Luke Dahl @ ccrma
Welcome to this (provisional) website
Hello! I am currently an Assistant Professor of Composition and Computer Technologies in the Music Department at the University of Virginia. The website you are looking at is out of date, and I plan to replace it soon. However the publications page here is up-to-date with my latest work. You can find my current contact info here.
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THE FOLLOWING INFO IS SOMEWHAT OUT-OF-DATE (THOUGH POSSIBLY STILL INTERESTING!)
Research interests
My research interests include a number of intersections between music and technology.
I'm interested in the design and study of new instruments for musical expression, as well as new performance ensembles based on these instruments. In this context I've created instruments and composed works for both the Stanford Laptop Orchestra (Slork) and Stanford Mobile Phone Orchestra (Mopho).
I'm interested in the relationship between music and movement. This includes instrumental performance gesture with traditional and new instruments, movement imagery and metaphors in descriptions of musical experiences, and sonification of movement data. At the moment I'm focused on studying rhythmic movement, both in the context of performance, and in movement responses to music (e.g. dance)
I'm also interested in the application of machine learning techniques to music, which includes Music Information Retrieval (MIR), as well as creative applications.
Bio
I'm originally from Michigan and played piano and french horn growing up. I received a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, where I also studied music technology. After school I worked on audio technologies at Creative Labs where I helped develop spatialization and reverb techniques for the SoundBlasterLive soundcard products, and at Apple where I worked on audio for iPod products. During this time I continued my musical development by studying music theory and composition at Cabrillo College and San Jose State University. I returned to academia full-time to obtain a Master's in Music, Science, and Technology in 2007 at CCRMA, where I remained to pursue a PhD. In addition to my academic activities I enjoy creating and performing electronic dance music and studying the non-violent martial art, Aikido.