Music and the Mind | LIVELab

Dr. Bosnyak uses electroencephalography and other physiological measurement systems to study neural plasticity in the human auditory system, particularly using musical training as a model for inducing neurological changes.  More recently, the LIVELab has allowed him to study electrophysiological responses both in musicians performing before a live audience, and also in multiple audience members simultaneously experiencing real musical performances. The method of simultaneously studying multiple interacting human subjects is known as ‘hyperscanning’ and permits the study of brain responses that underlie social interactions and joint action/behaviours. Dr. Bosnyak is the Technical Director of LIVELab.

Dr. Ranil Sonnadara is a sound designer and composer who has worked extensively on both sides of the Atlantic. He has won several awards for his work on musicals and plays.

Originally based in the UK before moving to Canada to pursue research in psychoacoustics and behavioural neuroscience, Ranil has designed sound and music at several producing and touring venues in the United Kingdom including the West Yorkshire Playhouse, York Theatre Royal, the Manchester Apollo Theatre, Bath Theatre Royal, the Assembly Rooms, the Epsom Playhouse, South Hill Park Arts Centre, and several venues in and around London’s West End including the Royal National Theatre. He has also worked at several venues across North and South America.

Ranil has over 300 production credits including: Barnum, Beauty and the Beast, Exquisite Sister, Jesus Christ Superstar, King Lear, Never, Peter Pan, Pirates of Penzance, Singing in the Rain, Seeds Under Stones, Sweeney Todd, The Sound of Music, Wind in the Willows, and most recently, Red for Theatre Aquarius.

An experienced educator and researcher, Ranil has taught courses on psychoacoustics, lighting and sound design at the University of Leeds, the Leeds College of Music, University College Bretton Hall, Liverpool Hope University and at McMaster University.

Dr. Ian C. Bruce grew up in Bendigo, Vic., Australia. He received the B.E. (electrical and electronic) degree from The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Vic., in 1991, and the Ph.D. degree from the Department of Otolaryngology, The University of Melbourne. From 1993 to 1994, he was a Research and Teaching Assistant at the Department of Bioelectricity and Magnetism, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria.  He was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA, from 1998 to 2001.

Since 2002, he has been with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada, currently at the rank of Associate Professor.  His research interests include auditory modeling, hearing aids, cochlear implants, tinnitus, neural coding of speech, digital speech processing, and stochastic processes. He is currently the Associate Director of the LIVELab at McMaster.  Dr. Bruce is an Associate Editor of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, a Member of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, and a Registered Professional Engineer in Ontario.

As Business Development Manager for International Markets at Meyer Sound,

Placken serves as a critical link between end users, architects, AV consultants, acousticians and sound designers and the company’s sound reinforcement and acoustic divisions. He continues to work with the most creative companies around the world developing unique and innovative sound and acoustic solutions to improve and enhance the customer experience.  Placken studied Jazz at Humber College in Toronto and holds a degree in Music Engineering from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. He has worked in technical sales in the professional audio industry since 1987 and has been with Meyer Sound since 2006. Placken is a member of the Audio Engineering Society.

John Pellowe’s international career has encompassed recording engineering, live broadcast engineering, concert sound reinforcement and acoustics. As a recording engineer for Decca (1974-96) he made over 200 albums with many of the world’s best-known artists in concert halls with outstanding acoustics, including the Vienna Musikverein and Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw. Many of his recordings achieved critical acclaim and numerous awards, including a Grammy for Best Engineering.

As Sound Engineering Director for Luciano Pavarotti and the Three Tenors (1985-2005) he participated in more than 30 world tours, engineering and mixing front of house sound and live broadcasts for more than 300 major concerts. Credits include the world’s biggest selling classical album: ‘The Three Tenors’ live from Rome for the 1990 World Cup. Since 1991 he has acted as sound engineering consultant to the Fundación Musical Simón Bolivar of Venezuela and the internationally renowned conductor Gustavo Dudamel, for whom he has mixed several important concerts. Pellowe has a deep interest in acoustics.

Since 2006 he has worked for Meyer Sound Laboratories helping establish their Constellation Acoustics System as a global leader in flexible acoustics. This is technology whereby a venue’s acoustic can be quickly optimized to suit different types of music or performance. As Project Director for some of the companies’ most ambitious Constellation projects around the world, Pellowe takes responsibility for the system design and ‘voicing’ of concert halls and performing arts centers.

Amongst numerous other projects, he is currently directing the installation of Constellation in the Teatro Teresa Carreño in Caracas, the second largest classical music concert hall in South America. Pellowe has a special interest in introducing artists to the benefits of the technology. Since 2012 he has attended the acclaimed annual festival of internationally renowned (mainly Juilliard) educated musicians for the Great Mountains Music Festival in South Korea. These extraordinary concerts are directed by the famous Korean sisters; violinist Kyung Wha Chung and cellist Myung Wha Chung and performed before a discerning public. The Constellation system voiced by Pellowe, with its inherent acoustic flexibility, has proven pivotal to the festival’s success.

In September 2014 Pellowe was the recipient of the ProSound Lifetime Achievement Award in London.

Pierre Germain, senior acoustic engineer at Meyer Sound Laboratories, specializes in projects that feature the company’s Constellation acoustic system and Libra acoustic image system.

Germain has played a pivotal role in the design, acoustic testing, analysis, tuning, and commissioning of the flexible acoustical environments in various world-class venues, including the Alpensia Hall in South Korea, the Fosnavag Konserthus in Norway, Teatro Telcel in Mexico, as well as the San Francisco SoundBox, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Appel Room, and Michael Jackson ONE in the U.S. Germain was also instrumental in the first restaurant application of Constellation and Libra at Berkeley’s Comal.

Prior to joining Meyer Sound, Germain spent years at acoustic consulting firms Valcoustics Canada and San Francisco’s Shen Milsom Wilke. Germain has a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of British Columbia, specializing in acoustics.