Profile of new SIMSSA postdoc Reiner Krämer

Posted by sagransj on July 10, 2015

Reiner in his new office in the McGill music technology suite. Picture taken by Jacob Sagrans, July 9, 2015.

Yesterday I sat down and chatted with Reiner Krämer, who recently joined the SIMSSA team at McGill as a post-doctoral fellow. Reiner comes to us from the US, where he recently completed a PhD in music theory at the University of North Texas. His dissertation analyzed algorithmic music created through David Cope’s artificial intelligence software Emily Howell. As part of his dissertation research, Reiner investigated the feasibility of using machine learning techniques to analyze music written by a computer. He was excited to learn about the SIMSSA project last year at the annual meeting of the American Musicological Society and the Society for Music Theory—when he saw the announcement for the postdoc opening, he knew he had to apply.

So far, Reiner has mostly been familiarizing himself with the various components of SIMSSA. He is particularly eager to get involved with our analysis axis, ELVIS, and work to improve how the VIS software and web app analyze Renaissance counterpoint (as well as, possibly, improving VIS’s ability to analyze experimental twentieth and twenty-first-century music). Reiner is glad to be joining us and contributing to the project. We are happy to welcome him to SIMSSA, McGill, and Montreal and are looking forward to working with him.

Post written by Jacob Sagrans