Roberto Bresin: Curriculum vitae


Born: January 3, 1963, Conegliano (TV), Italy

Office location: TMH - KTH, Lindstedtsv. 24 4tr, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Email address:  roberto(at)
kth.se

 

Education

Dec '00 PhD in Music Acoustics, Dept. of Speech Music Hearing,
KTH, Stockholm. Title of the doctoral dissertation:
''Virtual Virtuosity: studies in automatic music performance''.
Supervisor: Prof. Johan Sundberg
Opponent: Prof. Roger Dannenberg
July '91 Master in Electrical Engineering, Padua University, Italy.
Master's thesis title: ''Artificial Neural Networks for
the control of parameters in music performance''.
Supervisors: Prof. Giovanni De Poli and Prof. Alvise Vidolin
June '83 Degree in piano performance, grade 8 (ottavo anno),
Rovigo Conservatory of Music, Italy

Work experience

Sept '91-Dec '92 Centro di Sonologia Computazionale (CSC), Padua University, Italy
Research engineer
Jan '93-Apr '94 General Music SpA
Consultant
CSC, Padua University, Italy
Research engineer
May '94-Dec '95 CSC, Padua University, Italy
Centro di Calcolo di Ateneo (CCA), Padua University, Italy
Research engineer
Apr '95-Sept '95 Yamaha Italy
Consultant
Jan '96-Dec '96 Internet & Multimedia, Padua, Italy
Interuniversity Consortium of Northeastern Italy for Automatic Computing (CINECA), Bologna, Italy
Internet consultant
Aug '96-Nov '97 Dept. of Speech Music Hearing - TMH, KTH, Stockholm
Marie Curie Fellow: 12-months EU-scholarship for research on musical performance at TMH. Title of the project:
''A neural networks based model for automatic performance of musical scores''
Dec '97-Dec '00 Dept. of Speech Music Hearing - TMH, KTH, Stockholm
Research engineer
PhD candidate in Music Acoustics
Webmaster of the TMH
Sept '00 Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence, OeFAI, Vienna
Guest researcher
Jan '01-Dec '02 Department of Psychology, Uppasala University
Researcher in Music Acoustics
Jan '01-Jun '03 Dept. of Speech Music Hearing - TMH, KTH, Stockholm
Researcher in Music Acoustics
Nov '02- Notesenses AB, Stockholm
Roberto Bresin co-founded the KTH spin-off company Notesenses AB together with Johan Sundberg and Anders Friberg. Aim of the company is the commercialization of research results in the field of emotional expression in music performance.
Jul '03-Jun '07 Dept. of Speech Music Hearing - TMH, KTH, Stockholm
Assistant professor (Forskarassistent) in Music Acoustics with specialization in Musical Performance.
Jul '07-May '08 Dept. of Speech Music Hearing - TMH, KTH, Stockholm
Researcher in Music Acoustics with specialization in Musical Performance.
Jun '08- Dept. of Speech Music Hearing - School of Computer Science and Communication, KTH, Stockholm
Associate professor (docent) in Speech and Music Communication.

Scholarships

1994 Fondazione Ing. Aldo Gini: 3-month scholarship to be spent at KTH
1996-1997 EU Marie Curie Fellowship for 12 months of research at the Dept. of Speech Music Hearing, KTH.
Title of the project: ''A neural networks based model for automatic performance of musical scores''.
2004 Travel grant from Elektros stipendiefonder for different activities at ICMC 2005 in Barcelona. Activities included the organization of the RENCON workshop and the presentation of a paper at the same conference
2005 HUMAINE Network of Excellence: network interchange scholarship for a 10 days visit at Technologies et Communications Lab, Universite Paris 8
2006 Travel grant from Karl Engvers foundation for presenting research work at NIME 2006 conference in Paris

Distinctions

2000-  A number of interviews in Magazines, Newspapers, Radio and TV programs, including: BBC Radio 1, Swedish national radio SR P1 and SR P2 channels, Swedish national television SVT1 Hjärnkontoret and Söndagsöppet, Norwegian national radio NRK P2 channel, Italian national radio RADIO RAI1 and RAI2, Der Spiegel on-line, main Italian economics newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Ny Teknik, SvD, Musikermagasinet, Aftonbladet, KTH-NYTT, Gaudeamus
2002  Finalist in the Venture Cup Öst competition with a system for expressive ringtones, http://ost.venturecup.se/sw9327.asp
2002  Winner of the Vinn-nu competition for seed financing of new companies with innovative ideas (promoted by Vinnova and Nutek). Our winning idea was a system for the automatic generation of expressive ringtones, http://www.vinnova.se/Verksamhet/Forskning-och-innovation-i-foretag/VINN-NU/Finansierade-foretag/2002/. The prize was of 200 KSEK
2004  First prize in the RENCON Performance Rendering Contest, http://www.renconmusic.org

Invited seminars and master classes

1991-1995 A number of seminars at Centro di Sonologia Computazionale, Padua University, Italy
1995.03.23 Workshop on Music Performance Analysis, Centro Tempo Reale, Florence, Italy
Artificial Neural Networks for Expressive Music Performance.
1997-  A number of seminars at the Dept. of Speech Music Hearing, KTH, Stockholm, Sweden.
1998.08.01  Old and contemporary music festival ``Morella NovAntiga'', Morella, Spain.
Master class: The art of automatic playing.
1999.05.07  Röhsska museet, Sweden´s museum for Design and Decorative art , Science Festival, Göteborg, Sweden.
Seminar: Synthesis of Emotional Expression in Piano Music.
2000.05.06  Stadsmuseet, Wallenstamsalen, Science Festival, Göteborg, Sweden.
Seminar: Liv och rörelse i datorspelad pianomusik.
2000.09.25  Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence, OeFAI, Vienna, Austria.
Seminar: Emotional colouring in automatic piano music performance.
2002.07.03  NTT, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Tokyo, Japan.
Seminar: Controlling sounding objects.
2002.07.06  RENCON, performance RENdering piano CONtest, Kyoto, Japan.
Seminar: Importance of note-level control in automatic music performance.
2002.07.07  SIGMUS-46, Kyoto, Japan.
Seminar: Director Musices: The KTH performance rules system.
2002.10.30  Dipartimento di Informatica, Verona University, Italy.
Seminar: Analysis and synthesis of expressive music performance. An overview of research in the field at KTH.
2002.11.15  Wireless@KTH, Kista, Sweden.
Seminar: Analysis and Synthesis of Music Performance with Applications to Mobile Phones.
2002.12.13  The Sound of Europe, Workshop, Tempo Reale, Florence, Italy.
Seminar: Sounding objects for the people. Report of the activity in the Sounding Object project.
2004.07.29  University of York, Department of Electronics, U.K.
Seminar: Controlling the virtual bodhran - The vodhran and Real-time Visualization of Musical Expression.
2004.08.25  EuroScience Open Forum, Stockholm, Sweden.
Seminar: Modelling Musical Communication. Analysis and synthesis of music performance.
2004.08.30  DSV, Stockholms universitet, Kista, Sweden.
Seminar: The science of music performance. Emotion in music performance.
2005.05.12  Technologies et Communications Lab, IUT de Montreuil, Université de Paris8, France.
Seminar: Synthesis and Analysis of Emotional Expression in Music Performance.
2005.05.25  Musica e Scienza 2005 - "Materia e Vibrazione", Goethe Institut, Rome, Italy.
Master class: Analisi e sintesi delle emozioni nell'interpretazione musicale.
2005.07.25  Sound and Music Computing Summer School 2005, Genova, Italy.
Seminar: Gesture in interaction: expressive control strategies.
2006.06.27  HUMAINE network of excellence, Cross-currents meeting, Athens, Greece.
Seminar: Current research on music performance, and sound and interaction at KTH.
2006.10.24  XVI CIM Colloquio di Informatica Musicale, Genova, Italy.
Seminar: The BrainTuning projec.
2007.09.19  INESC Porto and UCP Porto, Portugal.
Seminar: Research activities at the Music Acoustics group at KTH.
2007.09.21  INESC-ID / Instituto Superior Técnico - Tagus Park, Porto Salvo, Portugal.
Seminar: Research on music performance at KTH.

Ten most relevant publications

Papers in refereed journals:

Bresin, R., 1998, Artificial neural networks based models for automatic performance of musical scores, Journal of New Music Research, (27)3, 239-270

Friberg, A., Bresin, R., Frydén, L. and Sundberg, J., 1998, Musical punctuation on the microlevel: Automatic identification and performance of small melodic units, Journal of New Music Research, (27)3, 271-292

Bresin, R. and Battel, G. U., 2000, Articulation strategies in expressive piano performance. Analysis of legato, staccato, and repeated notes in performances of the andante movement of Mozart's sonata in g major (k 545), Journal of New Music Research, (29)3, 211-224

Bresin, R. and Friberg, A., 2000, Emotional coloring of computer-controlled music performances, Computer Music Journal, (24)4, 44-63

Bresin, R. and Widmer, G., 2000, Production of staccato articulation in Mozart sonatas played on a grand piano. Preliminary results, TMH-QPSR, Speech Music and Hearing Quarterly Progress and Status Report, (2000)4, 1-6

Juslin, P. N., Friberg, A. and Bresin, R., 2002, Toward a computational model of expression in performance: The GERM model, Musicae Scientiae, Special issue 2001-2002, 63-122

Rocchesso, D., Bresin, R. and Fernström, M., in press, Sounding object, IEEE Multimedia Magazine

 
Proceedings papers:

Bresin, R. and Friberg, A., 2001, Espressive musical icons, in Proceedings of the 2001 International Conference on Auditory Display, Espoo, Finland, 141-143

Bresin, R., 2001, Articulation rules for automatic music performance, in Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference - ICMC2001, Havana, 294-297

Bresin, R., 2002, Importance of note-level control in automatic music performance, in Proceedings of RENCON 2002 - performance RENdering piano CONtest, Kyoto, 1-6

Short account of scientific, didactic and administrative activities

Current scientific activities

Work in projects

Project name: The Sounding Object
Acronym: SOb
Duration: Jan '01-Dec '02
Founded by: European Commission, contract IST-2000-25287
Web site: http://www.soundobject.org
Short description: The SOb project aims at developing sound models that are responsive to physical interactions and are easily matched to physical objects. The sound models, being specified by physical descriptions and actions, will be ready to be integrated into artefacts that interact with each other and that are accessed by direct manipulation. Control models are developed in order to reproduce parametric variations that are natural according to the dynamics of human gestures and expressive intentions. Sound and control models are developed after the phenomenological and psychophysical characterisation of a restricted class of sound events. The results of research are demonstrated by means of a dynamic sound library and an application that will allow users to interact with objects using only gestures and auditory display.
Role in the project: Coordinator of the project partner KTH
Project name: Multisensory Expressive Gesture Applications
Acronym: MEGA
Duration: Nov '00-Oct '03
Founded by: European Commission, contract IST-1999-20410
Web site: http://www.megaproject.org
Short description: The project is centered on the modelling and communication of expressive and emotional content in non-verbal interaction by multi-sensory interfaces in shared interactive mixed reality environments. In particular the project focuses on music performance and full-body movements as first class conveyors of expressive and emotional content. Main research issues are the analysis of expressive gestures, the synthesis of expressive gesture, the strategies for mapping the data coming from analysis onto the multimodal output.
Role in the project: Researcher in the team of project partner KTH

Project name: A GNU/Linux Audio distribution
Acronym: AGNULA
Duration: Apr '02-Mar '04
Founded by: European Commission, contract IST-2001-34879
Web site: http://www.agnula.org
Short description: AGNULA's main task will be the development of two reference distributions for the GNU/Linux operating system completely based on Free Software (i.e. under a FSF approved Free Software license) and completely devoted to professional and consumer audio applications and multimedia development. One distribution will be Debian-based (DeMuDi) and the other will be Red Hat-based (ReHMuDi). Both will be available on the network for download and on CD.
Role in the project: Coordinator of the project partner KTH
Project name: Feedback Learning in Music Expression
Acronym: Feel-Me
Duration: Jan '01-Dec '03
Founded by: Bank of Sweden
Web site: http://www.psyk.uu.se/forskning/projekt.html#pj
Short description: Specific goals of the project: (1) To define the nature of expressivity in musical performance; (2) To develop software that provides musicians with feedback; (3)To study the acquisition of expressive skills experimentally. Topics addressed by the project: (1) Computational modeling of different components of musical expressivity; (2) Automatic real-time extraction of acoustic cues from music performances; (3) Development of user-friendly software for cognitive feedback to musicians; (4) Modeling of cue probability learning in musical communication of emotions; (5) Cross-modal comparisons of cue utilization in emotional speech and music; (6) Experimental evaluation of teaching strategies aimed at musical expressivity
Role in the project: Researcher

Current collaborations

    Prof. Gerhard Widmer, Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence, OeFAI, Vienna
    Analysis of articulation strategies in a large database of piano performances by a professional pianist.
    Werner Goebl, Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence, OeFAI, Vienna
    Analysis of the behavior of the hammer-key action in traditional and computer controlled acoustic pianos.
    Prof. Giovanni Umberto Battel, president of the ``BM Marcello'' Conservatory of Music in Venice, Italy
    Study on the use of computer-based systems in the teaching and the studying of music performance.

Didactic activities

1991-1996 Co-advisor for numerous Master's theses at Padua University (in the degree program in Electrical Engineering)
1989-1995 Teaching at the Music Informatics course at Padua University
1998- Teaching activity in the Music Acoustics course at the Dept. of Speech Music and Hearing, KTH
2001- Collaboration in the preparation of the new TMH course in ''Music Communication''

Organizational activities

2000- Contributed to the appointment of TMH as a Marie Curie Training Site
2001- Local coordinator (KTH) for the European Commission financed project SOb
2002- Activation of the EU ERASMUS exchange program between the Dept. of Speech Music and Hearing, KTH, and the ''B M Marcello'' Conservatory of Music, Venice
2002- Local coordinator (KTH) for the European Commission financed project AGNULA
2002 Scientific and organizing committee of RENCON, performance RENdering piano Contest, Kyoto.
June 2002 Co-organizer of the SOHO Atelier, a two-week EU Disappearing Computer workshop in Mestre, Venice.
2002-2003 Organizing committee of Stockholm Music Acoustic Conference 2003.
2005- Activation of the EU ERASMUS exchange programme between the Dept. of Speech Music and Hearing, KTH, and the ''C Pollini'' Conservatory of Music, Padova.
2005 Organizer of RENCON 2005, at ICMC in Barcelona.
2006 Organization of the PhD course on “PD externals programming” http://www.speech.kth.se/music/pdprogrammingcourse/.
2007- Activation of the EU ERASMUS exchange programme between the Dept. of Speech Music and Hearing, KTH, and the “G Verdi” Conservatory of Music, Como.
2007 Organizer of the Sound and Music Computing Summer School 2007, Stockholm.

Reviewing activities

Reviewer for the following journals and publishers:
    - Annals of the Marie Curie Fellowship Association
    - Computer Music Journal
    - International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
    - Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
    - Journal of New Music Research
    - IEEE Multimedia Magazine
    - IEEE Transaction on Neural Networks
    - IEEE Transactions on Speech and Audio Processing
    - MIT Press (book reading/review)
    - Speech Communication
Member of the reading committee of the following conferences:
    - ACII International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (2007)
    - ARTECH International Conference on Digital Arts (2008)
    - CHI Computer/Human Interaction Conference (2005, 2008)
    - ICMC International Computer Music Conference (2001, 2005, 2007)
    - ICMPC International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (2006, 2008)
    - ISMIR International Conference on Music Information Retrieval (2004, 2005, 2006)
    - GW Gesture Workshop (2003, 2005)
    - Less is More 2005, Cambridge
    - NIME (2008)
    - RENCON, performance RENdering piano CONtest (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008)
    - SMAC – Stockholm Music Acoustic Conference (2003)

Miscellaneous

Complete list of publications

Music Performance | Music Group staff | Music Acoustics

KTH - Royal Institute of Technology
TMH - Department of Speech, Music and Hearing
Lindstedtsvägen 24 - 114 28 Stockholm, Sweden

phone: +46 (8) 790 78 76
fax: +46 (8) 790 78 54
email: roberto(at)kth.se


Updated 2010.09.04 by Roberto Bresin
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