NASA/Smithsonian Collaboration
The ACTOR project (actorproject.org) collaborated with astrophysicist Dr. Kimberly Arcand at the Smithsonian Institute and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory for astronomy in the musical auralization of astronomical images. The composition was done by former Schulich composition student Sophie Kastner and was performed by an ensemble directed by Charles-Eric Fontaine with many former and current Schulich students and recorded in the MMR. The piece will be released by NASA tomorrow 15 November 2023 at 2pm EST at the following URLs:
https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2023/music/
https://chandra.si.edu/sound/symphony.html
Newly Appointed Professor
After completion of his postdoctoral fellowship at U. of Montreal last August, former ACTOR postdoc and current ACTOR member Jason Noble was appointed professor of instrumental and electroacoustic composition at University of Moncton. Congratulations on this great achievement!
Upcoming Performance
Congratulations to ACTOR collaborator Jorge Ramos, whose works “Paysage,” “Blur,” and “Blur 2.0” will be featured in these upcoming broadcasts and performances!
Orchestration Research Symposium
ACTOR is pleased to announce the seventh ACTOR / CIRMMT Student Symposium, held as a hybrid event on Friday, October 20th, 12pm-2pm (Eastern), A-832, Wirth Music Building (McGill Schulich School of Music). The four speakers, all ACTOR members, each presented posters at the TIMBRE 2023 Conference in Thessaloniki in July.
Matthew Morrison | Afrological Perspectives on Timbre & Orchestration
Join us for the next ACTOR Speaker Series event, Thursday October 12 at 12pm EDT on Zoom! Presented by Matthew Morrison the talk is entitled “Blackface, Black Sounds, and Black String band Music” Learn more with the link!
https://www.actorproject.org/events-calendar
Newsletter / Bulletin #32
New Publication
Click the link to read this new publication by ACTOR members!
https://doi.org/10.1080/07494467.2023.2228601
How the cello became a vehicle for arranging Haitian songs.
Join us for the next ACTOR Speaker Series event, Thursday October 5 at 12pm EDT on Zoom! Presented by Leyla McCalla, the talk is entitled “How the cello became a vehicle for arranging Haitian songs.”
Leyla Maccalla | Afrological Perspectives on Timbre and Orchestration
Join us for the next ACTOR Speaker Series event, Thursday October 5 at 12pm EDT on Zoom! Presented by Leyla McCalla, the talk is entitled “How the cello became a vehicle for arranging Haitian songs.”
https://www.actorproject.org/events-calendar
Kaija Saariaho
The ACTOR community lost a member of our International Advisory Board in May this year. The world lost one of the greatest composers of all time, whose transcendent, but always enlightening orchestrations capture ephemerality, mystery, the cosmic, the deeply personal, the ineffable. Many of us lost a dear friend who taught us so much over the years about what it means to live the life of an artist, engaged in a difficult world.
Kaija’s dedication to her art was unwavering, particularly through her operatic works in the latter part of her life, indeed right up to end as she battled brain cancer. Kaija forged a world of beauty, sensitivity, truth, and deep meaning. The ACTOR community expresses its deep sense of loss and sympathy to her family: her husband, composer, media artist, and educator Jean-Baptiste Barrière, her son, writer, theater maker, and translator Aleksi Barrière, and her daughter, conductor and violinist Aliisa Neige Barrière.
Summer School Recap
From July 8th to 12th, the first Timbre and Orchestration Summer School (TOSS) took place in Thessaloniki, Greece, organized by ACTOR postdocs Ben Duinker and Andrés Gutiérrez Martínez, and ACTOR collaborator and UdeM postdoc Kit Soden. The summer school was hosted by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with on-site support by Asterios Zacharakis and was held around the TIMBRE 2023 conference. For five days, an international cohort of 55 students from a variety of academic institutions across Europe and North America as well as independent researchers and practitioners, met at the Teloglion Fine Arts Foundation to learn from leading voices in Timbre research about this multifaceted field as it pertains to orchestration in a broad sense.
As part of the organizing committee of the summer school, we are very proud of this accomplishment, and we are very thankful to the tutors involved and to everyone who supported the event along the way. The ACTOR Central committee is currently discussing the viability of continuing with the summer school in the foreseeable future. We are convinced that it is an important formative workshop for young research scholars and music practitioners.
Follow the link to read the detailed description of activities!
Diversity in Music Corpus Studies
The article “Diversity in Music Corpus Studies” by Nicholas Shea, Christopher William White, and ACTOR members Lindsey Reymore, Ben Duinker, Leigh VanHandel, Matthew Zeller, and Nicole Biamonte has been accepted for publication in Music Theory Online 30.1 (2024). The article discusses the anti-discriminatory alignment system used by the TiPS project.
Newsletter / Bulletin #31
For a Reason Album
The stars are aligning for Pulitzer laureate, Roger Reynolds. In a singular convergence as he approaches his 90th year later in 2024, unflaggingly dedicated to his mentorship of UC San Diego students, Roger has recently been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His archive is the subject of a Library of Congress Special Collection, and his creative output has never been stronger. He is lovingly portrayed as the subject of a forthcoming documentary film by Kyle Johnson, FOR A REASON, and this Neuma double-album showcases the works featured in the film.
ACTOR EduFilm 4 | Timbre and Cover Songs
In ACTOR EduFilm 4, "Timbre and Cover Songs," we investigate timbre's role in distinguishing cover songs from their originals.
Many thanks to ACTOR student member Jeremy Tatar for their tireless work in devising the concepts for these videos, and to Patrick Hart for his brilliant animation and sound design work. Stay tuned for EduFilms 5 and 6, coming in autumn 2023!
https://youtu.be/PUkGTeGnrWk
Student Representatives for The 2023-2024 Academic Year
We are pleased to announce that our three student representatives for the 2023-2024 academic year have been elected:
Executive Committee (EC) – Rebecca Moranis, PhD student (music theory), CUNY Graduate Center
Training and Mentoring Committee (TMC) – Francesco Maccarini, PhD Student (Computer science), Université de Lille
Knowledge Mobilization Committee (KMC) – Simon Jacobsen, PhD student (Music Perception), Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg
Click the link to learn more about our committee members!
ACTOR EduFilm 3 | Timbre and Culture
ACTOR's EduFilms are back! In EduFilm 3, "Timbre and Culture," we explore the role of timbre and cultural background in forming our emotional responses to music.
Many thanks to ACTOR collaborator Lena Heng and ACTOR student member Jeremy Tatar for their tireless work in devising the concepts for these videos, and to Patrick Hart for his brilliant animation and sound design work. Stay tuned for more to come!
So Curious Podcast
The podcast series So Curious! produced by the Franklin Institute has produced an entire season dedicated to exploring the world of music through the lens of science. The Science of Music. Episode 3 "The sound of Music: Timbre, Synthesizers, and Orchestration" features an interview with Stephen McAdams (McGill University) in which he speaks about timbre in its relationship to orchestration. Click the link to listen to this great podcast!
https://podcastindex.org/podcast/4789728
ACTOR’s Training and Mentoring Committee Workshop
ACTOR’s Training and Mentoring Committee will host a workshop on Designing and Delivering Effective Research Presentations. Aimed at graduate students and early-career scholars, this event features as guest speakers ACTOR Partners Lindsey Reymore (Arizona State University) and Eliot Britton (University of Toronto) as well as Mithura Sanmugalingam (McGill University Teaching and Learning Services).Topics will include, but not be limited to:
strategies for effective oral presentations
handling audience questions
slide design
time management
adapting your presentation to different audiences
Date / Time: 27 September 10:00am-12:00pm (EST) | 16h00-18h00 (CET)Registration is required, and can be done via this link:https://airtable.com/app8gRjxBogIgqZsH/shrchomIVjK1kh74V
The event will be held on Zoom, via this link: https://mcgill.zoom.us/j/89834484226?pwd=cTAwUjJuSjBVY09hOGRDYVYyOVovQT09Meeting ID: 898 3448 4226
Passcode: 455016
Looking forward to seeing you there!
The complete Afrological Speaker Series
The complete Afrological Speaker Series is now available to stream on youtube! Watch all 6 presentations