Jennifer MacRitchie

Researcher, Divisione Ricerca e Sviluppo

Dr. Jennifer MacRitchie recently completed her PhD in Engineering and Music at the Science and Music Research Group, University of Glasgow, Scotland. Her thesis, entitled “Elucidating Musical Structure through the Empirical Measurement of Performance Parameters” covers research on multi-modal performance recordings, using existing technologies as well as specially designed optical motion capture systems for pianists’ fingers in order to record as much information as possible from solo piano performances.

Her research interests lie in examining how performers develop and use their skills, particularly in communicating musical information. She is interested in questions involving how performers communicate to their audiences aurally and visually. Through exploring aural parameters such as expressive timing as well as visual parameters, i.e. examining how musicians use their body in performance, we can also explore how audiences perceive this projected information in aural and visual streams.

Jennifer is also an experienced pianist, performing most recently Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Kelvin Ensemble in Glasgow. She is also interested in chamber music, regularly performing trios with a cello and clarinet ensemble and enjoys accompanying. Her repertoire also expands to contemporary music where she has been involved with compositions of nu-classical composer Drew Mulholland.

Projects

Finger Curvature, Technique and Piano Touch

Interpretations: What do they mean for the audiences?

Publications

2011
- MacRitchie, J. "Exploring Expressive Piano Touch through Measurements of Finger Curvature" In Proceedings of the Performa '11 Conference, May 2011, Aviero, Portugal
- MacRitchie, J. "Elucidating Musical Structure through Empirical Measurement of Performance Parameters" PhD Thesis, University of Glasgow
2010
- MacRitchie, J., Bailey, N.J. and Hair, G. "Highlighting Structural Issues in Piano Performance with Optical Finger Tracking" In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Music and Gesture, March 2011, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
2009
- MacRitchie, J., Buck, B. and Bailey, N.J. "Linking multi-modal Analysis of Performance to Perception of Musical Structure" In A.Williamon, S.Pretty and R.Buck (Eds) Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Performance Science Utrecht: European Association of Conservatoires (AEC)
- MacRitchie, J., Buck, B. and Bailey, N.J. "Visualising Musical Structure through Performance Gesture" In K.Hirata, G.Tzanetakis and Y.Kazuyoshi (Eds) Proceedings of the 10th International Society for Music Information Retrieval International Society for Music Information Retrieval.
- Buck, B., MacRitchie, J. and Piwek, L. "Perceptual Recognition of Embodied Musical Structure" Abstract in proceedings of the Institute for Musical Research Conference - The Musical Body: Gesture, Representation and Ergonomics in Musical Performance, 22nd-24th April, London, UK, 2009
2008
- MacRitchie, J., Hair, G., Bailey, N.J., and Pullinger, S. "Extracting Musical Structure from Multi-Modal Performance Analysis" Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology, Thessaloniki, Greece, 2008