Foundations of Music Technology

Jordan Natan Hochenbaum is an artist concerned with finding meaningful connections among music, art, and technology. His work involves designing novel interfaces for musical performance, multimodal sensor systems, and playing and composing in a wide range of musical styles. Hochenbaum actively releases music under the Natan H moniker. As co-founder of FlipMu, he has explored interactive works for large-scale multitouch surfaces, real-time data sonification, generative audio/visual systems, and open-source interface design. Together with Owen Vallis and Jasmin Ruiz Blasco, he has been working as The Noise Index, an art-and-research platform that explores questions emerging from increased access to information in the digital age.

In 2013 Jordan completed his PhD titled L’Arte di Interazione Musicale: New Musical Possibilities through Multimodal Techniques. Recently he has worked on anomaly detection at Twitter, while also on faculty at California Institute of the Arts, where he teaches a variety of classes in the Music Technology department. Jordan’s work has been featured online and in print, including Wired, Computer Arts, Make, and XLR8R Magazine, The Creators Project, on Processing.org and Rhizome.org, and at festivals and conferences including Google I/O, NASA’s Yuri’s Night, the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, the International Society for Music Information Retrieval, and the International Computer Music Conference.

Harmony Jiroudek is active in the fields of vocal performance, arts education technology, and instructional design.

Jiroudek, an accomplished mezzo-soprano, has participated in several American and world premiere performances, including Michael Gordon’s What to Wear, George Aperghis’ Sextuor: L’Origine des espèces, and David Rosenboom’s Attunement. Other noteworthy performances include: Igor Stravinsky’s Les Noces and Mavra, Steve Reich’s Music for 18, Bruno Maderna’s Satyricon, J.S. Bach’s Cantata 170 with guest violinist, Elizabeth Blumenstock.

She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Fine Arts in vocal performance from California Institute of the Arts, where she also served as voice faculty from 2012-2014

Online programs assistant for the CalArts Office of Global Initiatives and Extended Studies. Current CalArts MFA student in flute performance.

Parinaz Yazdanparast was born and raised in Iran. She moved to the United States when she was 18 and she started her bachelors. After spending a few years doing civil engineering, she decided to go after her passion; music. She finished her bachelors in Music Technology with a minor in Audio production. She has been playing Tombak (Persian percussion) since she was 9 years old. She joined PergenEvents company in 2014 and works as a sound technician and DJ/Emcee since then. She worked in many festivals, weddings, and parties.. She joined CalArts community for her masters in Music Technology in September 2019.

Owen Vallis is a Professor of Music Technology at the California Institute of the Arts, MTIID (Music Technology: Interaction, Intelligence, and Design program). As co-founder of Flip-Mu, he explores and designs open-source interface design, real-time data sonification, generative audio/visual systems, and large-scale multitouch surfaces. With Jordan Hochenbaum and Jasmin Ruiz Blasco, he founded The Noise Index, a research platform to explore questions emerging from increased access to information and information saturation, with installations in New York, London, Paris, and L.A. Owen received his Ph.D. in 2013 at the New Zealand School of Music, Victoria University of Wellington. During his graduate research, he focused on developing new musical interfaces, interactive musical agents, and large networked music ensembles including The Machine Orchestra. Over the past 10 years, he has: worked as a research scientist for Twitter; developed multi-touch interfaces for Nokia research labs; worked for leading ribbon microphone manufacturer Royer Labs; has had musical production featured in major motion films; designed and built recording facilities; and produced, engineered, and mixed records in Tokyo, Nashville, and Los Angeles. Owen’s work has been featured in Wired, Future Music, Pitchfork, XLR8R, Processing.org, computer arts magazine, and shown at events such as NASA’s Yuri’s Night, Google I/O, and the New York Cutlog art festival.

Ajay Kapur is currently the Director of the Music Technology program (MTIID) at the California Institute of the Arts, as well as the Associate Dean for Research and Development in Digital Arts. He received an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in 2007 from University of Victoria combining computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, music and psychology with a focus on intelligent music systems and media technology. Ajay graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University in 2002. Kapur has published over 100 technical papers and presented lectures across the world on music technology, human computer interface for artists, robotics for making sound, and modern digital orchestras.

Max Jaffe is a drummer, composer, and a new MFA student at CalArts' School of Music. He is currently working as an Online Programs Assistant for the Office of Global Initiatives and Extended Studies at California Institute of the Arts. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Jazz Performance from The New School in 2010 and spent the following several years touring nationally and internationally with a wide variety of artists representing cutting-edge music across genres, including Peter Evans, Cass McCombs, and Chrome Sparks. His work as a user of digital percussion system Sensory Percussion has led him to his current studies learning more about musical instrument interfaces and technology.

Spencer Salazar is a computer musician and researcher currently serving as Special Faculty at the California Institute of the Arts School of Music. His research and teaching is focused on mobile music software, systems for music programming, and computer-based music ensembles. Previously he pursued his doctoral studies at Stanford CCRMA, where his dissertation research concerned a modular sketch-based programming system for computer music. He has also created new software and hardware interfaces for the ChucK audio programming language, prototyped consumer electronics for Microsoft, and architected large-scale social music interactions for Smule, an iPhone application developer. He received a Bachelor of Science and Engineering in Computer Science from Princeton University in 2006 and received a Doctor of Philosophy degree (Ph.D.) in Computer-based Music Theory and Acoustics from Stanford University in 2017.

Robert Henke is an artist working in the fields of audiovisual installation, music and performance. He was born 1969 in Munich, Germany, and lives in Berlin. Coming from a strong engineering background, Henke is fascinated by the beauty of technical objects and developing his own instruments and algorithms is an integral part of his creative process. His materials are computer generated sound and images, field recordings, photography and light; transformed, re-arranged and modulated by mathematical rules, real time interaction and controlled random operations. His long term musical project, Monolake, founded in 1995, became one of the key icons of a new electronic club music culture emerging in Berlin after the fall of the Wall. Henke is also one of the main creators of the music software Ableton Live, which since its invention in 1999 became the standard tool for electronic music production and completely redefined the performance practice of electronic music. He writes and lectures about sound and the creative use of computers and held teaching positions at the Berlin University of the Arts, the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University, and the Studio National des Arts Contemporains - Le Fresnoy in Lille, France. His installations, performances and concerts have been presented at Tate Modern London, the Centre Pompidou Paris, Le Lieu Unique Nantes, PS-1 New York, to name a few.

With both his parents being professional classical musicians, it might not be a surprise that John Tejada has become known as one of the most prolific and consistent producers in today’s eletronic music landscape. Trained on drums and the piano from an early age, the LA-based synth mastermind has since amassed his own impressive skill set, embracing the music as a personal frontier, expanding on his resume as a techno recording artist as producer, remixer, DJ, and label owner. Known for crafting a brand of subtle, musical sonics, his recorded output ranges across tempo and genre lines, from chilled out affairs with spacious arrangements to pulsating, densely layered, deeply energetic tracks that work magnificently in the hands of DJs as well as on the home stereo. Before hooking up with Kompakt, the much-acclaimed studio wizard had already made his own dent in the musical universe, thanks to a flurry of top-tier releases on labels such as Steve Bug’s Pokerflat Recordings, the legendary Plug Research imprint, 7th City, R&S and many more - but nothing prepared the world for those exquisite bangers „Sweat On The Walls“ and „Mono On Mono“, both released in 2004, with the latter being one of the most fervently beloved classics on John’s own label Palette Recordings. It’s here that John has continuously honed his skills, together with friends and long-time collaborators like Arian Leviste, Justin Maxwell or classical jazz guitarist Takeshi Nishimoto (as band project I’m Not A Gun)

Perry Cook received his PhD in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. Along with working for companies such as NeXT Inc., Media Vision, Xenon/Chromatic, and Interval Research, he continued at Stanford as Technical/Acting Director of the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, until joining the faculty of Princeton University in 1996 as a Professor of Computer Science, with a joint appointment in Music. Cook has published over 200 technical and music papers, books, and book chapters, and presented lectures throughout the world on the acoustics of the voice and musical instrument simulation, human perception of sound, and interactive devices for expressive musical performance.

Spencer Salazar is a doctoral student at Stanford CCRMA, researching computer-based forms of music expression, composition, and experience. In his past he has created new software and hardware interfaces for the ChucK audio programming language, developed prototype consumer electronics for top technology companies, architected large-scale social music interactions for Smule, an iPhone application developer, and composed for laptop and mobile phone ensembles. Spencer Salazar is a faculty member in the Music Technology program at the California Institute of the Arts.

Ge Wang is an Assistant Professor at Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). He is the creator and chief architect of the ChucK programming language and the founding director of the Stanford Laptop Orchestra. Ge is also the co-founder of mobile music startup Smule (now over 100 million users) and the designer of Ocarina for the iPhone.