Norman Segalowitz - Academic Advisor

Norman Segalowitz is Professor of Psychology at Concordia University and Associate Director of the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance, is currently assembling a team that will include scholars from many different disciplines. The Academic Advisory Team will be collaborating closely with the School on issues regarding the development of artistic and performance abilities in young children. The Team will also be conducting research to better understand the nature of artistic development.

Prof. Segalowitz holds a B.Sc. from McGill and a doctorate degree from Oxford. He has twice served as Chair of the Psychology Department at Concordia University. He conducts research on the mental processes that underlie the acquisition of complex skills, such as those involved in learning a second language or in musical performance. He is also interested in how the sciences of the mind can contribute to an understanding of how second languages can be more effectively taught.

Richard Roberts - Professor

Assistant Professor of violin, Richard Roberts is currently serving as Concertmaster of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Prior to his Montreal appointment, he was for eight years assistant concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra under conductor Lorin Maazel. Mr. Roberts received his early violin tutelage with the distinguished teacher Norman Carol, and at the age of seventeen, made his debut as soloist with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole with Stanislow Skrowaczewski conducting. He then pursued studies at Indiana University where he studied violin with Josef Gingold, and chamber music with Janos Starker and William Primrose. He has appeared in solo and chamber music recitals in Canada, South America, Australia, the United States, and Europe, as well as performances with the orchestras of Minnesota, Toronto, Detroit, Cleveland, Montreal, and many others. He has performed the entire cycle of Bach's Sonata and Partitas for violin alone at the Cleveland Institute of Art, and was a frequent lecturer in the Cleveland Orchestra pre-concert lecture series. As a teacher, Richard Roberts has served on the faculties of the University of Minnesota, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the Conservatoire de Musique du Quebec.

Sandeep Bhagwati - Professor

Sandeep Bhagwati is a composer and intermedia artist. He received his Diplom at Musikhochschule Munich and was a Research Fellow at IRCAM Paris, ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe and IEM Graz. His compositions in all genres have been performed at leading festivals worldwide such as the 2006 World New Music Festival, at the Venice and München Biennales, märzmusik Berlin, Vienna Modern, Sangat Mumbai etc. His 5 music theatres/ operas have been staged at venues such Centre Pompidou Paris, Munich and Darmstadt State Operas. He was Composer-in-Residence at several renowned festivals and at the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn. He has founded and directed interdisciplinary festivals such as A*DEvantgarde Munich (since 1991, biennial) and Klangriffe – Festival for Risky Music (2003). He has also directed and participated in long-term intercultural music exchange projects with Indian and Chinese musicians and leading European and Asian Musicians (Ensemble Modern, Nieuw Ensemble, Chai Found Music Workshop Taipei). After many projects with children in Austria, Germany and Great Britain, he was invited by Simon Rattle to lead Workshops for Children in Berlin in 2004/2005 (with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra). From 2000-2003 he was Professor of Composition and Multimedia at Karlsruhe Music University.

As a Canada Research Chair at Concordia he directs matralab, a research institute dedicated to the analysis and creation of interdisciplinary, intermedia, intercultural and interactive work. His current research/creation work centres around a „comprovised" new music theatre work comprising permutational dramaturgy, on-screen movement cues and real-time orchestra scores as well as a work for wandering musicians in complex architectural and acoustic environments. His new opera for children "Princess Süssüsan" will be premiered on February 22, 2008 at the Opera of Bonn / Germany.