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CNMAT

CNMAT facility

The Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) houses a dynamic group of educational, performance and research programs focused on the creative interaction between new music and emerging technologies.  The Center combines technical science-based research with a humanistic critical perspective and practical investigation into the process and possibility for new music creation.  At CNMAT, the laboratory and stage merge to push the boundaries of present-day music making. In addition to three decades of published research, CNMAT continues to innovate and support software tools that it has pioneered since its founding in the late 1980’s.

CNMAT collaborates with all of UC Berkeley’s disciplines dedicated to the study or creative use of sound. Opportunities to work in the Center are available to graduate students in diverse fields including music composition and music scholarship.  Courses in Music and Technology based on CNMAT research are available to undergraduates through the Department of Music.

Background

CNMAT was conceived and established by composer and Professor Emeritus Richard Felciano in the 1980’s with a focus on the creative interaction between music and technology. Professor David Wessel, a pioneer in computer music and music cognition, directed the Center until his death in 2014.  During these years, Research Director Adrian Freed, organized an ambitious research agenda that produced many developments in music-related technologies, including widely-adopted innovations such as Open Sound Control (OSC), the Sound Description Interchange Format (SDIF), the CNMAT tools for Max/MSP, and the recent cross-platform “odot” programming objects.

In the mid 90’s, the team expanded to include current Director, Professor Edmund Campion, current Associate Director Richard Andrews, as well as Musical Applications Programmer Matthew Wright and John MacCallum.

Today’s CNMAT works with leading artists, performers, composers and improvisers to advance the edges of new music and emerging music-related technologies.  In addition to its research agenda, the Center produces numerous concerts, lectures and symposia.  The ECO Ensemble, a leading Bay Area new music ensemble is in permanent residence at the CNMAT.

To learn more about CNMAT, visit their web site at cnmat.berkeley.edu