Y3 | Director's Report 2020-21
ACTOR | Project Updates | Director’s Reports | Stephen McAdams | July 9th, 2021
ACTOR Director's Report 2020-21
I would like to welcome to all ACTOR members to the workshop wrapping up our third year of activities. I sincerely hope that all ACTOR members managed to maintain their research and creative activities in spite of the continuing pandemic. Many of the collaborative activities of course have been virtual and yet again this year's workshop is online. In spite of these challenges, many of the collaborative workgroups have been very active demonstrating once again the resourcefulness and devotion of our community to our common passion.
ACTOR Project Coordinator
André Martins de Oliveira took over from Juanita Marchand Knight as Project Coordinator at the end of 2020. Juanita did a fantastic job keeping things running through the pandemic and initiating a new workgroup on Voice in addition to their active involvement in the Diversity workgroup. Juanita is now pursuing a PhD in Psychology at Concordia University and has become a collaborator of ACTOR.
André has been a great addition to the team, streamlining a lot of the workflow in various areas, learning the ins and outs of the labyrinthine university administration procedures at McGill, providing the great new look for the ACTOR Newsletter, and keeping all of the ACTOR Committees on their toes and on track. It is an enormous pleasure to work with someone who is even better organized than me.
ACTOR Committees
I would like to personally acknowledge the great work done by the four committees that inflect and enhance the activities of ACTOR
ACTOR Central maintains local operations and oversees many aspects of the partnership's activities. Its members include the Director (Stephen McAdams), Associate Director (Robert Hasegawa), Project Coordinator (André Martins de Oliveira), both post-docs (Lindsey Reymore, Matthew Zeller), and the webmaster (Kit Soden).
The Executive Committee makes key policy decisions concerning the intellectual direction of the project, ensures integration of research objectives, and participates in budget planning and fund allocation. Its members this year include Stephen McAdams (ACTOR Director & Analysis Axis Director), Robert Hasegawa (ACTOR Associate Director & Output Innovation Axis Director), Philippe Esling (Tool Development Axis Director), Nathalie Hérold (TMC Coordinator), Catherine Guastavino (KMC Coordinator), Malte Kob (elected), Indiana Wollman (elected), Caroline Traube (elected), Lindsey Reymore (post-doc), Yuval Adler (student representative).
The Training & Mentoring Committee coordinates training and mentoring opportunities for students and early-career researchers on research methods, collaboration ethics, and research dissemination methods. It coordinates student workshops and connects students with Partners and other institutions for potential internships or job/career opportunities. It evaluates applications for student membership in the ACTOR Partnership, student applications to present at yearly workshops, and applications for exchange visits to other partner institutions and collaborative student grant proposal. Its members include Nathalie Hérold (coordinator and co-chair), Matthew Zeller (co-chair), Charalampos Saitis (elected), Jimmie Leblanc (elected), Jonas Régnier (student representative), Kit Soden (webmaster).
The Knowledge Mobilization Committee seeks mobilization opportunities in traditional, popular, and social media and consults on the development of the ACTOR Timbre and Orchestration Resource. Its members include Catherine Guastavino (Coordinator and co-chair), Joshua Rosner student representative and co-chair), Laurie Radford (elected), Gilbert Nouno (elected), Kit Soden (Webmaster), Lindsey Reymore (Newsletter Editor).
ACTOR Post-docs
The two new post-docs (who managed to get across the Canadian border in September in spite of the pandemic restrictions) have been very active in keeping ACTOR moving ahead on several fronts, both intellectual and administrative. As Editor, Lindsey Reymore has completely revamped the Newsletter with André and Kit Soden, and it now appears every month. She is also the post-doc member of the Executive Committee. As Newsletter Editor and dissemination maven, she has also been active in the Knowledge Mobilization Committee. Matthew Zeller has been very active as co-chair of the Training & Mentoring Committee, giving new life to that now very active committee with Nathalie Hérold. Both Lindsey and Matt are part of the ACTOR Central committee which meets monthly to keep the ACTOR fires burning on the many fronts of timbre and orchestration research and creation.
Strategic, Research-Creation, and Student Project Grants
Three different funding opportunities this year:
Collaborative Student Project Grants
A new funding initiative was created by the TMC this year in which two students in different partner institutions could be funded for a collaborative project. Three student projects were awarded:
Martin Daigle (McGill University) and Gabriel Couturier (Université de Montréal)—Research- Creation: Masque de Fer
Lena Heng (McGill University) and Mengqi Wang (Université de Strasbourg)—Sounding the interaction of cultures: Orchestration techniques and perceptual effects
Ying-Ying Zhang (McGill University) and Jithin Thilakan (Detmold University of Music)—An investigation of choral blending through soundfield capture, acoustic evaluation, and perceptual analysis methods
Strategic Projects
Martha de Francisco (McGill University) [PI] with Michael Sandner (Detmold University of Music) and external collaborators Andrew Grey and David Cronkite (Voces Boreales), and Margaret Tobin (Dolby Digital). Path of miracles—A multitrack recording in 3D audio to recreate choral blend during the pandemic.
Malte Kob (Detmold University of Music) [PI] with Martha de Francisco and Kit Soden (McGill University), Fabien Lévy (Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig), and Caroline Traube (Université de Montréal). Online guide to room acoustics for musicians.
Zachary Wallmark (University of Oregon) [PI] with Charalampos Saitis (Queen Mary University of London). Metaphors we listen with: Neural correlates of timbral brightness investigated by pitch-timbre interference and fMRI.
Lindsey Reymore (McGill University) [PI] with Nicole Biamonte, Matthew Zeller, Jade Roth, and Jeremy Tatar (McGill University), Leigh Van Handel (University of British Columbia), Ben Duinker (University of Toronto), and external collaborator Christopher White (University of Massachusetts Amherst). Interactions of timbre, genre, and form in popular music.
Research-Creation Projects
Robert Hasegawa (McGill University) [PI] with Jimmie Leblanc (Université de Montréal) and external collaborators the Quatuor Bozzini (Isabelle Bozzini, Stéphanie Bozzini, Alissa Cheung, Clemens Merkel). Orchestration for the String Quartet: Workshop and Concert with the Quatuor Bozzini
Malte Kob (Detmold University of Music) [PI] with Martha de Francisco (McGill University), Caroline Traube and Jean-François Rivest (Université de Montréal), and Michael Sandner (Detmold University of Music). ODESSA IV: New orchestra recordings – measurements – systematic analysis.
Pierre Michel (Université de Strasbourg) [PI] with Philippe Lalitte (Université Paris Sorbonne) and ACTOR student member Nicolas Medero Larrosa (Université de Strasbourg/Haute Ecole des Arts du Rhin). The hybrid space in music composition: The use of tactile transduction devices to develop new interactions between the acoustic instrument and the electronic.
Shahrokh Yadegari (University of California, San Diego) [PI] with ACTOR student members Jeanne Côté (now collaborating member) and Pedram Diba (McGill University), Min Seok Peter Ko, Sang Song, Berk Schneider, and Tiange Zhou (UCSD) plus external collaborator Florian Grond (McGill University). Musicians Auditory Perception (MAP) Project.
Caroline Traube (Université de Montréal) [PI] with Martha de Francisco (McGill University), Jason Noble (Université de Montréal), and external collaborators Steve Cowan and Denis Martin (McGill University), and Simon Rouhier (Université de Montréal). Recording of an album for guitar and electronics in 3D audio, with a 3D video for one of the tracks.
Gilbert Nouno (Haute École de Musique de Genève) [PI] with Luis Naón (HEM), and external collaborator David Poissonnier (HEM). Short geometric pieces (A geometry of sound and music).
SSHRC Partnership Grant Mid-term Report
We have to submit the mid-term report of the partnership in October 2021. The last three years of funding depend on the positive evaluation of this report. André and I will draft the report with the assistance of the ACTOR Central Committee, and we hope to make it available for comment by the end of September to the co-applicants and collaborators. But most importantly, we may come to you for additional information that we need to make our case for continued funding, and we would ask that you respond in a timely manner.
Active ACTOR Projects
The main ACTOR projects that are currently active are primarily represented by the 12 workgroups making up this year's workshop. Please read their activity reports and materials on the Y3 Workshop Repository. However, several projects are also listed on the Timbre and Orchestration Resource. If your project isn't listed, please contact Kit Soden and don't hesitate to propose new projects.