Erica Bisesi
About me
SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Erica Bisesi’s academic track is multidisciplinary: PhD in mathematics and physics at Udine University in 2007, MSc in Astroparticle Physics at Trieste University in 2002, MA Degree in piano performance at Trieste Conservatory in 1996 and MMus in music theory and analysis at the University of Calabria / GATM (in progress). Born in Gorizia (Italy), she contributed to several large-scale research projects (systematic musicology, music interpretation and analysis, biological foundations of music, astrobiology, theoretical astrophysics, experimental elementary particle physics, history of physics, physics and music education).
Her career as a musicologist began in 2007, first at the Department of Speech, Music and Hearing at KTH, Stockholm, and then in several projects on the psychology of music, psychoacoustics, expressive music performance, music theory and analysis, and music information retrieval. She directed or participated in several projects on the systematic musicology at the Centre of Systematic Musicology at the University of Graz (2009-2016) and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm (2016-2017). She is currently researcher at the Institut Pasteur in Paris (from 2017), where she is working in Intermuse, an interdisciplinary project on the biology and anthropology of music cognition and neurosciences.
She taught acoustics and psychoacoustics at the Udine Conservatory from 2004 to 2006, psychoacoustics and music cognition at the University of Graz from 2014 to 2015, introduction to acoustics and organology, music structure, expression and emotion at the Comenius University in Bratislava in 2017, and is active as lecturer in computational methods for music analysis at the University of Montreal (from 2018).
Erica collaborated with universities and conservatoires in Armenia (State Conservatory in Yerevan, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, Komitas Museum-Institute in Yerevan), Austria (KFU, KUG), Canada (Faculty of Music of the Montreal University, OICRM, BRAMS), Finland (Finnish in Centre of Excellence in Interdisciplinary Music Research in Jyväskylä), France (Institut Pasteur, SFAM, EHESS, CNRS and IRCAM in Paris, IRMA and GREAM in Strasbourg), Italy (GATM, Fondazione Istituto Liszt in Bologna, Associazione Seghizzi in Gorizia, Conservatoires of Udine, Trieste, Como and Novara, Universities of Udine, Padua and Bologna), Slovakia (Department of Musicology at the Bratislava University), Sweden (KTH), Switzerland (CSI in Lugano). In October 2009, Erica was awarded a Lise Meitner postdoctoral fellowship for a two-year project entitled “Measuring and Modeling Expression in Piano Performance” by FWF Austria. In December 2011, FWF funded her five-year Stand-Alone project “Expression, Emotion and Imagery in Music Performance”. She presented the results of her research in conferences, lectures and lecture-recitals at leading institutes all over the world.
Her career as a pianist began at the age of five. She began studying Piano Performance with Maura Soro in Gorizia (Lower Degree, 1986), and then continued with Roberto Repini in Trieste (MA Degree, 1996). Over the following ten years, she mastered with the conductor Francesco Mander in Latisana, the pianists Bruno Canino in Milan, Florence and Switzerland, Aquiles Delle Vigne in Salzburg, Florence and Rome, Vladimir Krpan in Zagreb, Anna Kravtchenko in Rovereto, and Andreas Woyke in Graz. She regularly performs as a soloist and in chamber music ensembles.
During the last years, she dedicated a special attention to combine her research activity with performance practice. In 2017, she participated as a concert pianist in a GATM project on music performance/interpretation and music analysis (Conservatory of Novara, 2016-2017; International Conferences on Music Theory and Analysis in Strasbourg and Rimini, 2017). Her current research lies mainly in the area of computational and systematic musicology, music psychology, music cognition, psychoacoustics, anthropology of music, music information retrieval, music performance and interpretation, expression and emotion, music
theory and analysis, ethnomusicology, with a special attention to the application of the results of her studies in music education. In her research, she usually investigates the structure, historiography, perception and expression of her concert repertoire.
Erica speaks fluently five languages. Fortunately for her life and her work, she loves to move.
PUBLICATION LIST
* Peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters are marked with a single asterisk.
** Proceedings contributions based on peer-reviewed abstracts are marked with a double asterisk.
Works published within the last 5 years are highlighted in bold.
Citations are based on the SCOPUS database, updated on August 14th 2019.
PEER REVIEW ARTICLES
Music Psychology
Psychology of Expressive Performance
1. Friberg, A., Bisesi, E., Addessi, A.R., & Baroni, M. (2019). Probing the underlying principles of perceived immanent accents using a modeling approach. Frontiers in Psychology – Section Performance Science, 10 (1024). DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01024 *
2. Bisesi, E., Friberg, A., & Parncutt, R. (2019). A computational model of immanent accent salience in tonal music. Frontiers in Psychology – Section Performance Science, 10 (317). DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00317 * (cited by 1)
3. Bisesi, E. & Parncutt, R. (2011). An accent-bed approach to automatic rendering of piano performance: Preliminary auditory evaluation. Archives of Acoustics, 36 (2), 283-296. DOI: 10.2478/v10168-011-0022-z (cited by 7) *
Psychology of Musical Tempo
4. Bisesi, E. & Vicario, G.B. (2009). Factors affecting the choice of performed tempo, British Postgraduate Musicology, 10 *
Fundamental Physics
5. Bisesi, E. (2007). The impact of subhalos on the signals from dark matter annihilations. Astrophysics and Space Science, 309 (1-4), 517-522. DOI: 10.1007/s10509-007-9405-z *
Experimental Physics
6. D. Bastieri et al. (16 authors including E. Bisesi) (2005). Using the photons from the Crab nebula seen by GLAST to calibrate MAGIC and the imaging air Cerenkov telescopes. Astroparticle Physics, 23 (6), 572-576. DOI: 10.1016/j.astropartphys.2005.05.002 (cited by 13) *
7. M. Brigida et al. (27 authors including E. Bisesi) (2006). Particle identification with the Silicon Transition Radiation Detector (SiTRD): State of art and future perspectives. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A, 563 (2), 388-391. DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2006.02.155 * (cited by 1)
8. A. Albano et al. (40 authors including E. Bisesi) (2004). Scientific motivations and technical proposal for a stereoscopic MAGIC telescope (MAGIC II) in La Palma. MAGIC Internal document
MAGIC collaboration publications
9. J. Albert et al. (158 authors including E. Bisesi) (2006). Variable very high energy gamma-ray emission from the Microquasar LS I+61 303. Science, 312 (5781), 1771-1773. DOI: 10.1126/science.1128177 (cited by 353) *
10. J. Albert et al. (142 authors including E. Bisesi) (2006). Discovery of very high energy gamma-rays from Markarian 180 triggered by an optical outburst. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 648 (2), L105-L108. DOI: 10.1086/508020 (cited by 92) *
11. J. Albert et al. (147 authors including E. Bisesi) (2006). Observation of VHE Gamma Radiation from HESS J1834-087/W41 with the MAGIC Telescope. The Astrophysical Journal, 643 (1), L53-L56. DOI: 10.1086/504917 (cited by 49) *
12. J. Albert et al. (132 authors including E. Bisesi) (2006). Discovery of very high energy gamma rays from 1ES 1218+30.4. The Astrophysical Journal, 642 (2), L119-L122. DOI: 10.1086/504845 (cited by 100) *
13. J. Albert et al. (130 authors including E. Bisesi) (2006). Flux upper limit of gamma-ray emission by grb050713a from magic telescope observations. The Astrophysical Journal, 641 (1), L9-L12. DOI: 10.1086/503767 (cited by 50) *
14. J. Albert et al. (131 authors including E. Bisesi) (2006). Observation of gamma-rays from the Galactic Center with the Magic Telescope. The Astrophysical Journal, 638 (2), L101-L104. DOI: 10.1086/501164 (cited by 156) *
15. J. Albert et al. (134 authors including E. Bisesi) (2006). Magic observations of very high energy gamma-rays from HESS J1813-178. The Astrophysical Journal, 637 (1), L41-L44. DOI: 10.1086/500364 (cited by 39) *
16. J. Albert et al. (129 authors including E. Bisesi) (2006). Observation of VHE gamma-ray emission from the active galactic nucleus 1ES-1959+650 using the Magic Telescope. The Astrophysical Journal, 639 (2), 761-765. DOI: 10.1086/499421 (cited by 60) *
17. J. Albert i Fort et al. (103 authors including E. Bisesi) (2006). Physics and astrophysics with a ground-based gamma-ray telescope of low energy threshold. Astroparticle Physics, 23 (5), 493-509. DOI: 10.1016/j.astropartphys.2005.03.005 (cited by 11) *
BOOK CONTRIBUTIONS
Music Technology
18. Bisesi, E. & Windsor, W. L. (2016). Expression and communication of structure in music performance: Measurements and models. In S. Hallam, I. Cross and M. Thaut (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Music Psychology, 2nd Edition (pp. 615-631). Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198722946.013.37 *
19. Friberg, A. & Bisesi, E. (2014). Using computational models of music performance to model stylistic variations. In D. Fabian, E. Schubert and R. Timmers (Eds.), Expressiveness in music performance: Empirical approaches across styles and cultures (pp. 240-259). Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199659647.003.0014 *
Music Analysis and Performance
20. Caron, S., Bisesi, E., & Traube, C. (in press). Analyser l’interprétation : Une étude comparative des variations de tempo dans le premier prélude de l’Art de toucher le clavecin de François Couperin. In P. Lalitte (Ed.), Musique et Cognition.
Perspectives pour l’analyse et la performance musicales. Dijon: Éditions Universitaires de Dijon (pp. 233-266). *
Music Psychology
Psychology of Musical Tempo
21. Bisesi, E. & Caron, S. (in press). De quoi dépend-il la perception d’un tempo optimal dans la musique? Le rôle de la structure musicale. In S. Féron, C. Abromont and P. Lalitte (Eds.), Le tempo dans l’acte de performance. Paris, Editions du Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. *
22. Bisesi, E. & Vicario, G. B. (2015). The perception of an optimal tempo. The role of melodic event density. In A. Galmonte and R. Actis-Grosso (Eds.), Different psychological perspectives on cognitive processes: Current research trends in Alps-Adria region (pp. 25-43). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN: 978-1-4438-5628-7 *
Ethnomusicology
23. Shakhkulyan, T., Bisesi, E. & Parncutt, R. (2017). David of Sassoun: The tonal structure of Armenian epic songs. In T. Shakhkulyan (Ed.), Komitas and traditional music culture – Yearbook of Komitas Museum-Institute, Vol. 2. Yerevan: Publications of Komitas Museum-Institute. ISBN: 978–9939–9134–5–2
Education
Music Education
24. Bisesi, E. & Francescato, E. (2012). Applicazioni didattiche della ricerca scientifica sull’esecuzione musicale. In C. Guetti (Ed.), A.A.V.V. La musica in testa. Milano-Udine, Mimesis Edizioni. ISBN: 9788857509266 8857509265
Physics Education
25. Bisesi, E. & Michelini, M. (2010). Comparative teaching strategies in special relativity. In C. P. Constantinou and N. Papadouris (Eds.), Physics Curriculum Design, Development and Validation. Cyprus: Learning in Science Group. CD-ROM, ISBN: 978-9963-689-21-7 *
Dissemination
26. Bisesi, E. (2012). The Alien | L'alieno. In A. Bianco (Ed.), Otherness | Alterità (pp. 57-66). Roma: Aracne. ISBN 978-88-548-5210-5
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Music Analysis
27. Bisesi, E. (2017). Measuring and modelling perceived distance among collections in post-tonal music: Music theory meets music psychology. In Proceedings of EUROMAC9, Strasbourg, France, 28 Jun – 1 Jul 2017 **
Music Psychology
Psychology of Expressive Performance
28. Bisesi, E., & Toiviainen, P. (2017). The relationship between musical structure and emotion in classical piano scores: A pilot study on the Theme of La Folia. In E. Van Dyck (Ed.), Proceedings of ESCOM 2017, Ghent, Belgium, 31 Jul – 4 Aug 2017 (pp. 18-22). Ghent: IPEM **
29. Bisesi, E., Parncutt, R., Caron, S., & Traube, C. (2014). The immanent emotion of a musical score: An exploratory study. In M. K. Song (Ed.), Proceedings of the ICMPC13 – APSCOM-5, Seoul, South Korea, 4-8 Aug 2014 (pp. 124-126). Seoul, South Korea: College of Music, Yonsei University **
30. Bodinger, M., Bisesi, E., & Parncutt, R. (2014). Listeners’ informal vocabulary for structure, expression, emotions and associations in piano music. In M. K. Song (Ed.), Proceedings of the ICMPC13 – APSCOM-5, Seoul, South Korea, 4-8 Aug 2014 (pp. 76-79). Seoul, South Korea: College of Music, Yonsei University **
31. Eckl, F. J., Bisesi, E., Friberg, A., & Parncutt, R. (2014). A computational model of immanent accent salience in tonal music: Perceptual evaluation. In M. K. Song (Ed.), Proceedings of the ICMPC13 – APSCOM-5, Seoul, South Korea, 4-8 Aug 2014 (pp. 248-250). Seoul, South Korea: College of Music, Yonsei University **
32. Bisesi, E., MacRitchie, J., & Parncutt, R. (2013). Structural communication in piano duos: Musical compatibility and individual differences in interpretation. In A. Williamon and W. Goebl (Eds), Proceedings of the International Symposium on Performance Science, Vienna, Austria, 28-31 Aug 2013 (pp. 263-268). Brussels, Belgium: European Association of Conservatoires (AEC). ISBN: 978-2-9601378-0-4 **
33. Parncutt, R., Bisesi, E., & Friberg, A. (2013). A preliminary computational model of immanent accent salience in tonal music. In R. Bresin (Ed.), Proceedings of Sound and Music Computing Conference SMAC – SMC 2013, Stockholm, Sweden, 30 Jul – 3 Aug 2013 (pp. 335-340). Stockholm: KTH. ISBN: 978-91-7501-831-7 **
34. Bisesi, E., Eckl, F. J., & Parncutt, R. (2013). What emotions and free associations characterize different musical styles? In G. Luck and O. Brabant (Eds.), Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Music and Emotion, Jyväskylä, Finland, 11-15 Jun 2013. Jyväskylä, Finland: University of Jyväskylä, Department of Music. ISBN 978-951-39-5250-1 **
35. Bisesi, E., MacRitchie, J., & Parncutt, R. (2012). Recorded interpretations of Chopin Preludes: Performer’s choice of score events for emphasis and emotional communication. In E. Cambouropoulos et al. (Ed.), Proceedings of ICMPC – ESCOM 2012, Thessaloniki, Greece, 23-28 Jul 2012 (pp. 106-107). ISBN: 978-960-99845-1-5 **
36. Bisesi, E., Friberg, A., & Parncutt, R. (2011). Director Musices (accent-based formulation). In Proceedings of Rencon 2011, Padova, 6 Jul 2011
37. Bisesi, E., Parncutt, R., & Friberg, A. (2011). An accent-based approach to performance rendering: Music theory meets music psychology. In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Performance Science, Toronto, Canada, 24-27 Aug 2011 (pp. 27-32). ISBN 978-94-90306-02-1 **
38. Bisesi, E. & Parncutt, R. (2010). An accent-based approach to automatic rendering of piano performance. In W. Goebl (Ed.), Proceedings of the Second Vienna Talk on Music Acoustics, Vienna, 19-21 Sep 2010 (pp. 26-30). ISBN: 978-3-900914-07-3 **
Psychology of Musical Tempo
39. Bisesi, E. & Vicario, G. B. (2009). Psychoacoustical aspects of the speed of melody performance. In M. M. Marin, M. Knoche, and R. Parncutt (Eds.), Proceedings of the first International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology (SysMus08), Graz, Austria, 14-15 Nov 2008 (pp. 7-11). CD-ROM, ISBN: 978-3-9502656-2-0, Internet ISBN: 978-3-9502656-3-7 **
Ethnomusicology
40. Bisesi, E. & Brabec de Mori, B. (2010). The representation of time among different cultures and musical systems. In R. Parncutt and M. Koegeler (Eds.), Proceedings of cAIR10, the first Conference on Applied Interculturality Research, Graz, Austria, 7-10 Apr 2010 **
Education
Music Education
41. Bisesi, E. & Michelini, M. (2010). Planning curricular proposals on sound and music with perspective secondary-school teachers. In C. Constantinou and N. Papadouris (Eds.), Proceedings of Physics Curriculum Design, Development and Validation – GIREP 2008 (CD). Cyprus: Learning in Science Group. ISBN: 9963689205, 9789963689200 **
Fundamental Physics
42. Bisesi, E. (2007). Indirect search of dark matter in the halos of galaxies. Role of substructures on the signals from dark matter annihilation and prospects for detection of single dark matter clumps with the MAGIC Telescope. PhD Thesis. Magic Publications
43. Bisesi, E. (2002). Emissione gamma dalle pulsar. Stima del contributo al fondo gamma diffuso e possibili osservazioni con i telescopi spaziali AGILE e GLAST. MSc Thesis. In: Tesi di Laurea e di Dottorato INFN
Conference proceedings in physics
44. Bisesi, E., Mariotti, M., & Scalzotto, V. (2006). Dark matter detection in gamma astroparticle experiments. In G. Sidharth, F. Honsell and A. De Angelis (Eds.), Proceedings of 6th International Symposium on Frontiers of Fundamental Physics (FFP6), Udine, Italy, 26-29 Sep 2004 (pp. 315-320). Springer, The Netherlands **
45. Bisesi, E. (2006). Contribution of pulsars to the gamma-ray background and their observation with the space telescopes GLAST and AGILE. In G. Sidharth, F. Honsell and A. De Angelis (Eds.), Proceedings of 6th International Symposium on Frontiers of Fundamental Physics (FFP6), Udine, Italy, 26-29 Sep 2004 (pp. 321-326). Springer, The Netherlands **
46. D. Bastieri et al. (18 authors including E. Bisesi) (2006). The MAGIC experiment and its first results. In G. Sidharth, F. Honsell and A. De Angelis (Eds.), Proceedings of 6th International Symposium on Frontiers of Fundamental Physics (FFP6), Udine, Italy, 26-29 Sep 2004 (pp. 291-296). Springer, The Netherlands **
47. Bisesi, E. (2006). Populations of subhalos in Cold Dark Matter halos. In A. De Angelis and O. Mansutti (Eds.), Proceedings of the Third Workshop on Science with the New Generation of High Energy Gamma-Ray Experiments, Cividale del Friuli (Italy), 30 May – 1 Jun 2005 (pp. 125-134). World Scientific Publishing Co.Pte.Ltd **
48. Bartko, H., Biland, A., Bisesi, E., Elsässer, D., Flix, J., Häfliger, P., Mariotti, M., Stark, S., & Wittek, W. (2005). Towards dark matter searches with the MAGIC telescope. In B. Sripathi Acharya, S. Gupta, P. Jagadeesan, A. Jain, S. Karthikeyan, S. Morris and S. Tonwar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 29th International Cosmic Ray Confererce (ICRC 2005), Pune, India, 3 – 10 Aug 2005 (Vol. 4, pp. 17-20). Mumbai: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research **
49. Bartko, H., Biland, A., Bisesi, E., Commichau, S., Flix, P., Lorenz, E., Mariotti, M., Mirzoyan, R., Scalzotto, V., Stark, S., & Wittek, W. (2005). Search for gamma rays from the Galactic Center with the MAGIC telescope. In B. Sripathi Acharya, S. Gupta, P. Jagadeesan, A. Jain, S. Karthikeyan, S. Morris and S. Tonwar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 29th International Cosmic Ray Confererce (ICRC 2005), Pune, India, 3 – 10 Aug 2005 (Vol. 4, pp. 113-116). Mumbai: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (cited by 1) **
50. J. Albert i Fort et al. (131 authors including E. Bisesi) (2005). The MAGIC project: Contributions to ICRC 2005, Pune, India, Part 1: Observations. 2005astro.ph..8244F
51. J. Albert i Fort et al. (131 authors including E. Bisesi) (2005). The MAGIC project: Contributions to ICRC 2005, Pune, India, Part 2: Future plans and developments. 2005astro.ph..8273F
52. J. Albert i Fort et al. (131 authors including E. Bisesi) (2005). The MAGIC project: Contributions to ICRC 2005, Pune, India, Part 3: MAGIC detector and analysis details. 2005astro.ph..8274F
PUBLICATIONS IN PREPARATION
1. Letailleur, A., Bisesi, E., & Legrain, P. The mental representations used by musicians to identify notes’ pitch: Description of mental anchorpoints and a proposal of a minimal phenomenological model (under submission)
2. Bisesi, E. & Sargenti, I preludi per pianoforte di Olivier Messiaen, tra rigore compositivo ed espressività (under submission)
3. Bisesi, E., Murante, G., & Caron, S. Modeling the relationship between structure and meaning in Les Dominos by François Couperin by means of a machine learning approach (submission planned by late 2019
4. Caron, S., & Bisesi, E. Analysis and interpretation of Les Dominos by François Couperin (submission planned by late 2019)
5. Bisesi, E, & Toivianien, P. The relationship between immanent emotion and musical structure in classical piano scores: A case-study on the theme of La Folia (submission planned in 2020)
6. Bisesi, E. Variations on the theme of La Folia by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Franz Liszt: Analysis and interpretation (submission planned in 2020)
7. Bisesi, E., Cabras, G., et al. Measuring expressive piano performance by means of a Constant-Q transform-based method
8. Bisesi, E., Friberg, A., et al. Modeling performance styles in piano music
CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE MEDIA (interviews)
− E. Litváková, Nijaký počítač nedokáže to, čo človek, hovorí talianska muzikologička – A computer cannot replace humans, says an Italian musicologist (SME Plus, 28.4.2017).
− O. Solon, Rencon: a ‘Turing Test for musical expression’ (Wired UK, 02.09.2013).
− R. Czepel, Eine Maschine kann den Künstler nicht ersetzen (Der Standard, 16.01.2013).
− L. Yadlapalli, Der Klang der Gefühle (Universum Magazine, 07.11.2012).
− V. Prinčič, Znanstvenica in pianistka na „begu“ v tujini – Erica Bisesi is a known name in the musical and scientific circles (Primorski Dnevnik, 21.1.2011).
− A. Pessotto, Tra i cervelli in fuga anche la goriziana Erica – In the brain drain also Erica from Gorizia (in Italian, Il Piccolo, 19.12.2010).
CONCERT REPERTOIRE (last 5 years)
Compositions (piano solo and chamber music with piano) by: A. Scarlatti, Rameau, C. P. E. Bach, Couperin, Corelli, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert (piano and piano transcriptions), Chopin, Liszt, Wagner (piano and piano transcriptions), Schumann, Dvořák, Rachmaninov, Glinka, Balakirev, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Scriabin, Messiaen, Schoenberg, Webern, Bartok, Bolling, Mercury, Catalani, Verdi, Bellini, Puccini.
Link to a more detailed version:
http://www.ericabisesi.com/deutsch/CV-PL_EricaBisesi-Updated-2019.pdf