Graduate Colloquium and Workshop Series

Our Graduate Colloquium and Workshop series includes lectures and practical workshops by distinguished guests, our own faculty and staff, and senior graduate students on all fields of research and creative activity in music.

Admission is free and open to all. Most of these in-person events are held in Talbot College room 101. All events will be on Fridays at 3:30. 

Please contact ayardley@uwo.ca for more information.

2025-26 Series

Fall 2025

Friday, November 28| 3:30pm
TC 101

Colloquium
Alberto Acquilino, Postdoctoral Fellow (Western University) 
"Real-Time Computational Feedback Systems for Enriched Music Training"

photo of Alberto Acquilino

Bio

Alberto Acquilino is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Music Education at the Don Wright Faculty of Music, Western University. His research investigates how Generative AI and disability-led participatory design can advance accessibility and adaptability in music learning. Combining backgrounds in music performance, engineering, and technology, he develops open-source tools that translate complex musical and motor learning processes into inclusive, multisensory experiences. Beyond academia, he co-founded the Technology Enhanced Music Education Symposium in Montreal, serves on the Academic Board of the Global Leaders Institute for Arts Innovation, and mentors open-source projects with the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility through the Google Summer of Code program.

Abstract

Learning to play an instrument and performing in music ensembles offers multiple benefits from social, emotional, cognitive and health perspectives. The relationship between music studies and improved socio-emotional learning are widely discussed and empirically demonstrated. Benefits include improved academic achievements, self-regulation, social cohesion and inclusion, empathy and emotional intelligence, creativity and psychological wellbeing, just to name a few. However, mastering a musical instrument to a level sufficient to enjoy and play in ensemble settings is challenging: it requires complex coordination of multiple movements, balancing physical and mental endurance while communicating emotions and abstract thoughts.

The training of musicians bears strong similarities to that of sports athletes: the pursuit of movement coordination to maximize muscular efficiency applies as much to the tennis player in hitting the ball into the opponent's court as it does to the music player in achieving proper technique. Despite this, musicians often lack clear visualization of their proficiency in sound production, compounded by the scarcity of accessible technological tools that effectively support music pedagogy. Common tools like metronomes and tuners help musicians play in tempo and in tune, but there are no equivalent devices for refining and controlling other critical musical skills - such as sound color (timbre) and articulation (attack) - which are essential for effectively expressing musical ideas. The complexity of these techniques often leads to misunderstandings, improper practice habits, and significant difficulties in learning, resulting in anxiety, frustration, injury, and even dropout before students can attain the benefits mentioned above.

This presentation explores the role of low-cost interactive technologies in teaching musical techniques in an efficient and healthy way, with a particular focus on variable pitch instruments (e.g., winds and bowed strings), using the trumpet as a reference. The research is grounded in the Western classical music tradition, as taught in conservatories and music schools. By primarily analyzing audio information from the musician’s performance, the proposed tools provide real-time aural and visual feedback designed to enrich music education. Mobile app technologies are being developed and tested with students to validate hypotheses and establish guidelines for future innovations in the field. The presentation will conclude by outlining the continuation of this line of research, which explores how Generative AI and disability-led participatory design can further enhance accessibility and adaptability in music education, extending these tools toward inclusive, co-created learning experiences.

 

Friday, October 31| 3:30pm
Zoom

Workshop
Chantal Lemire, Research Officer (Music, FIMS, and Law)
"Effective Scholarship Writing: Canada Graduate Scholarship Masters (CGRS-M)"

Description

This session provides practical strategies for crafting a strong Canada Graduate Scholarship–Master’s (CGRS-M) application. Participants will learn how to structure research proposals, highlight academic excellence and potential, and align their applications with evaluation criteria. The session includes examples, writing tips, and guidance on common pitfalls to avoid.

Slides from workshop

 

Friday, October 10| 3:30pm
TC 101

Colloquium
Evan Ziporyn, composer/conductor/clarinetist and Jerry Pergolesi, founding member and percussionist for ContaQt 
"De-centring the Agenda: New Music in a Post-New Music Era"

Bios

Composer/conductor/clarinetist Evan Ziporyn's music has taken him from Balinese temples to concert halls around the world.

He has composed for and collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma, Brooklyn Rider, Maya Beiser, Ethel, Anna Sofie Von Otter, the American Composers Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Iva Bittova, Terry Riley, Don Byron, Wu Man, and Bang on a Can. In 2017, his arrangements were featured on Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s The Vietnam War, and on Silkroad’s Grammy-winning album Sing Me Home.

Most recently, his orchestral reimagining of David Bowie's final album, Blackstar, was recently released on Islandia Music, featuring Ziporyn conducting his own Ambient Orchestra with Maya Beiser, cello soloist. Since its 2017 premiere, Ziporyn has conducted the work in Boston, Barcelona, New York Central Park Summerstage, Australia's Adelaide Fringe Festival, Strathmore Hall, and numerous other national and international venues. 2019 also saw the world premieres of two new works, the drum concerto Impulse Control for the Bowling Green New Music Festival, and the gamelan/string hybrid Air=Water for Philadelphia's Network for New Music. Other recent works include the collaborative immersive installation Arachnodrone/Spider's Canvas with Christine Southworth, which premiered at Paris' Palais de Tokyo in 2018, and The Demon in the Diagram with visual artist Matthew Ritchie and choreographer Hope Mohr.

Ziporyn studied at Eastman School of Music, Yale, and UC Berkeley with Joseph Schwantner, Martin Bresnick, and Gerard Grisey. He received a Fulbright in 1987, founded Gamelan Galak Tika in 1993, and composed a series of groundbreaking compositions for gamelan and western instruments, as well as evening-length works such as 2001's ShadowBang, 2004's Oedipus Rex (Robert Woodruff, director), and 2009’s A House in Bali, which was featured at BAM Next Wave in October 2010. He released two albums of his orchestral works with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, featuring tabla master Sandeep Das as soloist.

From 1992-2012 he served as music director, producer, and composer/arranger for the Bang on a Can Allstars, winning Musical America’s Ensemble of the Year award in 2005. He has also recorded and toured with Paul Simon (You're the One) and the Steve Reich Ensemble, sharing in the latter's 1998 Grammy for Best Chamber Music Performance. In 2012 he formed the Eviyan Trio with Iva Bittova and Gyan Riley, with whom he recorded two albums. He has also released numerous albums on Cantaloupe Music, New World, CRI, Airplane Ears, and other labels. Other honors include a USA Artist Fellowship, the Goddard Lieberson Prize from the American Academy, Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship, and commissions from Carnegie Hall, Kronos Quartet, Rockefeller Multi-Arts Program, and Meet the Composer. As a conductor recent appearances include LA Opera (Keeril Makan’s Persona), Hamburg Elbsphilharmonie (Julia Wolfe/Bill Morrison’s Fuel), the Barcelona Symphony, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. At MIT he is Distinguished Professor of Music, Director of the Center for Art, Science and Technology, and currently Guest Director of the MIT Symphony Orchestra.

Jerry Pergolesi is the founding member and percussionist for ContaQt and produced each of ContaQt’s critically acclaimed commercial recordings, including his arrangement of Brian Eno’s experimental/ambient classic Discreet Music. He is also a founding member of the Queer Percussion Research Group. His latest project, LMNL, is an open collaboration that currently pairs him as a multi-instrumentalist in an experimental electroacoustic/ambient duo with clarinetist Louise Campbell.

Jerry’s artistic practice and research consider queer, feminist, and postmodern theories as they relate to the politics of aesthetics and genre in 20th and 21st Century music, and music education. His research works to un-silence marginalized and under-represented voices in music and explores the intersection of queer and new music scenes, popular and art music scenes, shared engagement, creative arts education, and cooperative music creation processes specifically with non-musicians. To that end, Jerry created the Intersection Music & Arts Festival, an annual, multi-genre, barrier-free, accessible festival of experimental music, and Music From Scratch, a music creation workshop open to everyone.

Jerry has presented his research at the American Musicological Society Annual Conference; the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies’ Sex Salon at the University of Toronto; LGBTQ Studies & Music Education QMUE I, III and IV: Establishing Identity; the International Conference on Minimalist Music; the University of Ottawa and the University of Pittsburgh; and recently contributed a chapter entitled “Anarchy and the subversive potential of silence in the music of John Cage” to the publication Music and Spirituality Series: Vol. 6. Queering freedom: Music, identity, and spirituality edited by Karin Hendricks & June Boyce-Tillman.  


 

Past Colloquium Series