Michael Gurevich’s highly interdisciplinary research employs quantitative, qualitative, humanistic, and practice-based methods to explore new aesthetic and interactional possibilities that can emerge in performance with real-time computer systems. He is currently Associate Professor in the Departments of Performing Arts Technology and Chamber Music at the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre and Dance, where he teaches courses in physical computing, electronic music performance and the history and aesthetics of media art. Other research areas include network-based music performance, computational acoustic modeling of bioacoustic systems, and electronic music performance practice.
His creative practice explores many of the same themes, through experimental compositions involving interactive media, sound installations, and the design of new musical interfaces. His book manuscript in progress is focused on documenting the cultural, technological, and aesthetic contexts for the emergence of computer music in Silicon Valley. An advocate of “research through making,” his creative practice explores many of the same themes, through experimental compositions involving interactive media, sound installations, and the design of new musical interfaces.
Prior to the University of Michigan, Professor Gurevich was a Lecturer at the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) at Queen’s University Belfast, and a research scientist at the Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R), a member of Singapore’s A*STAR family of R&D institutions. He holds a Bachelor of Music with high distinction in Computer Applications in Music from McGill University in Montréal, Canada, as well as an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University, where he also completed a postdoc.
During his Ph.D. and M.A. at Stanford, he developed the first computational acoustic models of whale and dolphin vocalizations, working with Jonathan Berger and Julius Smith as well as collaborators at the Hopkins Marine Station and Stanford Medical School. Concurrent research with Chris Chafe and Bill Verplank investigated networked music performance and haptic music interfaces.
Professor Gurevich is an active author, editor and peer reviewer in the New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME), computer music and human-computer interaction (HCI) communities. He was co-organizer and Music Chair for the 2012 NIME conference in Ann Arbor and is Vice-President for Membership of the International Computer Music Association. He has published in leading journals and has presented at conferences and workshops around the world.