Workshop on Gestural Control of Speech and Singing Synthesis

November 19th – 21st, 2009 Vancouver, B.C. Canada

The University of British Columbia Media And Graphics Interdisciplinary Centre (MAGIC) is hosting a gesture, speech and singing synthesis workshop for November 19th – 21st, 2009 (Thursday to Saturday), on the West Coast of Canada in Vancouver, British Columbia. We expect that topics covered will include:

• new and existing speech and singing synthesis methods suitable for real-time control;
• gestural control systems for vocal synthesis;
• interface design and use;
• technical issues with vocal synthesis in the lab and in performance;
• speech synthesis languages and environments;
• hardware and software articulatory modeling;
• music and text performance issues;
• linguistic studies of synthetic speech production and perception;
• control of specific vocal qualities;
• proposals for new directions in vocal synthesis research, and
• other issues related to vocal research and performance.

Two concerts of works involving synthetic speech will be held during the workshop. Concert presenters will have access to multichannel audio diffusion and video projection systems and performance faculty from the UBC School of Music may be available for some works depending upon availability, instrumentation and rehearsal requirements.

Attendance of this workshop is by invitation only. If you or other researchers and composers are interested in participating, we recommend that you contact us as soon as possible. Currently we are investigating funding resources with the hope to subsidize travel and accommodation for participants.

Abstract submissions and performance/demo proposals: due by Sept. 28, 2009

• Papers/presentations/positions: please send a .pdf file to ssfels[at]ece.ubc.ca
• Performances/demonstrations: send a description or .pdf score/outline of your work indicating title, instrumentation, speech/singing synthesis method(s), duration, and performance/demonstration requirements to bob[at]interchange.ubc.ca. You will be sent a url to which you may upload an audio or video excerpt of your work.

Contacts:
Sid Fels: ssfels[at]ece.ubc.ca
Bob Pritchard: bob[at]interchange.ubc.ca