Program Books/Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT)

Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT)

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 prac- tical 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 support the software tools that it has pioneered since its founding in the late 1980s. CNMAT collaborates with all of UC Berkeley’s disciplines dedicated to the study or creative use of sound.

CNMAT was conceived and established by composer and Professor Emeritus Richard Felciano in the 1980s, 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 con­crete, practical 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 1990s, 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, CNMAT works with leading artists, performers, composers, and improvisers to continue in the spirit of its history. In addition to its robust 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 CNMAT.

To learn more about CNMAT, visit the website at cnmat.berkeley.edu.