ACTOR Project

08/23/2026

🎤✨ Recent Research by TONE Collaborator Lindsey Reymore

This summer, TONE collaborator Lindsey Reymore shared her research across multiple international conferences, advancing conversations around timbre, orchestration, music perception, and pedagogy.

🔹 At the Society for Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC) 2026 Conference, Reymore and Kelvin McCartney Adesso presented the poster “Mapping Crossmodal Correspondences with Standard and Extended Vocal Techniques.” Their work explores how listeners connect vocal sounds with experiences across different sensory domains, contributing to research at the intersection of perception and semantics.

🔹 At Timbre 2026, Reymore presented “Towards an Interdisciplinary Framework for Strategic Communication about Sound, Timbre, and Orchestration,” offering new perspectives on how musicians, educators, and researchers communicate about complex sonic experiences.

🔹 Earlier this summer, at Pedagogy into Practice, Reymore presented “Timbre in the Undergraduate Music Theory Core Curriculum,”highlighting the importance of integrating timbre and orchestration into foundational music education.

These presentations reflect the breadth of research connected to TONE's Perception and Semantics and Pedagogy of Timbre and Orchestration sub-axes.

👏 Congratulations to Lindsey Reymore and her collaborators on these important contributions to the field!

🔗 Explore the SMPC poster: https://www.cactusmusiclab.com/crossmodal-poster

08/21/2026

🎼✨ Graphic Scores Meet Ableton Live

A new tool is making it easier than ever to bring graphic notation directly into music production and performance workflows.

SIGN/e, a new visual editing plugin for Ableton Live, allows composers and performers to read, write, edit, and animate graphic scores right inside their Live sessions. Developed by the Laboratoire formes · ondes (LFO) at the Université de Montréal, the Max for Live device creates a seamless connection between graphic notation, electronic music production, and live performance.

Co-directed by TONE Collaborators Nicolas Bernier, Dominic Thibault, and Pierre Michaud, the project offers a flexible alternative to traditional notation software by enabling users to work directly with PNG-based visual performance instructions.

🎥 Watch the demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKb5_8wRGYs

🌐 Explore the project: https://lfo-lab.ca/logiciel

⬇️ Download the software for free on GitHub: https://github.com/LFO-lab/SIGNe

08/19/2026

🎵 Interested in music performance analysis, annotation, and digital music research? 🎵

On September 16, 2026, the Edirom Summer School in Paderborn, Germany will host a hands-on workshop introducing participants to Sonic Visualiser and the MPM Toolbox, powerful tools for analyzing, annotating, and encoding musical performances.

We're excited that TONE collaborator Axel Berndt will be leading a session as part of the workshop, sharing insights into cutting-edge approaches to linking performance data with symbolic music representations through the XML-based formats MSM and MPM.

🎹 Work with your own audio examples
🎼 Synchronize performance annotations with recordings
🎛️ Explore expressive MIDI generation
📅 Workshop: September 16, 2026
📝 Registration deadline: August 30, 2026

Learn more via the Edirom Summer School website: https://ess.uni-paderborn.de/2026/programm.html

08/19/2026

🎼🚀 Join the Team Behind Sibelius

Are you passionate about music notation, software development, and creating great user experiences?

Avid is hiring a Software Test Engineer for the Sibelius team, and TONE collaborators Joe Plazak and Kit Soden are excited to help spread the word about this opportunity to contribute to one of the world's leading music notation platforms.

This role offers the chance to work at the intersection of music, technology, and quality assurance, helping shape the future of the software used by composers, arrangers, educators, and performers around the globe.

🎵 Work on a world-leading music notation platform

💻 Contribute to software quality and development

🌍 Join a team dedicated to advancing music technology

If you're interested in combining your passion for music and technology, learn more and apply through the official Avid job posting: https://avid.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/AVID/details/Sibelius---Software-Test-Engineer_PR00006310

👏 Best of luck to all applicants!

07/21/2026

🎉 We are delighted to announce that TONE's funding application has been successfully approved by SSHRC!
This new Partnership Project, running from 2026 to 2033, will bring together a global network of researchers to explore timbre and orchestration through innovative and interdisciplinary perspectives. 🎉🥂

More information:
EN: https://reporter.mcgill.ca/mcgill-led-international-collaboration-brings-underrepresented-musical-traditions-into-the-research-spotlight/
FR: https://reporter.mcgill.ca/une-collaboration-de-recherche-internationale-chapeautee-par-luniversite-mcgill-met-en-lumiere-des-traditions-musicales-sous-representees/

06/16/2026

Check out the podcast 'Exploring the different "flavors" of sound with Lindsey Reymore' presented by Lab Coat Optional - ASU Research. In this episode, Dr. Reymore talks about her research in timbre semantics.

Youtube (https://youtu.be/-2IhfK9og4g?si=C_Kb2CA5n51DHbaB)

Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/episode/4JdLL8gfKnWRVG5R22pvx6?si=jdo4Vi5qT6WxwChKV-nCZw)

Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/what-sound-sounds-like-with-lindsey-reymore/id1834781213?i=1000767551033)

06/09/2026

We are delighted to announce the print publication of the Oxford Handbook of Orchestration Studies, co-edited by ACTOR researchers Julie Delisle, Bob Hasegawa, Jason Noble, and Moe Touizrar and featuring many more ACTOR collaborators as authors of the 35 chapters. 🎉🎊 We’ve aimed for a broad and inclusive definition of orchestration that recognizes its importance in a wide range of classical, traditional, and popular genres.📖

OUP's webpage for the Handbook: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-orchestration-studies-9780197633458?cc=ca&lang=en&

12/18/2025

Deadline Extension ‼️‼️
We are extending the proposal submission deadline until January 15, 2026 for the 4th edition of the International Conference on Timbre (https://timbreconference.org/timbre2026-cfp/)

🎼📣 Reminder‼️

CALL FOR PROPOSALS
(https://timbreconference.org/timbre2026-cfp/)

Deadline: December 15

We have the pleasure to announce that the 4th edition of the International Conference on Timbre will be held in Montreal from July 2 to 4, 2026, hosted by University of Montreal in collaboration with the research partnership ACTOR (Analysis, Creation and Teaching of Orchestration), and with the support of Montreal-based music research centres CIRMMT (Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology) and @ RCMS (Regroupement inter-universitaire de recherche et création - musiques et sociétés).

Timbre is the fundamental material that composers, improvisers, performers and sound designers shape into music and sound art. Timbre poses multifaceted research questions across the scientific spectrum, from hearing, psychology, and neuroscience to acoustics and artificial intelligence. Timbre can also be approached from the perspective of the humanities, including history, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, and sound studies.

Bringing together musicians and researchers from these and related fields, the International Conference on Timbre aims to provide a truly interdisciplinary forum for exchanging novel perspectives and forging collaborations across different disciplines to advance our understanding of timbre from artistic, empirical, theoretical, and computational perspectives.

Timbre 2026 seeks original, high-quality contributions in all areas related to timbre, including research presentations (delivered as oral presentations [20 minutes], lightning talks [5 minutes], or posters), artistic reports (20 minutes), and panel sessions, tutorials, or workshops (60-120 minutes). Presentations can be in either English or French.

Important Dates
All deadlines are Anywhere on Earth (AoE) UTC -12.

Submission deadline: December 15, 2025

Notification of acceptance: January 31, 2026

Updated abstracts: April 30, 2026

Full details and submission form online here: https://timbreconference.org/timbre2026-cfp/

12/18/2025

New resources available on our YouTube channel! Check out the workshop on Orchestration Pedagogy presented by:
- Fabien Lévy (Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig),
- Victor Cordero (Haute École de Musique de Genève),
- Felix Baril (OrchPlay),
- Lena Heng (University of Prince Edward Island) & Kelsey Lussier (McGill University)

For more materials like this, visit: http://www.youtube.com/ https://timbreandorchestration.org

12/15/2025

Prof. Martha de Francisco describes one of her favourite moments in Orchestration: Mahler's Symphony II - Finale: Aufersteh’n

Check out more Amazing Moments in Orchestration: https://youtu.be/1NnEa3qKu50