Richard Cornell is on the composition faculty of Boston University College of Fine Arts, School of Music. He is director of BU’s Electroacoustic Music studios. He also directs Boston University Tanglewood Institute’s Young Artists Composition Program, and was recently Composer in Residence with the New England Philharmonic. Boston Musica Viva, Alea III, Collage New Music, and Triple Helix have performed his recent chamber music, as have ensembles in Athens, St. Petersburg, Gdansk, and in Scotland. The Muir Quartet recently premiered his String Quartet (2000). The New England Philharmonic premiered his Tidal Light in May 2001, and in February 2002 premiered his 3rd Symphony. In collaboration with visual artist Deborah Cornell, he has created soundworks for the installation The Sleep of Reason and for the virtual reality works Linea Australis and Tracer at Boston University’s Computer Graphics Lab. Linea Australis was featured in "The Electronic Canvas" a history of video art produced by WGBH, Boston.

Cornell was awarded the PhD in composition from the Eastman School of Music, and a Masters Degree from the New England Conservatory. His work has been awarded prizes from the National Endowment for the Arts, The New England Foundation for the Arts, Meet the Composer, the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, the University of Rochester, and the MacDowell and Yaddo artist colonies. In the 1980s he was a founding member of the Composers in Red Sneakers. Recordings of his work as composer and conductor are on Northeastern Records.