This series features Schulich School of Music faculty presenting a selection
of books and music that they are exploring – for edification, inspiration, or
distraction – during these long months of social isolation. These short
interviews seek to emulate the spontaneous interactions that our patrons
enjoyed in the Music Library discussing their current reads or the recordings
that they had recently discovered (or rediscovered!). Tune in to learn about
new works and old favourites, and let us know what you are reading and
listening to!

Our fourth post in this series features Ichiro Fujinaga, Associate Professor, Music Technology, Director Distributed Digital Music Archives & Libraries Lab (DDMAL).

Q: What have you been reading/listening to these days?

A: I have been reading a book about databases, which I discovered in the McGill Library catalogue. It is called  RDF Database Systems by Olivier Curé and Guillaume Blin. As for music, I have been listening to some old favorites and newer groups: J-Pop (Namie Amuro, Hikaru Utada, M-Flo, Ko Shibasaki), Jazz (Michel Camilo, David Sanborn, David Weckl, Paco de Lucia) and Bach’s Mass in B minor. I’ve also recently discovered Corinne Bailey Rae and Love Harmony’s, Inc. which have been on my playlist this last while.

Q: Have you been able to attend any virtual concerts or conferences?

A: We had the pleasure of hosting the International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference in October, 2020. It was challenging as we had never done anything like it before! I had great help from people around me, and it was quite successful with a record-breaking attendance of over 800 people (whereas it is usually in the 400–600 range).