Workshops

SATELLITE WORKSHOP 1

30 June 2025, 10:15 am - noon
Room A-512, Elizabeth Wirth Music Building
527 Sherbrooke Street West (enter via 3rd Floor)

Navigating Abstract Timbre Spaces with Mosaïque

Prof. Dominic Thibault, Université de Montréal
https://www.cirmmt.org/en/members/dominic-thibault

This workshop offers a hands-on introduction to Mosaïque ( https://mosaique.cargo.site/ ), a software instrument for music creation based on the exploration of sound corpora. Through practical examples, participants will learn how to import, analyze, and organize sounds within a navigable timbral space, and how to activate them musically through gesture, listening, and experimentation.

The workshop will focus on the system’s creative affordances: the possibility of navigating a corpus as a sonic territory, revealing unexpected relationships between sounds, turning audio analysis into a tool for interpretation, and composing through exploratory gestures rather than fixed sequences. Mosaïque will be presented as an environment for discovery, a performance instrument, and a pedagogical tool for rethinking the relationship between listening, gesture, and sonic organization. No prior programming experience is required. The workshop is intended for musicians, composers, sound artists, and researchers interested in creative practices involving audio analysis and artificial intelligence. A computer with MacOS or Windows is necessary to take part actively in the workshop.

SATELLITE WORKSHOP 2

30 June 2025, 1:15-2:15 pm
Room A-512, Elizabeth Wirth Music Building
527 Sherbrooke Street West (enter via 3rd Floor)

The Heart of Timbre on the Violin: Where the Craft of the Luthier meets that of the Musician

Leïla Barbedette, Université de Montréal
https://barbedette-luthier.com/a_propos/en
Luke Chiang, Université de Montréal

The timbre of a violin is distinct from that of a clarinet, cello, or viola; it may also differ between two violins and depend on the musician playing the instrument. In the interaction between a particular musician and a particular violin, what range of timbres is accessible? This workshop explores the various factors that contribute to timbre on the violin, including the musician’s gestures and the collaboration between the luthier and the musician. This exploration invites active listening to the timbral palette of a violin, placing it in the context of the musician’s gestures and their relationship to specific acoustical properties. Through a live violin adjustment conducted by a luthier and a violinist, participants will discover how adjusting certain parts of the instrument can help it respond more effectively to a musician’s preferences and artistic intentions. Participants are invited to contribute to a discussion on the instrument’s timbre and to take part in the adjustment of a violin.