Finding Consilience in The Vibrato Wars: Hearing, Seeing, & Analyzing the Spectrum of Variability Across Genres.

The Analysis, Creation and Teaching of Orchestration (ACTOR) Project and the Schulich School of Music invite you to a lecture about the the Composer-performer Orchestration Research Ensemble (CORE) project presented by Professors Stephen McAdams (Music Technology) and Guillaume Bourgogne (Orchestral Conducting) on April 8 at 5:00pm EDT as part of the Research Alive Series.

We often reach for crossmodal metaphor to describe music--it sounds warm, or velvety, or rough, spiky, jagged, smooth, glassy, or bright, etc. What if these metaphors were not as subjective as we might think, but had a scientific, neurological basis?

Step into the mysterious world of composition as John Rea unveils secrets in the art of writing music, how these secrets may lead to lies, and what happens when a composer’s memory starts playing tricks… The presentation will also include a live performance by pianist Stéphane Lémelin.

Lena Heng is currently a PhD student in the interdisciplinary stream, and their research addresses how people perceive and make sense of music. Lena’s research interests include music perception and cognition, timbral functions in musical communication, and musical semiology and hermeneutics. Originally from Singapore, Heng plays erhu with the Ding Yi Music Company in Singapore. Lena will illustrate their research to the audience during this presentation with a live performance on the Chinese erhu.

In this presentation the audience will experience in real time how the analysis of a musical score can enrich a performance, explored through a movement of Brahms' first clarinet sonata, performed live by Edward and Nicole on viola and piano.

Having recorded great pianists for over 30 years as a record producer, Martha de Francisco is in a unique position to offer insight into what makes a beautiful piano recording. Join her for the first Research Alive event of the season, where she'll guide you through many audio and video examples of her work.

Jason Noble (Ph.D in Composition) and Steven Cowan (D.Mus in Guitar Performance), winners of the Research Alive student competition, describe the project that they've been working on back in their home province of Newfoundland.

An in-depth presentation of his research in music theory focusing on pieces written by George Benjamin. Live piano excerpts and performances are played by pianists Chris Goddard and Zhenni Li.

Music psychologist Stephen McAdams talks about the role of perception in orchestration practice. He is joined on stage by conductor Alain Cazes and the full McGill Wind Symphony.