| 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 | |
| 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
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
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.
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