معرفی
Stephen McAdams is a Professor at McGill University's Schulich School of Music, holding the Canada Research Chair in Music Perception and Cognition and recognized as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He directs the Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory (MPCL) and teaches courses in music perception, timbre analysis, and cognitive dynamics of music listening.
His educational background includes a BSc in Psychology from McGill University (1977), PhD in Hearing and Speech Sciences from Stanford University (1984), and HDR (DSc) in Cognitive Psychology from Université Paris Descartes (1996).
McAdams' research explores the cognitive and perceptual foundations of musical experience, focusing on timbre perception, orchestration analysis, auditory scene organization, and cross-cultural affective responses in music. His work integrates experimental psychology, acoustics, and computational modeling to understand how listeners process complex musical structures.
Research trends from recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on timbre perception in orchestral contexts, cross-cultural emotion studies, and computational modeling of auditory perception. His laboratory develops novel methodologies for analyzing instrumental blending, perceptual layering, and affective responses across diverse musical traditions.
- Canada Research Chair in Music Perception and Cognition
- Fellow, Royal Society of Canada
As director of the MPCL, McAdams oversees interdisciplinary collaborations investigating the neural and cognitive basis of music perception. The lab's ACTOR Project (Analysis, Creation, and Teaching of ORchestration) bridges scientific research with compositional practice.
