> He appeared 'in-world' as his own avatar, where he triggered and played real-time horror film music. He also performed his first ever full VR concert at the Futvrelands Festival<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hD-fF2qn9A| url-status=live | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211031/7hD-fF2qn9A| archive-date=31 October 2021|title=Thomas Dolby at FutVReLands festival Nov 17th 2018| date=26 November 2018 |via=YouTube|access-date=13 October 2019}}{{cbignore}}</ref> on 17 November 2018, in front of over 250 other avatars.

===TED Conference===
{{Main|TED (conference)}}
From 2001 to 2012, Dolby was musical director of the [[TED (conference)|TED Conference]], an annual event held, first, in [[Monterey, California|Monterey]], California, and subsequently in [[Long Beach, California|Long Beach]], California. He provided live musical introductions to sessions, sometimes with a TED house band, and helped secure guest musicians and entertainers. Onstage, he played with singers and performers such as Eddi Reader, Natalie MacMaster, Rachelle Garniez and [[David Byrne]], and premiered his own song "Love Is a Loaded Pistol" onstage at TEDGlobal 2010.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dolby |first1=Thomas |title="Love Is a Loaded Pistol" premiere |date=7 May 2010 |url=https://www.ted.com/talks/pistol |publisher=TED (conference)}}</ref> He stood down from the position in September 2012<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dolby |first1=Thomas |title=Thomas Dolby retires as musical director of TED Conferences |url=https://blog.ted.com/thomas-dolby-retires-as-musical-director-of-ted-conferences/ |website=TED Blog|date=19 September 2012 }}</ref> to pursue music.

In March 2012, at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California, Dolby spoke at the DESIGN West conference, produced by UBM Electronics.<ref>{{cite web|title=DESIGN West Keynotes|url=http://www.ubmdesign.com/conference/keynotes|publisher=UBM Electronics|access-date=5 February 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121126181331/http://www.ubmdesign.com/conference/keynotes|archive-date=26 November 2012}}</ref>

===Academic career===
In March 2014, Dolby was named Homewood Professor of the Arts at [[Baltimore]]'s [[Johns Hopkins University]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/wp/2014/03/06/she-blinded-me-with-science-singer-thomas-dolby-to-be-hopkins-professor/ |title=She Blinded Me With Science' singer Thomas Dolby to be Hopkins professor |date=6 March 2014 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref> In March 2017, the [[Peabody Institute]] announced that Dolby would lead a new four-year undergraduate degree program, ''Music for New Media'', and the first cohort would commence in the fall of 2018.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://hub.jhu.edu/2017/03/16/thomas-dolby-new-music-program-peabody/ |title=Thomas Dolby to lead Music for New Media program at Peabody Institute |date=16 March 2017 |work=Hub (Johns Hopkins University)}}</ref>