As a researcher I’m working in the field of computer music, computational musicology, mathematical music theory, knowledge representation, machine learning, and interdisciplinary arts. My current interests include:

  • automatic analysis of large music collections
  • alternative music composition and improvisation systems
  • ontological and mathematical music representation and visualization
  • musical human-computer interaction and musical creativity
  • musical applications of machine learning

Articles and Proceedings

Florian Thalmann, Kazuyoshi Yoshii, Thomas Wilmering, Geraint Wiggins, and Mark Sandler. A Method for Analysis of Shared Structure in Large Music Collections using Techniques from Genetic Sequencing and Graph Theory. Proceedings of the 21st International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference, Virtual Conference, 2020.

Delia Fano Yela, Florian Thalmann, Vincenzo Nicosia, Dan Stowell, and Mark Sandler. Online visibility graphs: Encoding visibility in a binary search tree. Physical Review Research, 2020.

Florian Thalmann, Geraint Wiggins, and Mark Sandler. Representing Modifiable and Reusable Musical Content on the Web with Constrained Multi-Hierarchical Structures. IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, 2020.

Thomas Wilmering, Florian Thalmann, and Mark B. Sandler. Alignment and Timeline Construction for Incomplete Analogue Audience Recordings of Historical Live Music Concerts. In Audio Engineering Society Convention 147. New York City, 2019.

Alo Allik, Florian Thalmann, Cornelia Metzig, Mark Sandler. Join my party! How can we enhance social interactions in music streaming? In Web Audio Conference WAC-2019. Trondheim, 2019.

Florian Thalmann, Thomas Wilmering, and Mark B. Sandler. Query-based Mashups of Historical Live Music Recordings. Proceedings of the 9th Conference of Japanese Association for Digital Humanities (JADH2019). Osaka, 2019.

Florian Thalmann, Thomas Wilmering, and Mark B. Sandler. Cultural Heritage Documentation and Exploration of Live Music Events with Linked Data. Workshop on Semantic Applications for Audio and Music, Monterey, USA, 2018.

Florian Thalmann, Lucas Thompson, and Mark B. Sandler. A User-Adaptive Automated DJ Web App with Object-Based Audio and Crowd-Sourced Decision Trees. Web Audio Conference WAC-2018, September 19–21, Berlin, Germany, 2018.

David Moffat, Florian Thalmann, Mark B. Sandler. Towards a Semantic Web Representation and Application of Audio Mixing Rules. In Proc. 4th Workshop on Intelligent Music Production (WIMP), Huddersfield, UK, 2018.

Alo Allik, Florian Thalmann, and Mark Sandler. MusicLynx: Exploring Music Through Artist Similarity Graphs. Companion Proceedings of The Web Conference, Lyon, France, 2018.

Thomas Wilmering, Florian Thalmann, György Fazekas, and Mark B. Sandler. Bridging Fan Communities and Facilitating Access to Music Archives through Semantic Audio Applications. In Audio Engineering Society Convention 143. Audio Engineering Society, New York City, 2017.

Florian Thalmann, Sebastian Ewert, Geraint Wiggins, and Mark B. Sandler. Exploring Musical Expression on the Web: Deforming, Exaggerating, and Blending Decomposed Recordings. Proceedings of 3rd Web Audio Conference, London, 2017.

Thomas Wilmering, Florian Thalmann, and Mark B. Sandler. Towards a Framework for the Discovery of Collections of Live Music Recordings and Artefacts on the Semantic Web. Proceedings of 3rd Web Audio Conference, London, 2017.

Mathieu Barthet, György Fazekas, Alo Allik, Florian Thalmann, and Mark B. Sandler. From interactive to adaptive mood-based music listening experiences in social or personal contexts. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 2016.

Thomas Wilmering, Florian Thalmann, and Mark B. Sandler. Grateful live: Mixing Multiple Recordings of a Dead Performance into an Immersive Experience. In Audio Engineering Society Convention 141. Audio Engineering Society, 2016.

Mathieu Barthet, Florian Thalmann, György Fazekas, Mark B. Sandler, and Geraint Wiggins. Crossroads: Interactive Music Systems Transforming Performance, Production and Listening. Proceedings of the CHI Workshop on Music and HCI, ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2016.

Florian Thalmann, György Fazekas, Geraint A. Wiggins, and Mark B. Sandler. Creating, Visualizing, and Analyzing Dynamic Music Objects in the Browser with the Dymo Designer. In Proceedings of the Audio Mostly Conference, pp. 39-46. ACM, Norrköping, 2016.

Florian Thalmann, Alfonso Perez Carrillo, György Fazekas, Geraint A. Wiggins, and Mark B. Sandler. The Semantic Music Player: A Smart Mobile Player Based on Ontological Structures and Analytical Feature Metadata. Proceedings of the 2nd Web Audio Conference, Atlanta, 2016.

Alfonso Perez-Carrillo, Florian Thalmann, György Fazekas, and Mark Sandler. Geolocation Adaptive Music Player. Proceedings of the 2nd Web Audio Conference, Atlanta, 2016.

Florian Thalmann, Alfonso Perez Carrillo, György Fazekas, Geraint A. Wiggins, and Mark B. Sandler. The Mobile Audio Ontology: Experiencing Dynamic Music Objects on Mobile Devices. In Semantic Computing (ICSC), 2016 IEEE Tenth International Conference on, pp. 47-54. IEEE, 2016.

Florian Thalmann. Harmony of the Spheres: A Physics-Based Android Synthesizer and Controller with Gestural Objects and Physical Transformations. In: The 12th Sound and Music Computing Conference, Maynooth, Ireland, 2015.

Daniel Tormoen, Florian Thalmann, and Guerino Mazzola. The Composing Hand: Musical Creation with Leap Motion and the BigBang Rubette. In: Proceedings of 14th International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME). London, 2014.

Florian Thalmann and Guerino Mazzola. Using the Creative Process for Sound Design based on Generic Sound Forms. In: MUME 2013 proceedings. Boston: AAAI Press, 2013.

Guerino Mazzola and Florian Thalmann. Theory and Software for Tracing Musical Creativity in Composition. In: Proceedings of the Conference on Tracking the Creative Process in Music (TCPM), University of Montreal, 2013.

Florian Thalmann and Guerino Mazzola. Visualization and Transformation in General Musical and Music-Theoretical Spaces. In: Proceedings of the Music Encoding Conference 2013. Mainz: MEI, 2013.

Florian Thalmann and Guerino Mazzola. Poietical Music Scores: Facts, Processes, and Gestures. In: Second International Symposium on Music and Sonic Art – MuSA 2011, Baden-Baden, August 2011.

Guerino Mazzola and Florian Thalmann. Musical Composition and Gestural Diagrams. In: Proceedings of the third MCM conference, IRCAM, Paris, 2011.

Florian Thalmann and Guerino Mazzola. Affine Musical Transformations Using Multi-Touch Gestures. In: Ninad-journal of ITC SRA, 2010.

Florian Thalmann and Guerino Mazzola. Gestural Shaping and Transformation in a Universal Space of Structure and Sound. In: Proceedings of the 2010 International Computer Music Conference, New York City, 2010.

Guerino Mazzola, Catherine Losada, Florian Thalmann, and Schuyler Tsuda. A Boulezian Creative Analysis of Boulez’s structures. In: Somashekhar Naimpally, Giuseppe Di Maio (eds.): Quaderni di Matematica, Theory And Applications of Proximity, Nearness and Uniformity, vol 22, 2008.

Florian Thalmann and Guerino Mazzola. The BigBang Rubette: Gestural Music Composition with Rubato Composer. In: Proceedings of the 2008 International Computer Music Conference, Belfast, 2008.

Guerino Mazzola and Florian Thalmann. Grid Diagrams for Ornaments and Morphing. In: Proceedings of the First International Conference of the Society for Mathematics and Computation in Music, State Institute of Music Research, Berlin, 2007.

Guerino Mazzola, Gérard Milmeister, Karim Morsy, and Florian Thalmann. Functors for Music: The Rubato Composer System. In: Digital Art Weeks Proceedings, ETH, Zurich, 2006.

Florian Thalmann and Markus Gaelli. Jam Tomorrow: Collaborative Music Generation in Croquet Using OpenAL. In: Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Creating, Connecting and Collaborating through Computing, University of California, Berkeley, 2006.

Book Chapters and Books

Guerino Mazzola, René Guitart, Jocelyn Ho, Alex Lubet, Maria Mannone, Matt Rahaim, and Florian Thalmann. Topos of Music III: Gestures - Musical Multiverse Ontologies. Springer Series Computational Music Science, Heidelberg et al., 2018.

Guerino Mazzola, Joomi Park, and Florian Thalmann. Musical Creativity: A Comprehensive Approach: Theory, Analytical Tools, and Case Studies. Springer Series Computational Music Science, Heidelberg et al. 2011.

Guerino Mazzola, Florian Thalmann, et al. Musical Performance: A Comprehensive Approach: Theory, Analytical Tools, and Case Studies. Springer Series Computational Music Science, Heidelberg et al. 2010.

Gérard Milmeister, Florian Thalmann, and Guerino Mazzola. The Rubato Composer Music Software: Component-Based Implementation of a Functorial Concept Architecture. Springer Series Computational Music Science, Heidelberg et al. 2009.

Guerino Mazzola, Gérard Milmeister, Karim Morsy, and Florian Thalmann. Functors for Music: The Rubato Composer System. In: Randy Adams, S. Gibson, S. Muller Arisona (eds.): Transdisciplinary Digital Art: Sound, Vision and the New Screen. Springer CCIS, Heidelberg et al. 2008.

Posters, Talks, and Demos

Alo Allik, Florian Thalmann, Cornelia Metzig, Mark Sandler. moodplay.github.io: an online collaborative music player. Proceedings of the Web Audio Conference, Trondheim, 2019.

Thomas Wilmering, Florian Thalmann, and Mark B. Sandler. Exploration of Grateful Dead Concerts and Memorabilia on the Semantic Web. International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC), Monterey, USA, 2018.

Adrian Hazzard, Chris Greenhalgh, Florian Thalmann, Gary Bromham. Are you experienced? Dynamic music listening., DMRN+12: Digital Music Research Network One-day Workshop, Queen Mary University of London, 2017.

Florian Thalmann, Sebastian Ewert, Geraint A. Wiggins, Mark B. Sandler. Deforming Recordings of Musical Performances using Dynamic Music Objects. DMRN+10: Digital Music Research Network Workshop, London, 2015.

Alfonso Perez-Carrillo, Florian Thalmann and György Fazekas. Geo-location adaptive music player. DMRN+10: Digital Music Research Network Workshop, London, 2015.

Florian Thalmann, Sebastian Ewert, Mark Sandler, Geraint A. Wiggins. Spatially Rendering Decomposed Recordings - Integrating Score-Informed Source Separation and Semantic Playback Technologies. 16th International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference, Malaga, 2015.

Alfonso Perez-Carrillo, Florian Thalmann, Thomas Wilmering and Mark Sandler. GeoLocation-Adaptive Music Player. 16th International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference, Malaga, 2015.

Florian Thalmann, Alfonso Perez Carrillo, György Fazekas, Geraint Wiggins and Mark Sandler. Navigating Ontological Structures based on Feature Metadata Using the Semantic Music Player. 16th International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference, Malaga, 2015.

Florian Thalmann and Geraint Wiggins. Semantic Player: A Smart Creative Mobile Player Based on Ontological Metadata. 1st AES-Midlands Workshop on Intelligent Music Production, Birmingham, 2015.

Theses

Gestural Composition with Arbitrary Musical Objects and Dynamic Transformation Networks. PhD Thesis, School of Music, University of Minnesota, July 2014.

Irony, Ambiguity, and Musical Experience in Caravaggio’s Musical Paintings. MA Plan B Paper, Department of Art History, University of Minnesota, November 2013.

Raoul Larche Table Lamps: Art Nouveau à l’Ancienne? MA Plan B Paper, Department of Art History, University of Minnesota, September 2013.

Musical Composition with Grid Diagrams of Transformations. MSc Thesis, University of Bern, Institute of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, March 2007.

Jam Tomorrow: Collaborative Music Generation in Croquet Using OpenAL. BSc Project, University of Bern, Institute of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, January 2006.

Scientific Activities

Program Chair:

Program Committee:

Journal Reviews:

Awards

Fellowship for Prospective Researchers, Swiss National Science Foundation, January-December 2013

Research Grant, School of Music, University of Minnesota, September 2012

Graduate Research Partnership Program Award, University of Minnesota, for the project “Musical Composition with Compound Multi-Touch Gestures”, May 2010

Grant for a PhD in Music Theory at the University of Minnesota, Hasler Stiftung Bern, for the project “Musical Composition with Compound Multi-Touch Gestures”, October 2008

Grant for the presentation of “The BigBang Rubette: Gestural Music Composition with Rubato Composer” at ICMC in Belfast, Hasler Stiftung Bern, July 2008

Grant for the project “Programming and perception of complex rhythms in music” at the University of Minnesota, Hasler Stiftung Bern, July 2007

Teaching Activity

Seminar on Music Composition with Rubato Composer and the BigBang Rubette (co-taught, University of Minnesota, 2014)

Music Informatics Seminar (co-taught, University of Minnesota, 2012/14)

Introduction to Music Information Technology (TA and co-taught, University of Minnesota, 2010-13)

Intensive Theory and Analysis of 20th-Century Music (TA sections, University of Minnesota, 2010)

Ear-Training and Sight-Singing for 20th-Century Music (TA sections, University of Minnesota, 2010/12)

Komponieren mit Rubato — Algorithmik und Kreativität (co-taught, University of Zurich, 2010)

Theory and Analysis of Tonal Music I-III (main lecture or TA sections, University of Minnesota, 2009-11)

Ear-Training and Sight-Singing I-III (main lecture or TA sections, University of Minnesota, 2009-12)

Various guest lectures and substitutions in courses on music, mathematics, and technology