(1941-)Composer, modular synthesizer designer, and proprietor of Serge Modular between 1974 and 1986. Of Russian heritage but born in France, Tcherepnin came from a musical family; his father and grandfather were both noted classical composers in the 20th century, and his mother was a well-known pianist. He emigrated to the United States in 1958 to study at Harvard University. After graduating in 1963, he returned to Europe for a few years to compose and study under a few of the modern-classical masters who were experimenting with elecronics, including Boulez and Stockhausen.
In 1970, he signed on at California Institute of the Arts to serve as an instructor, under the tutelage of Morton Subotnick. Here he got his first exposure to Buchla modular synthesizers, and began using them in his compositions. Tcherepnin liked the philosophy of the Buchla designs, but he realized that most of his students could not afford to buy Buchla gear, and he began having discussions with students about an alternative. Tcherepnin, who had taken some classes in electrical circuits at Harvard, took on the task of designing most of the modules. To save costs, the first systems were built on pre-punched aluminum telephone system panels that were sized to fit within a 19" rack. Graphics were printed (or hand-drawn) on paper, which was pasted onto the aluminum; the paper also served to cover holes that were not used. This began the Serge practice of building "panels" consisting of groups of circuits and functions, rather than individual modules, as most other modular manufacturers did. The first systems were built in Tcherepnin's home in Los Angeles; soon migrating to a semi-clandestine operation in a Cal Arts building, which somehow never drew the attention of Cal Arts' administration. Many customers paid for their systems by working on the Serge assembly line.
The business grew, and Tcherepnin took a leave of absence (from which he never returned) in 1975 to run Serge Modular full time. The business moved to a building in West Hollywood, later moving to San Francisco and then Oakland. Serge systems remained popular among performers of the West Coast school until the polyphonic-synth revolution of the early 1980s resulted in a drop in business (as it did for all modular manufacturers at that time). Serge shut down the Oakland factory in 1986, and after that point, only a few custom units were built.
Serge returned to France in 1992 (according to serge-fans.com; the Wikipedia bio on Tcherepnin says 1986, but the former better fits the timeline of events). The next year, he sold Serge Modular to his associate Rex Probe, who moved the company to Wisconsin and renamed it Sound Transform Systems). He became involved in modular synthesis again in the decade of the 2000s when he joined with Ken Stone and Seth Nemec to form Bananalogue, which offered some of the classic Serge Modular designs (over which Tcherepnin had retained the rights) in the form of Eurorack modules. However, Bananalogue dissolved at the end of the decade, under somwwhat mysterious circumstances. Serge returned to the field when he began consulting with Random*Source in 2015, and in 2018 he signed on as the company's chief technology officer.
Throughout his career as a designer and manufacturer, Tcherepnin has continued to compose. His brother Ivan Tcherepnin, was also a noted experimental composer and user of modular synthesizers in his compositions. (Ivan passed away in 1998.)