ACTOR
Timbre and Orchestration
Summer School

 About

The Analysis, Creation, and Teaching of Orchestration (ACTOR) Project is pleased to announce its third Timbre and Orchestration Summer School (TOSS 2025), scheduled for June 3-7 at McGill University in Montréal, QC, Canada. This edition will be linked with the Timbre and Orchestration in Popular Song (TOPS) Conference, see below for more details.

Following the success of previous editions, TOSS 2025 continues to explore the multifaceted world of timbre and orchestration research, encompassing musicology, history, music theory, composition, cognitive neuroscience, and acoustics. This program targets graduate students (and advanced undergraduates), postdoctoral researchers, and early-career scholars involved in music-related research who have a strong interest in timbre and orchestration. Learn more about how to apply here; the application deadline is December 15th, 2024.

Program Structure

TOSS includes two days of tutorials/workshops and three days of overlap with the TOPS conference.

  • June 3 & 4: Tutorials (open only to TOSS participants)

  • June 5: Workshops (open to both TOSS and TOPS participants)

  • June 6 & 7: TOPS conference, featuring a poster session showcasing TOSS participants' research

Costs

Accepted participants will be invited to register as of January 15. Registration fees are:

* all amounts in CAD

  • Option 1 - $870: $720 (TOSS) + $150 (TOPS). This includes tuition, lunches on June 3–7, dinner June 7, and single-room accommodation (June 2–8) as availability permits, or

  • Option 2 - $396: $246 (TOSS) + $150 (TOPS). This includes tuition and lunches on June 3–7, and dinner June 7.

NOTE: TOSS participants must also register to TOPS in order to access the activities on Days 3, 4, and 5 of TOSS.

Tutors

  • Lori Burns

    Lori Burns is Professor of Music at the University of Ottawa. Her interdisciplinary research, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, merges musical analysis and cultural theory to explore representations of gender and sexuality in the lyrical, musical, and visual texts of popular music. Read more

  • John Rea

    Besides his activities as a composer, John Rea has lectured and published articles on twentieth century music and, from 1973 to 2020, taught composition, music theory and music history at McGill University where he also served as Dean of the Faculty of Music (1986-1991). Read more

  • Johanna Devaney

    Johanna Devaney is an Associate Professor at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, CUNY. Her research seeks to understand how humans engage with music, primarily through performance, with a particular focus on the singing voice, and how computers can be used to model and augment our understanding of this engagement. Read more

  • Lindsey Reymore

    Lindsey Reymore is an assistant professor of Music Theory in the School of Music, Dance and Theatre and co-director of the CACTUS Music Lab at ASU. Her research investigates the role of timbre—the perceptual qualities or characteristics of sound—in musical experience. Read more

  • Megan Lavengood

    Dr. Megan Lavengood is Associate Professor and Director of Music Theory at George Mason University. Her research primarily deals with popular music, video game music, timbre, synthesizers, and recording techniques. Read more

  • Claire McLeish

    Dr. Claire McLeish works as a musicologist and copyright researcher for Third Side Music, an independent music publisher based in Montréal. She also offers forensic musicologist consulting, working on infringements, sample uses, and public domain issues. Read more

  • Eliot Britton

    Eliot Britton integrates electronic, audiovisual and instrumental music through an energetic and colourful personal language.  His creative output reflects an eclectic musical experience, from gramophones to videogames, drum machines to orchestras. Read more

  • Nicole Biamonte

    Dr. Biamonte’s primary research area concerns the theory and analysis of popular music, with a focus on rhythmic and metric functions in rock music. She is also interested in form and harmony in popular music, music theory pedagogy, and musical historicism in the nineteenth century. Read more

The Venue 

McGill University's Schulich School of Music stands as a world-class institution for music education and research. With particular strengths in orchestral performance, opera, jazz, historical performance practice, and modern composition, the school has earned international recognition. The school's cutting-edge facilities and expertise in audio recording and music technology create unique bridges between academic study and professional practice. The vibrant community consists of more than 800 students who choose Schulich for its distinguished faculty of over 200 professors, numerous performance ensembles, abundant concert opportunities, and innovative programs combining musical tradition with technological advancement.

Timbre and Orchestration in Popular Song (TOPS)

Timbre and orchestration are essential aspects of musical experience in any culture or style. They enable us to effortlessly identify different genres of music and are particularly important in popular musics. This centrality is reflected in Timbre and Orchestration in Popular Song (TOPS), a three-day conference hosted by McGill University's Schulich School of Music and the ACTOR (Analysis, Creation and Teaching of Orchestration) Partnership. The conference convenes scholars, producers, performers, and audiences of popular music for keynote lectures, workshops, posters, papers, and roundtable discussions, united under the theme of how timbre and orchestration give rise to critical and analytical accounts of genre, identity, performance, production, and perception. The conference features keynote presentations by Nina Sun Eidsheim (UCLA) and Kevin Holt (SUNY Stony Brook), and workshops by Lindsey Reymore (Arizona State University), Nicole Biamonte (McGill University), Claire McLeish (Third Side Music), and Megan Lavengood (George Mason University).

Apply

How to apply: 

Interested participants are required to submit the following​ materials via the online application form:

  • In 200 words, please explain why you are interested in attending TOSS 2025.

  • CV, maximum two pages

  • If interested in a poster session, a 200-word (max.) abstract

Important dates:

  • December 15, 2024: Application deadline

  • January 15, 2025: Notification of selected applicants 

  • January 15, 2025: Registration opens

  • February 15, 2025: Deadline to submit draft of poster (if planning to present one during TOPS)

  • April 1, 2025: Registration deadline

Partners and Funding