Matt Skarha
Associate, Sound Visualization and Analysis
Like nearly all of our consultants, Matt showed an early interest in music – piano lessons, musical theater, choir, jazz bands – but he was forever trying to scratch a deeper itch: why is music the way it is? What makes it so magical? Unsatisfied after his high school music theory course, he got a little closer to the source at Oberlin College, where he majored in physics while taking classes in jazz, music technology, and ethnomusicology at the Conservatory of Music. A summer research position in a UIUC Electrical and Computer Engineering lab that studied augmented listening technology introduced him to computational acoustics, which has been his passion ever since.
He eventually found himself braving Canadian winters in Montreal for an MA in Music Technology at McGill University, where he focused on acoustic modeling of musical instruments for sound synthesis applications. He stumbled into architectural acoustics when he was able to witness the design of a variable acoustic system at a new performance research facility at McGill. Matt has published research in journals such as NIME and IEEE CAMSAP, and is active in his local AES and ASA chapters. He continues to compose for a gizmo called Le Bâton, a digital musical instrument he designed while at McGill.
If you’re still reading with the expectation to learn the exact reason why music is the way it is, well, you’ll have to ask Matt. You can flag him down on his e-bike around Chicago. Or get his attention while he’s playing Ultimate Frisbee. Or ask him as he’s practicing latte art. You may not get an answer, but you’ll have a great conversation on the subject all the same.