Edmund J. Campion was born in Dallas, Texas in 1957. He received his Doctorate degree in composition at Columbia University and attended the Paris Conservatory where he worked with composer Gérard Grisey.

In 1993, Campion was selected to attend the one-year course in computer music atthe Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM). He was eventually commissioned by IRCAM for Natural Selection and the evening-length dance piece Playback with choreographer François Raffinot.

In 1995, Hillary Clinton presented him with the Rome Prize in Music Composition at the White House. Campion is currently an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Berkeley in California where he serves as the Co-Director of The Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT).

He has been recipient of the Nadia Boulanger Award, the Paul Fromm Award at Tanglewood, a Charles Ives Award given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Fulbright scholarship for study in France. Upcoming projects include a Fromm Foundation commission for the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, a work in 2005 for the renowned percussion sextet Les Percussion de Strasbourg and a new interactive computer environment with violinist David Abel and pianist Julie Steinberg.