| Instructor of record | Hao-Wen (Herman) Dong (ude.hcimu@gnodwh) |
| Instructors | Anıl Çamcı, Jason Corey, John Granzow, Michael Gurevich, Sile O’Modhrain, Zeynep Özcan, Stephen Rush, Chris Vrenna, Julie Zhu |
| Room | Moore 1350 (Watkins Lecture Hall) |
| Days & times | 2:30–4pm, Fridays |
| Teaching assistant | Ishaan Jagyasi (ijagyasi) |
Study and discussion of current issues in Performing Arts Technology research and practice.
| Date | Speaker / Event |
|---|---|
| Sep 4 | Kazunobu Kondo (Yamaha): People-Centered Music Creation |
| Sep 11 | Rob Bisel: Pop music recording and production with audio examples from sessions |
| Sep 18 | Alireza Fazel (University of Michigan): Modal-Based Optimization of Santour Soundboard Response |
| Sep 25 | Grad Students Intro |
| Oct 2 | Leyya Mona Tawil: Performance & Agency |
| Oct 9 | Barbara Nerness (Oberlin College): BIOMETRICKS: Bodies as Source and Surveillance as Community Offering |
| Oct 23 | Josh Tomlinson (Oakland University) |
| Oct 30 | Work/internship experience sharing |
| Nov 6 | Maor Applebaum: Mastering in the streaming age |
| Nov 13 | Kristen Yeon-Ji Yun (Purdue University) & Phoenix Park-Kim(Indiana Wesleyan University) |
| Nov 20 | |
| Dec 4 | James Ilgenfritz (Infrequent Seams): Record labels in the streaming age |
Bio: Kazunobu Kondo received the B.E., M.E. and Ph.D. degrees from Nagoya University, Japan, in 1991, 1993, and 2014, respectively. He joined the Electronics Development Center, Yamaha Co., Ltd. in 1993. He is currently a principal engineer of Yamaha Research and Development Division. His research interests include blind source separation, noise reduction, and dereverbetation. He is a member of the IEICE, the Acoustical Society of Japan and the Audio Engineering Society, and an editorial board member of the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society.
Abstract: This presentation introduces Yamaha’s R&D activities with a focus on people-centered approaches to music performance and production. We first provide an overview of Yamaha’s research organization and its vision for enhancing musical creativity through technology. We conduct our research and development to support “Well-Being of People around the World”, such as on our website. The presentation also highlights Yamaha’s Global Internship Program, which promotes international collaboration and offers opportunities for students and researchers to engage with cutting-edge research in music and audio technologies. A major focus of the talk is assistive technologies for music performance and production, a research area aimed at making music creation more accessible, efficient, and enjoyable. We present three of our works, machine learning for human performance and interaction, a piano transcription, and mixing assistance technologies in our mixing consoles. Through these examples, we demonstrate how Yamaha’s research contributes to empowering musicians and creators through human-centered innovation.
Faculty host: Hao-Wen (Herman) Dong
Bio: “Rob Bisel is a Grammy Award–winning producer, songwriter, engineer, mixer, and multi-instrumentalist based in Los Angeles. He began his career at Green Day’s Studio 880 in Oakland, California, before moving to Los Angeles in 2014 to intern at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La Studios. Over the next six years, he became the studio’s in-house engineer, working closely with Rubin on projects with the Smashing Pumpkins, Santana, the Strokes, Eminem, Lady Gaga, and many others. In 2020, Bisel stepped away from Shangri-La to collaborate with SZA on what became the Billboard No. 1, multi-platinum album SOS. He played a central role in shaping the album – producing, engineering, mixing, and even contributing background vocals to standout tracks including “Kill Bill,” “I Hate U,” and “Ghost in the Machine.” Since the album’s release, Bisel has continued building a diverse, genre-spanning body of work with artists such as Tems, Don Toliver, Doja Cat, Arlo Parks, and Glass Animals. His work has earned him two Grammy Awards (Best Progressive R&B Album and Best R&B Song), BMI R&B/Hip Hop Song of the Year Award, and a spot on the BMI R&B/Hip Hop Top Producers list. In addition, “Kill Bill” won iHeartRadio Song of the Year.”
Faculty host: Jason Corey
Abstract: This presentation focuses on our recent work on the “santour”, a Persian hammered dulcimer, with particular emphasis on the influence of internal soundpost placement on soundboard vibration. Developed with John Granzow, the study uses computational modal analysis and optimization to investigate how support locations affect the uniformity of vibrational response across the soundboard. I will also briefly discuss the next stage of this research, being developed with Prof. Granzow and Prof. Gascho: a custom finite-element analysis framework specifically for the santour. This tool is intended to support more flexible studies of soundboard geometry, material properties, thickness, bridge locations, and internal supports, with the longer-term goal of enabling integrated multi-objective optimization of the instrument’s structural and acoustic design.
Faculty host: John Granzow
Faculty host: Anıl Çamcı
Bio: Director of DANCE ELIXIR, Leyya Mona Tawil is an artist, performer, and cultural activist working in hybrid performance practices. Tawil is Palestinian and Syrian; engaged in the world as such. Her choreographies and sound projects have been commissioned and presented extensively throughout the states, Europe, and the Arab world. Tawil’s work is supported by national foundations and fellowships; and has been nominated for a “Bessies” Award in Music (2019) in New York City. Since 1997, Tawil has led the TAC Temescal Art Center in Oakland-CA; a community venue supporting local and international artists with residencies, commissions, and space for experimentation. She is the founding director of Arab.AMP - a platform for worldbuilding artists from the Arab/SWANA diaspora and our allied communities.
Abstract: Choreographer/composer Leyya Mona Tawil will discuss her new work - Happy Days Finale - in the context of performance making. At the heart of Happy Days Finale is Tawil’s “choice-based choreography,” where each performance unfolds uniquely. The composition is driven by decisions that transform the work into an ever-evolving conversation between movement, space, and sound. Tawil calls it “an act of agility and adaptability,” - a work that contains multiple truths with every iteration. Happy Days Finale is an invitation to model new ways of being in an unpredictable world. Tawil and her collaborators interrogate their own behavior and choice in relation to metaphor and agency. Tawil will be joined by fellow dancer Zari Lionudakis and music composer John Macdougal Parker.
Faculty host: Zeynep Özcan
Bio: Barbara Nerness is an artist/scientist whose work spans music composition, live performance, video, interactive installation, and cognitive science. Her research focuses on brain dynamics measured by EEG during music improvisation. Her multichannel performances feature biosignals captured by a custom stethoscope microphone, illuminating our inner world and connections with each other, while exploring themes of surveillance and technological subversion. Currently, she is Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Music and Digital Arts at Oberlin Conservatory. In the past, she has taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Stanford University, where she received her PhD and Doctoral Certificate in Composition from Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). Artist residencies include Djerassi (Woodside, USA), Audium (San Francisco, USA), and ShareMusic (Gothenburg, Sweden). Performances span the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles, as well as the Brooklyn Academy of Music (USA), ZKM (Germany), and the Sonic Arts Research Centre (Ireland). More info on her website.
Abstract: I am excited to discuss and perform excerpts from my recent solo show, BIOMETRICKS, which premiered at Audium Theater in San Francisco this summer. Audium, one of the first loudspeaker orchestras built around 1960, has 176 speakers throughout the building. Performances are live in complete darkness. BIOMETRICKS mixed field recordings with real-time audio inputs from my own heartbeat, breath, and digestive organs (via a stethoscope microphone) to create a sonic landscape that provokes wonder at our internal biological symphonies and relational communities, while also raising questions about how our bodies are surveilled and by whom. Pre-show installations allowed audiences to hear and see their own heartbeats and skin conductivity in real-time. I’ll discuss site-specific approaches to multichannel composition, biosignals as sound and light, and designing playful interactive installations.
Faculty host: Julie Zhu
Bio: Joshua Tomlinson is an internationally recognized composer, sound artist, and educator specializing in electroacoustic music and technology. He is currently Assistant Professor of Music Technology and Composition at Oakland University. Eclectic and innovative, his compositions draw inspiration from a range of genres and styles and utilize digital and analog technology to create new and immersive experiences for his audiences. His works have been performed at national and international conferences and festivals including the Royal Music Association, PARMA, NSEME, SEAMUS, EA Barndance, EMM, SMC, ICMC, the Australasian Computer Music Conference, the Brazilian Symposium on Computer Music, Lá nas Árvores in Portugal, and most recently the Seoul International Computer Music Festival. Joshua serves on the steering committee of the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival and has participated as a composer and audio technician at NYCEMF since 2013. Before joining the faculty at Oakland, he was Instructor and Area Coordinator of Music Technology and Production at the University of North Florida—where he founded and directed jemFEST from 2021–2024 to give the electroacoustic music community a port in Jacksonville, Florida. Each year artists performed and offered lectures for students and the community that highlighted new music, technology, trends, and technique. He and his wife Hannah share their home in Michigan with five coffee makers and three cats.
Abstract: In our world of Music Technology, we get to live and work on the cutting edge. We’re using old tools in new ways. We are crafting our own tools to produce things that have never been heard before. At the same time, we get to draw inspiration from every age, assimilating art and ideas from the past along with emerging issues and trends. And so, we find ourselves at a dynamic crossroad where inspiration and technology create endless new possibilities for music and its applications. Like many creatives, my music usually starts with one thing: an idea. The idea might be philosophical, like a musical montage blending speeches from several U.S. presidents. The idea might be intensely emotional, like the wind symphony and live electronics piece I composed as I processed loss. The idea might be whimsical, like the sounds whisky bottles make when we try to pry off those sticky corks. Sometimes the idea is just a sound that I can’t get out of my head, like a certain ringing of metal laid against timbres of wood. I will present my music within this context: the ideas that start my creative process, and the technology that brings those ideas to life.
Faculty host: Michael Gurevich
Bio: MAOR is a mastering engineer based in Los Angeles, who not only is a renowned mastering engineer, but also the inventor of the mastering hardware and software processor called “the oven.”
Faculty host: Chris Vrenna
Kristen Yeon-Ji Yun (Purdue University): AI for Music: Evaluating Musical Performance, Transcribing Audio, and Developing a Robot Cellist
Bio: A cellist, Kristen Yeon-Ji Yun is an internationally active soloist and chamber musician. She has won numerous international and national music competitions and has appeared as a soloist with various orchestras. Dr. Yun performs on a French cello made by Guersan in 1766. Her dynamic career also includes serving as principal investigator on the National Science Foundation-funded project Artificial Intelligence Technology for Future Music Performers. Her AI for Music research team at Purdue explores the application of artificial intelligence to music performance and education. Projects include Automatic Music Transcription, the Robot Cello, AI-based Performance Posture Evaluation, and Sound Evaluation, all designed to support musicians. Her interdisciplinary research has been presented at leading AI and technology conferences such as ACM ICMI, AAAI, ICLR, NeurIPS, and IEEE CAI. She has also been invited as a speaker to conferences and institutions including the ACM AI Leadership Summit and the Vision and Intelligent Systems at the University of Waterloo.
Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) creates new opportunities to support musical performance, learning, and creativity. This presentation introduces three AI for Music projects: Evaluator, Automatic Music Transcription, and Robot Cellist. The Evaluator project explores how AI can analyze musical performances and provide feedback to support practice. Automatic Music Transcription investigates how AI can convert audio recordings into written musical notation, making music more accessible and reducing transcription time. The Robot Cellist project examines how a robotic system can learn and perform cello music, addressing the challenges of translating musical information into physical actions. The presentation will highlight the aims, current results, and potential benefits of these projects for musicians, illustrating how AI can serve as a practical tool for music education, practice, and performance while expanding the possibilities of musical research and creativity.
Phoenix Park-Kim(Indiana Wesleyan University): Creativity in the age of AI
Bio: PHOENIX PARK-KIM, Professor of Piano at Indiana Wesleyan University, has performed throughout the United States and internationally across Asia, Europe, and Latin America. A prizewinner in numerous competitions, she has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the Korean Philharmonic and Atlantida Orchestra (Spain), performing concertos by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Hummel, and Florence Price. A passionate advocate for African-American composers, she has received a Lilly Research Grant and special congressional recognition. Dr. Park-Kim is a sought-after clinician and adjudicator whose students have earned regional and national honors, including MTNA National Competition finalist placements.
Abstract: As AI transforms how we compose and experience music, we face new opportunities and fundamental questions about creativity, meaning, and human expression. I will give a brief presentation and open the floor for the students to ask questions and discuss the capabilities of AI in music and what makes musical experiences meaningful. Students will be challenged to think about the role of art and artists in the age of AI. Ultimately, I hope students will reflect on how they can use emerging technologies thoughtfully while preserving the human purposes and values that give music its significance.\
Faculty host: Hao-Wen (Herman) Dong
Bio: James is an alum of UM, has a Ph.D. from UCSD, and is based in NY city as a head of Infrequent Seams - a label devoted to experimental music and free Jazz. The label features esablished as well as emerging artists.
Faculty host: Stephen Rush
You get two unexcused absences for free. Beyond that, each additional unexcused absence will result in a full letter grade drop.
| Grade | Unexcused absences |
|---|---|
| A | 0-2 |
| B | 3 |
| C | 4 |
| D | 5 |
| E (failure) | 6+ |
You may check your attendance record and current grade with this Attendance Lookup Tool.
The University of Michigan recognizes disability as an integral part of diversity and is committed to creating an inclusive and equitable educational environment for students with disabilities. Students who are experiencing a disability-related barrier should contact Services for Students with Disabilities ((734) 763-3000 or ssdoffice@umich.edu). For students who are connected with SSD, accommodation requests can be made in Accommodate. If you have any questions or concerns please contact your SSD Coordinator or visit SSD’s Current Student webpage. SSD considers aspects of the course design, course learning objects and the individual academic and course barriers experienced by the student. Further conversation with SSD, instructors, and the student may be warranted to ensure an accessible course experience.
Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, which includes sexual misconduct — including harassment, domestic and dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. We understand that sexual violence can undermine students’ academic success and we encourage anyone dealing with sexual misconduct to talk to someone about their experience, so they can get the support they need. Confidential support and academic advocacy can be found with the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center (SAPAC) on their 24-hour crisis line at (734) 936-3333. Alleged violations can be non-confidentially reported to the Office for Institutional Equity (OIE).
Students may experience stressors that can impact both their academic experience and their personal well-being. These may include academic pressure and challenges associated with relationships, mental health, alcohol or other drugs, identities, finances, etc. If you are experiencing concerns, seeking help is a courageous thing to do for yourself and those who care about you. If the source of your stressors is academic, please contact me so that we can find solutions together. For personal concerns, U-M offers many resources, some of which are listed at Resources for Students on the Well-being Collective website. You can also search for additional resources on that website.