Ken Ueno
Ken Ueno, is a composer, vocalist, improviser, and sound artist. His music celebrates artistic possibilities which are liberated through a Whitmanesque consideration of the embodied practice of unique musical personalities.
David Milnes presently serves as music director of the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, conductor of the Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players, and Director of the ECO Ensemble (Ensemble in Residence at CNMAT and the Department of Music). Transparent yet richly multifaceted, Cindy Cox’s compositions synthesize old and new musical designs. The natural world inspires many of the special harmonies and textural colorations in her compositions, as in her piano trio la mar amarga, the octet Cañon, and the string quartet Patagón. As Robert Carl notes in Fanfare, “Cox writes music that demonstrates an extremely refined and imaginative sens
The pianist, composer, bandleader and professor Myra Melford—whom the New Yorker called “a stalwart of the new-jazz movement”—has spent the last three decades making brilliant original music that is equally challenging and engaging.
Carmine-Emanuele Cella is an internationally acclaimed composer with advanced studies in mathematics. For many years he has worked on the poetical relationships between the structured world of mathematics and the chaotic world of artistic expression, using music as a medium. His music is not based on melodies, chords or rhythms but is more about writing the sound itself.
Edmund Campion is Professor of Music Composition and Director at the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies at the University of California, Berkeley. Jeremy Hunt is a composer, poet, and creative technologist based in San Francisco. After graduating UC Berkeley with a PhD in Music Composition with a Designated Emphasis in New Media in 2008, Jeremy embarked on a career in education administration, teaching, and pedagogy in the private education sector. Imran Sekalala is an undergraduate researcher at CNMAT. He is currently studying Data Science with an emphasis in Data Arts and Humanities. He is also minoring in Environmental Design. At CNMAT, Imran is working with Professor Edmund Campion on an upcoming release of the CNMAT Depot 2.0 software package with a focus on CNMAT Spectral Tools. Carmine-Emanuele Cella is an internationally acclaimed composer with advanced studies in mathematics. For many years he has worked on the poetical relationships between the structured world of mathematics and the chaotic world of artistic expression, using music as a medium. His music is not based on melodies, chords or rhythms but is more about writing the sound itself.
Jeremy Wagner is a composer, performer and sound designer based in the Bay Area. Since 2016 he has served as Research Composer and technical coordinator for CNMAT's research & production infrastructure, providing sound & video engineering support for CNMAT concerts & events while mentoring graduate composers in a wide range of production technologies. Edmund Campion is Professor of Music Composition and Director at the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies at the University of California, Berkeley. Jean Bresson is an Affiliated Researcher at CNMAT (since 2013). He has developed the OpenMusic environment for over a decade and has extended its applications in a number of new directions such as sound synthesis and processing, sound spatialization, and more recently in the field of interaction and reactive systems. Improvising Cellist, Danielle DeGruttola, is an acoustic and electric cellist and composer. Her cello improvisations fuse multiple genres, room acoustics, and electronic sound, creating thoughtful and powerful compositions that interweave elements of contemporary jazz, classical, electronica, folk, blues, rock, and hardcore. Her sublime sound is adventuresome and exploratory yet maintains concrete form.
John-Carlos Perea (Mescalero Apache, Irish, Chicano, German) is an electric bassist, cedar flutist, powwow singer, composer, and ethnomusicologist. He will serve as Visiting Researcher, Composer, and Performer at CNMAT (AY 22-23) to develop a musician-specific augmented performance with voice, cedar flute, drum, and emerging technologies. Marlon Schumacher is full professor for Music Informatics at the Institute for Music Informatics and Musicology (IMWI) of the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe, Germany. He studied musicology and philosophy at the Eberhard-Karls-University in Tübingen, holds masters degrees (pedagogical and artistic) in music theory, digital media and composition from the HFMDK Stuttgart, and a PhD in Music Technology from McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Claudia Hart emerged as part of that generation of 90s intermedia artists in the “identity art” niche, but now updated through the scrim of technology. Her work is about issues of the body, perception, nature collapsing into technology and then back again. Everything is fluid in it including gender.
Oakland, CA-based oboist Kyle Bruckmann tramples genre boundaries in widely ranging work as a composer/performer, educator and New Music specialist.
Jon Kulpa’s works explore sound mass, algorithmically generated sound texture, spatial sound, and interactivity. His most recently completed project, QuBits, is a virtual reality (VR) sound-space. A user navigates this environment while wearing a VR headset, encountering many virtual characters that each have a type of appearance and sonic identity. Using hand controllers, a user is able to affect the audiovisual behavior of virtual charac
Jeffrey M. Lubow is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher concerned with the space between body and technology. His influences are spread amongst a number of mentors and colleagues the likes of David Wessel, Adrian Freed, Leslie Stuck, John Bischoff, Pauline Oliveros, and Patrick Clancy. Matthew Schumaker is a native of San Francisco, where he is based. He earned a doctorate in Music Composition from UC Berkeley in August 2015 where he studied with Professors Edmund Campion, Cindy Cox, Franck Bedrossian, Ken Ueno and David Wessel. His piece, As I ride the late night freeways, for soprano and orchestra, was premiered by soloist Ann Moss and the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra in October, 2015.
Adrian Freed was Research Director of UC Berkeley's Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) until his retirement in 2016. Composer and sound artist Rama Gottfried (b. 1977) is recent PhD graduate from the University of California, Berkeley where he studied with Franck Bedrossian, Edmund Campion, Adrian Freed and David Wessel. Previously, he completed composition studies at the Universität der Künste Berlin, the Manhattan School of Music, New York University, and the University of Vermont.
David Coll (b.1980) is a composer of concert music, installation art, and interdisciplinary projects that engage physical presence with technology to create dramatic and introspective works, often to playful effect. Mat Muntz is a composer, bassist, and experimental bagpiper.
Shane Cumming is a fourth-year Music major at UC Berkeley from Park City, Utah. Shane has been focused on many different aspects of music for his entire life; lately, his interest has been in sound engineering, specifically studio work and live audio. Shane conducted an Independent Study in the Rear Studio during his junior year and is now working with Dr. Wagner on an Independent Project in the Rear Studio. Danniel Ribeiro is a Brazilian composer from Bahia. Danniel’s recent work focuses on instrumental music—exploring the use of instruments by way of project-specific contextualized techniques, preparations, practical sculptural objects, amplification, and transduced electronics. George Papajohn (b. 1998 Milwaukee) is a composer and instrumentalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. His recent work engages with latent tensions of identity held within the material, historical, and phenomenological aspects of sound. Eda Er, a native of Istanbul is a composer, sound artist and singer currently based in Berkeley, California. She primarily explores the potential of physicality and narrativity in her music. She enjoys collaborating with dancers, actors, and visual artists and improvising with electronics and vocals. Aditi Raja is an undergraduate researcher at CNMAT. She is currently a student at UC Berkeley studying Computer Science and Music.
Alfred was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, with a Ukrainian mother and a Cuban father. After accomplishing his bachelor's exam in composition, Alfred continued with master studies in Malmö Academy of Music with Prof. Luca Francesconi. Alfred received his master's degree in spring 2015 after graduating with his second chamber opera "Clownen Jac".
Nathan Corder is an Oakland-based composer of works for electronics, objects, and arrays of people. Peter S. Shin 신세종 (b. 1991) is a composer whose music navigates issues of national belonging, the co-opting and intermingling of disparate musical vernaculars, and the liminality between the two halves of his second-generation Korean-U.S. American identity. The New York Times described him as “a composer to watch” and his music “entirely fresh and personal” following his premiere at Carnegie Hall. Hallie Smith is a musician based in Berkeley, California. Her research is oriented towards building soft circuits/sensors, coding, installations, and emotional music. Previous and upcoming collaborations for Hallie include: the Eco Ensemble, the SMASH ensemble, saxophonist Drew Whiting, writer/producer Felix M., The Boston Conservatory Contemporary Performance Ensemble, bartender Mel Johnson. Luke Dzwonczyk is an M.A./Ph.D. student in music at UC Berkeley, and has been an active member of CNMAT since his time as an undergraduate. His current research interests include computational creativity, audio generation with neural networks, and sound visualization. He created interactive instruments for the Berkeley Dance Project 2022, and has published papers on computer-assisted orchestration.
The music of Curtis Rumrill explores the intersection of literary form and modern chamber music. His works with writer, naturalist and visual artist Zachary Webber tell darkly comic stories of animals in desperate or violent predicaments. Jean Bresson is an Affiliated Researcher at CNMAT (since 2013). He has developed the OpenMusic environment for over a decade and has extended its applications in a number of new directions such as sound synthesis and processing, sound spatialization, and more recently in the field of interaction and reactive systems. Ursula Kwong-Brown is a composer, sound designer and arts technologist based in Los Angeles. She received her Ph.D. in Music Composition & New Media from the University of California, Berkeley (2018) and her B.A. in Music & Biology from Columbia University (2010). Alessandro is an Audio Engineer Researcher who graduated in Mechanical Engineering (BSc and MSc) at Politecnico of Turin, Italy. During his Master's, he specialized in Vibration Mechanics, Acoustics, and Psychoacoustics with a Thesis project on Binaural Recording. Alessandro works at CNMAT with Professor Carmine Emanuele Cella on a project focused on modeling an augmented instrument. Han Zhang is a researcher in music technology and a composer. She received her MS degree in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University, IL in 2020, and she is now working with Prof. Carmine E. Cella on music-technology-related projects and other creative works. Composer, sound artist, improviser /piano, drums, electronics/ Theocharis Papatrechas is a visiting Researcher and Composer at CNMAT through November, 2021. The music of award-winning composer Antonio Juan-Marcos has been described as “seductive and sensitive” (ResMusica), music that “introduces rich acoustic universes” (Diapason), filled with “beautiful, mysterious, and delicate atmospheres” (Musikzen).
Kayla Cashetta is a composer whose work incorporates analog, digital, and acoustic instruments and practices.
Julie Herndon is an Oakland-based composer and performer. Her work explores the body’s relationship to the self, to performance, and to tools like musical instruments and personal technologies. Recent projects include compositions for JACK Quartet, Ensemble Dal Niente, and Ensemble Proton Bern, and performances at MATA Festival in New York, Artistry Space in Singapore, Musée des Beaux-Arts in France.
Trevor Van de Velde (b. 1998) is a composer interested in the relationship between the body and noise. Often utilizing found objects and electronics, Trevor's works aim to form an interface between performer, space, and source of sound.
Didem Coskunseven is a composer, sound artist and electronic musician based in Berkeley, CA. Coskunseven’s works vary between acoustic compositions for ensembles, electronic music, installations for gallery spaces and productions for stage focusing on creating multi-sensorial experience. She performs as a computer musician and improvisor collaborating with dancers, choreographers and video designers. Composer-vocalist Sarah Grace Graves seeks to recreate the direct connection between sensation and sound she enjoys as a performer in her notated music.
Born in Québec, Canada, Linda Bouchard has been an active researcher, composer, orchestrator, conductor, and producer for over forty years. Her honors in the United States include first prizes at the Princeton Composition Contest, the Indiana State Competition, and the National Association of Composers USA Contest and a Fromm Music Foundation Award from Harvard University. Jean Bresson is an Affiliated Researcher at CNMAT (since 2013). He has developed the OpenMusic environment for over a decade and has extended its applications in a number of new directions such as sound synthesis and processing, sound spatialization, and more recently in the field of interaction and reactive systems. Improvising Cellist, Danielle DeGruttola, is an acoustic and electric cellist and composer. Her cello improvisations fuse multiple genres, room acoustics, and electronic sound, creating thoughtful and powerful compositions that interweave elements of contemporary jazz, classical, electronica, folk, blues, rock, and hardcore. Her sublime sound is adventuresome and exploratory yet maintains concrete form.
Ursula Kwong-Brown is a composer, sound designer and arts technologist based in Los Angeles. She received her Ph.D. in Music Composition & New Media from the University of California, Berkeley (2018) and her B.A. in Music & Biology from Columbia University (2010). Mat Muntz is a composer, bassist, and experimental bagpiper.
Shane Cumming is a fourth-year Music major at UC Berkeley from Park City, Utah. Shane has been focused on many different aspects of music for his entire life; lately, his interest has been in sound engineering, specifically studio work and live audio. Shane conducted an Independent Study in the Rear Studio during his junior year and is now working with Dr. Wagner on an Independent Project in the Rear Studio. John-Carlos Perea (Mescalero Apache, Irish, Chicano, German) is an electric bassist, cedar flutist, powwow singer, composer, and ethnomusicologist. He will serve as Visiting Researcher, Composer, and Performer at CNMAT (AY 22-23) to develop a musician-specific augmented performance with voice, cedar flute, drum, and emerging technologies. Marlon Schumacher is full professor for Music Informatics at the Institute for Music Informatics and Musicology (IMWI) of the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe, Germany. He studied musicology and philosophy at the Eberhard-Karls-University in Tübingen, holds masters degrees (pedagogical and artistic) in music theory, digital media and composition from the HFMDK Stuttgart, and a PhD in Music Technology from McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Alessandro is an Audio Engineer Researcher who graduated in Mechanical Engineering (BSc and MSc) at Politecnico of Turin, Italy. During his Master's, he specialized in Vibration Mechanics, Acoustics, and Psychoacoustics with a Thesis project on Binaural Recording. Alessandro works at CNMAT with Professor Carmine Emanuele Cella on a project focused on modeling an augmented instrument. Danniel Ribeiro is a Brazilian composer from Bahia. Danniel’s recent work focuses on instrumental music—exploring the use of instruments by way of project-specific contextualized techniques, preparations, practical sculptural objects, amplification, and transduced electronics. Han Zhang is a researcher in music technology and a composer. She received her MS degree in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University, IL in 2020, and she is now working with Prof. Carmine E. Cella on music-technology-related projects and other creative works. George Papajohn (b. 1998 Milwaukee) is a composer and instrumentalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. His recent work engages with latent tensions of identity held within the material, historical, and phenomenological aspects of sound. 
David Milnes
Cindy Cox
Myra Melford
Carmine-Emanuele Cella
Edmund Campion
Staff/administration
Jeremy Hunt
Imran Sekalala
Carmine-Emanuele Cella
Jeremy Wagner
Edmund Campion
Affiliated researchers, composers, and artists
Jean Bresson
Danielle DeGruttola
John-Carlos Perea
Marlon Schumacher
Claudia Hart
Kyle Bruckmann
Jonathan Kulpa
Jeffrey Lubow
Matthew Schumaker
Adrian Freed
Rama Gottfried
David Coll
Students
Mat Muntz
Shane Cumming
Danniel Ribeiro
George Papajohn
Eda Er
Aditi Raja
Alfred Jimenez
Nathan Corder
Peter S. Shin
Hallie Smith
Luke Dzwonczyk
Curtis Rumrill
Alumni
Jean Bresson
Ursula Kwong-Brown
Alessandro Frullani
Han Zhang
Rafal Zapala
post-doctorate degree (habilitation) /composition/
associate professor at Academy of Music in Poznan
Theocharis Papatrechas
Antonio Juan-Marcos
Kayla Cashetta
Julie Herndon
Trevor Van de Velde
Didem Coskunseven
Sarah Grace Graves
New Profiles
LINDA BOUCHARD
Jean Bresson
Danielle DeGruttola
Ursula Kwong-Brown
Mat Muntz
Shane Cumming
John-Carlos Perea
Marlon Schumacher
Alessandro Frullani
Danniel Ribeiro
Han Zhang
George Papajohn