Monday, September 5th, 17:30: Software Tools for Expressive Music Performance
Tuesday, September 6th, 15:30: Free Software to Free Sound
Wednesday, September 7th, 17:30: Gender and Computer Music: Tracing Change
Thursday, September 8th, 17:30: Interactive Musical Instruments
Friday, September 9th, 17:30: Tangible Musical Interfaces

Software Tools for Expressive Music Performance

Date:: Monday, September 5th, 17:30
Organisation/Moderator: Roberto Bresin

After seventy years of scientific research in the field of music performance, thirty of which are in the field of automatic music performance, researchers are proposing more and more sophisticated tools for automatic expressive performance. Using these tools with little musical knowledge it is possible to perform like a 5-year level student of music.

Is it possible to go further and design a tool that could be a future winner of the Chopin piano competition? Would such a tool be fully automatic or interactive? Are hybrid systems, which allow for human intervention during the performance, the future direction of research? In what ways could such tools be applied to different music genres?

This panel will present some of state-of-the-art tools. We will also attempt to answer these and other questions by discussing the future of research in automatic and interactive music performance.

This panel is held concurrently with RENCON 2005. RENCON (Contest for Performance Rendering Systems) is an annual international event that began in 2002. Its goal is to foster research into computational models of and methods for the generation of expressive musical performances.

The winner of RENCON 2005 will be announced during the panel. An analysis of the performances participating in the competition will also be presented.

Please visit the RENCON website for more information about the 2005 contest. Deadline for submissions is August 8, 2005.

confirmed participants
Roberto Bresin, KTH Stockholm Anders Friberg, KTH Stockholm Emilia G�mez, UPF MTG Barcelona Rafael Ramirez , UPF MTG Barcelona Rumi Hiraga, Bunkyo University Giovanni De Poli, Universit� di Padova

Free Software to Free Sound

Date: Tuesday, September 6th, 15:30
Organisation/Moderator: Xavier Amatriain

Free Software grants users some possibilities that can in some ways be related to the always sought artistic or creative freedom. The user of a piece of Free Software is able to study and extend the original and share the new features with the community. Software + hardware are indeed the "instruments" for computer musicians. Therefore it makes sense to have instruments that can be accessed and modified in anyway.

Nevertheless, many software authors feel that Free Software and Open Source will endanger not only their intellectual property but also the commercial exploitation of the product.

So, can there be artistic freedom without control of the tools we use? Can there be profit without source code enclosure?

In this panel we will try to give answer to these questions and more by discussing on the advantages/disadvantages of Free Software use for creative purposes.

confirmed participants
Xavier Amatriain, Media Arts and Technology, University of California Miller Puckette, Department of Music, University of California Nicola Bernardini, Media Innovation Unit, Firenze Ross Bencina, UPF (MTG), Barcelona Angus Hewlett, FXpansion.com Fernando Lopez-Lezcano, CCRMA, Stanford University Tom Erbe, Soundhack.com Gregory Taylor, Cycling 74

Gender and Computer Music: Tracing Change

Date: Wednesday, September 7th, 17:30
Organisation/Moderator: Margaret Schedel

Women in arts and technology fields have sometimes experienced at least two kinds of discrimination: 1) their capacity to be "great" composers/artists is questioned, and 2) their scientific and technological skills appear to conflict with the traditional women's role of wife and mother. Changes within the field of computer music, and specifically the International Computer Music Association (ICMA) over the last two and a half decades will be traced by panel consisting of a former President, three Array editors past and present, and two active members.

The panel will discuss reasons for change, using the Array newsletter exchanges on Gender and Computer Music as referential documents. These exchanges began after a discussion in an General Meeting in 1992 initiated by Mary Simoni. Mara Helmuth then expressed her concern about the lack of participation of women in the organization to Brad Garton, the editor of Array. He asked her to write for Array; she authored a statement, and solicited responses from women in the field. Reactions were received from a variety of ICMA members including Katharine Norman and Frances White. The responses were diverse, but most authors were dissatisfied with the representation of women in the field of music and technology, and some described experiencing bias.

Using these reaction statements, the panelists will trace the changes that have occurred in the field of computer music since 1993. Rather than looking at statistical studies, this process is a forum for individuals' views. Despite advances, women are still underrepresented in the field; the intersection of two male-dominated fields of technology and music results in a subgroup which inherits stereotypes from both parents.

This is an issue that affects the entire community, not just the female minority. We invite participation from the audience.

confirmed participants
Margaret Schedel, Cycling 74 Brad Garton, Columbia University (on panel in FTAM � tentative for Barcelona) Mara Helmuth, University of Cincinnati Mary Simoni, University of Michigan Michael Ferriell Zbyszynski, University of California, Berkeley

Interactive Musical Instruments

Date: Thursday, September 8th, 17:30
Moderator: Joel Chadabe
Organisation: Sergi Jord�

Electronic Music Foundation invites you to attend a special panel on interactive musical instruments.

While in current general usage the word "interactive" is used to mean "quickly responsive" or "in real time", this panel will explore a new approach to electronic instrument design based on a "mutually influential" relationship between performer and instrument. The panel will include discussions and presentations on the principles and theory of interactivity as well as musical demonstrations in the form of short performances. The purpose of this panel is to define and draw attention to an increasingly important area of research and creativity.

EMF also invites you to a coffee reception before and/or following the panel.

confirmed participants
Joel Chadabe, Electronic Music Foundation Nick Collins, Centre for Music and Science, University of Cambridge Sergi Jord�, UPF (MTG), Barcelona Robert Rowe, Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions, New York University David Wessel, CNMAT, University of California, Berkeley

Tangible Musical Interfaces

Date: Friday, September 9th, 17:30
Submission: Sunday, July 31st, 2005
Moderator: Sile O'Modhrain, SARC
Organisation: Martin Kaltenbrunner

The Interactive Sonic Systems Team at the Music Technology Group, IUA, UPF - creators of the reacTable* - is inviting you to participate in a Cost287-ConGAS special event on the specific topic of "Tangible Musical Interfaces". The panel will take place on September 9th during the ICMC 2005 in Barcelona, Spain. Please refer to this list of related projects to learn what we consider being part of this special category, but we would like to encourage as well other creators of similar interfaces to participate. We kindly ask researchers, artists, companies or other individuals who are willing to present their work, to submit their proposal before July 31st, 2005. A published article or tech-report describing your work is adequate, please make sure we will have the necessary rights to publish a small compilation of these works for the participants.

During the afternoon session each participant will have the opportunity to present their instruments in a short presentation of around 15 minutes. This is followed by a panel discussion on technical & design issues, interoperability, musical collaboration and other topics related to Music Tables, Musical Building Blocks and Tangible Controllers in general. Eventually we will organize an informal jam session in the evening where the instruments and their players can show their musical skills. The Instruments will be on display for the audience at the conference site during the morning before the panel. A detailed schedule will be published on the ICMC web-page before August 2005.

confirmed participants
Sile O'Modhrain, SARC, Moderator Rodney Berry, ATR, Music Table Daniel Dobler, Audite, Audiocube Kiyoshi Furukawa, ZKM, Smallfish Sybille Hauert, artist, instant city Martin Kaltenbrunner, MTG, reacTable* Franck Stofer, jazzmutant, lemur Gil Weinberg, squeezables, Georgia Tech