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| 1 | +--- |
| 2 | +layout: default |
| 3 | +title: "2024 Board Election Candidate Statements" |
| 4 | +--- |
| 5 | + |
| 6 | +# 2024 Board Election Candidates |
| 7 | + |
| 8 | +Candidates for the MEI Elections are invited to send along a brief CV and |
| 9 | +Candidate Statement. |
| 10 | +These are provided below, ordered alphabetically by surname. |
| 11 | + |
| 12 | +* [Benjamin W. Bohl](#benjamin-w-bohl) |
| 13 | +* [Martha Thomae Elias](#martha-thomae-elias) |
| 14 | +* [Anna E. Kijas](#anna-e-kijas) |
| 15 | +* [Joshua Neumann](#joshua-neumann) |
| 16 | +* [Klaus Rettinghaus](#klaus-rettinghaus) |
| 17 | +* [Kristina Richts-Matthaei](#kristina-richts-matthaei) |
| 18 | + |
| 19 | + |
| 20 | +## Benjamin W. Bohl |
| 21 | + |
| 22 | +### CV |
| 23 | + |
| 24 | +Born in 1983 Benjamin finished his studies in musicology in 2008 with his M.A. |
| 25 | +thesis on “Combinatorics as a method of composition. Studies on Francesco |
| 26 | +Saverio Geminiani’s ›Guida Armonica o Dizionario Armonico‹“, including a digital |
| 27 | +edition of the treatise. His affiliation with MEI started with his work at the |
| 28 | +Edirom project at Detmold in 2009 and has continued in several other research |
| 29 | +contexts. After beginning as an editor at the Bernd Alois |
| 30 | +Zimmermann-Gesamtausgabe in 2016, Benjamin today is the project’s research |
| 31 | +software engineer. The insights gained as an editor help him identify community |
| 32 | +and user needs for his tool development, e.g. the oXygen-MEI-addon. |
| 33 | + |
| 34 | +### Candidate Statement |
| 35 | + |
| 36 | +MEI has been a central aspect of my day-to-day work since the beginning of my |
| 37 | +professional career. Seeing it implemented as the backbone of the Edirom |
| 38 | +software was only the first step of a worthwhile engagement with both the format |
| 39 | +and the emerging community. I was fascinated by the fact that working with MEI |
| 40 | +meant working with music professionals worldwide. Seeing all the effort done to |
| 41 | +bring together such things as critical editions, diverse historical notations, |
| 42 | +or music analysis in a single format on the sole basis of shared interest was |
| 43 | +the spirit that fuelled my commitment to MEI. |
| 44 | + |
| 45 | +As Board member, I would love to care for preserving and spreading this spirit |
| 46 | +by promoting open communication standards to foster a high rate of community |
| 47 | +involvement. Although these general issues might not promote new features in |
| 48 | +MEI’s encoding guidelines, I see them as the central aspect of MEI’s success. |
| 49 | + |
| 50 | +Moreover, I envision more frequent stable releases of the MEI schemata and |
| 51 | +guidelines and would love to foster this through my engagement as Technical |
| 52 | +Co-Chair in improving and automating the build and release processes of the MEI |
| 53 | +schemata and guidelines. |
| 54 | + |
| 55 | + |
| 56 | +## Martha Thomae Elias |
| 57 | + |
| 58 | +### CV |
| 59 | + |
| 60 | +I am a postdoctoral research fellow for the ECHOES project at NOVA University of |
| 61 | +Lisbon, where I lead the development of digital tools to support search and |
| 62 | +analysis of chants encoded in MEI. With a PhD and Master’s in Music Technology |
| 63 | +from McGill University and a Bachelor’s in Mathematics from Universidad del |
| 64 | +Valle de Guatemala, my academic journey bridges technology, music, and cultural |
| 65 | +preservation. |
| 66 | + |
| 67 | +At McGill’s Distributed Digital Music Archives and Libraries (DDMAL) Lab, I |
| 68 | +contributed to the Single Interface for Music Score Searching and Analysis |
| 69 | +(SIMSSA) Research Project, directed by Ichiro Fujinaga, which focuses on |
| 70 | +developing computational methods for recognizing music symbols in digital images |
| 71 | +of music documents. |
| 72 | + |
| 73 | +In my independent research, I have specialized in the preservation and encoding |
| 74 | +of mensural music. I developed the Automatic Scoring-up Tool for mensural |
| 75 | +notation, later integrating it into the Measuring Polyphony Editor. My PhD |
| 76 | +dissertation focused on digitizing and encoding a Guatemalan polyphonic |
| 77 | +choirbook from the colonial period, using optical music recognition, automatic |
| 78 | +scoring up, and computational error detection techniques to preserve this |
| 79 | +valuable repertoire. |
| 80 | + |
| 81 | +### Candidate Statement |
| 82 | + |
| 83 | +I previously served on the MEI Board, where I focused on advocating for early |
| 84 | +music notations, specifically mensural and neume notations. Since then, I have |
| 85 | +taught workshops on early music encoding, including sessions on mensural |
| 86 | +notation at the Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference (2023) alongside Anna |
| 87 | +Plaksin, and neume notation at the same conference (2024) with Elsa De Luca. |
| 88 | + |
| 89 | +If elected to the Board, I aim to expand MEI’s presence in Latin America by |
| 90 | +building on my collaborations with Digital Humanities organizations in the |
| 91 | +region, particularly through connections facilitated by Gimena del Rio Riande. |
| 92 | +Over the past two years, I have led Spanish-language MEI workshops in Latin |
| 93 | +America, including online sessions during Semana HD (2023 and 2024) and an |
| 94 | +in-person workshop at the TEI conference in Argentina (2024). |
| 95 | + |
| 96 | +Additionally, I am honored to deliver the closing keynote for the first Latin |
| 97 | +American Music Information Retrieval (LAMIR) workshop. These recent developments |
| 98 | +have prepared me to help expand the MEI community in Latin America, fostering |
| 99 | +its integration within the broader digital humanities landscape. |
| 100 | + |
| 101 | + |
| 102 | +## Anna E. Kijas |
| 103 | + |
| 104 | +### CV |
| 105 | + |
| 106 | +Anna E. Kijas is the Assistant Director of Digital Scholarship and Lilly Music |
| 107 | +Library at Tufts University. Her academic training includes master’s degrees in |
| 108 | +library and information science from Simmons College, music with a concentration |
| 109 | +in musicology from Tufts University, as well as a bachelor of arts in music |
| 110 | +literature and performance from Northeastern University. In 2022, Anna |
| 111 | +co-founded [Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online](https://www.sucho.org/), |
| 112 | +an initiative focused on safeguarding and preserving the digital cultural |
| 113 | +heritage of Ukraine during the Russo-Ukrainian War. |
| 114 | + |
| 115 | +Through musicology and libraries she became involved with digital humanities, |
| 116 | +exploring and pursuing ways in which computational methods and tools can augment |
| 117 | +scholarship and publishing. Anna’s interests are centered in pedagogical |
| 118 | +approaches and application of digital humanities tools and methods in historical |
| 119 | +research, and in the use of standards, including TEI and MEI, for open access |
| 120 | +research and publishing. She is also interested in supporting sustainable ways |
| 121 | +of developing digital projects through the use of minimal computing. Since 2018, |
| 122 | +Anna has been leading an open-access music incipit encoding |
| 123 | +project, [Rebalancing the Music Canon](https://rebalancing-music-canon.com/) |
| 124 | +that focuses on making works by historically un(der)-represented people more |
| 125 | +discoverable, decentering the musical canon, and making data-driven music |
| 126 | +scholarship more diverse and inclusive. More info at <https://annakijas.com/>. |
| 127 | + |
| 128 | +### Candidate Statement |
| 129 | + |
| 130 | +I have been actively contributing to and participating in the MEI community for |
| 131 | +the past seven years, including serving as a co-chair of the Digital Pedagogy |
| 132 | +Interest Group (2020-2023), Administrative Chair of the MEI Board (2022-2024), |
| 133 | +MEC host (2020), and a member of multiple MEC program committees. It would be an |
| 134 | +honor to be elected and serve on the MEI Board once more. I would bring a unique |
| 135 | +perspective based on my experiences as both a scholar and librarian who is |
| 136 | +interested in pushing the boundaries of musicology (and humanities, in general) |
| 137 | +not only through the application of computational methods, but also by |
| 138 | +considering issues around diversity, accessibility, and sustainability in the |
| 139 | +data we create or curate, the research we do, and the projects we develop. |
| 140 | +Through the MEI Board, I would advocate for an inclusive and praxis-focused |
| 141 | +approach to the ongoing development of MEI. I would continue to identify ways in |
| 142 | +which the MEI can support an inclusive and diverse membership, especially by |
| 143 | +fostering and supporting emerging or early-career scholars and students. |
| 144 | + |
| 145 | + |
| 146 | +## Joshua Neumann |
| 147 | + |
| 148 | +### CV |
| 149 | + |
| 150 | +Following a BMus in Music Performance and MM in Music History, Joshua Neumann |
| 151 | +authored one of the first digital musicology PhD dissertations in the United |
| 152 | +States, focused on performing traditions in Italian Opera and supported by |
| 153 | +grants from the US Department of Education and the University of Florida. He |
| 154 | +recently completed a term as Executive Editor of The Opera Journal, and |
| 155 | +currently serves as co-chair of MEI’s Digital Pedagogy Interest Group. Joining |
| 156 | +the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz in 2021, his introduction to the |
| 157 | +MEI community came through the conversion of the Joseph Haydn Werke metadata into |
| 158 | +MEI. He is currently running a project focused on integrating vocal performance |
| 159 | +analysis with notation expression variant-inclusive MEI as a means of examining |
| 160 | +Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s long association with Die Winterreise in relationship |
| 161 | +to modern conceptions of the cycle. |
| 162 | + |
| 163 | +### Candidate Statement |
| 164 | + |
| 165 | +My interest in serving on the MEI Board emanates from my belief in leveraging |
| 166 | +the power of digital spaces for enhanced democratization and access to |
| 167 | +scholarship, especially documentation and preservation of musical creative |
| 168 | +practice and various kinds of musical documents from diverse populations. MEI |
| 169 | +rightly situates itself as the world leading standard for representing a broad |
| 170 | +range of musical documents and structures and is primed for adaptation for use |
| 171 | +with additional musical traditions, both notated and aural/oral. Currently |
| 172 | +serving as co-chair of the Digital Pedagogy IG has impressed upon me the need |
| 173 | +for being proactive about expanding within the community, and developing |
| 174 | +strategic partnerships is a natural possibility. One example is the development |
| 175 | +of a partnered-driven pilot project to introduce MEI as cultural preservation |
| 176 | +and interdisciplinary education in American secondary schools. Pursuing |
| 177 | +opportunities to expand the community and how the technological development both |
| 178 | +contribute to MEI’s sustainability and usability as a means of democratizing |
| 179 | +music scholarship, cultural preservation, and access thereto. |
| 180 | + |
| 181 | + |
| 182 | +## Klaus Rettinghaus |
| 183 | + |
| 184 | +### CV |
| 185 | + |
| 186 | +I received my diploma in astrophysics from the Technical University of Berlin in |
| 187 | +2007 with a thesis on solar winds. I completed my studies in musicology and |
| 188 | +Protestant theology at the Humboldt University of Berlin in 2012 with a |
| 189 | +dissertation on the sacred works of Otto Nicolai at the Technical University of |
| 190 | +Berlin. After my doctorate, I worked at the Bach Archive Leipzig from 2011 to |
| 191 | +2020, where I was responsible for the structural and technical development of |
| 192 | +Bach digital. For the last four years I have been working as a music engraving |
| 193 | +technologist at Enote GmbH in Berlin and lead the internal Verovio development |
| 194 | +group. Within the MEI community, I am a permanent member of the MEI technical |
| 195 | +team and several interest groups. My academic involvement also includes the |
| 196 | +position of co-convener of the Digital Musicology section of the German |
| 197 | +Musicological Society (GfM). |
| 198 | + |
| 199 | +### Candidate Statement |
| 200 | + |
| 201 | +I am honoured to have been nominated again as a candidate for the upcoming |
| 202 | +election of the MEI Board of Directors. It is a privilege to serve as part of |
| 203 | +this great community. I would very much like to continue my work on the Board |
| 204 | +and contribute my expertise in any way I can. In particular, I would like to |
| 205 | +continue to support the development of Verovio, SibMEI, MuseScore and other |
| 206 | +tools that build on MEI to meet the diverse needs of community members. |
| 207 | + |
| 208 | + |
| 209 | +## Kristina Richts-Matthaei |
| 210 | + |
| 211 | +### CV |
| 212 | + |
| 213 | +Kristina Richts-Matthaei works as a digital humanist at the interface between |
| 214 | +library and information science and (digital) musicology. She has been in |
| 215 | +contact with MEI for many years and has been primarily involved in the metadata |
| 216 | +area and its further development. She was spokesperson for the MEI Metadata |
| 217 | +Group for many years. Since January 2024, she has been head of the Centre for |
| 218 | +Digital Music Documentation (CDMD) at the Academy of Sciences and Literature in |
| 219 | +Mainz, where she is responsible for all digital aspects of long-term |
| 220 | +musicological projects in the Academy's program (data standards, data curation, |
| 221 | +long-term archiving, documentation of data processes, project consulting, etc.) |
| 222 | +as well as the development of a specialist contact point for the conception, |
| 223 | +coordination and further development of digital work catalogs in music and |
| 224 | +digital transformation processes for musicological metadata as a whole. In |
| 225 | +addition, she is currently leading a DFG project to further develop the MerMEId |
| 226 | +metadata editor and is MerMEId Community Manager. |
| 227 | + |
| 228 | +### Candidate Statement |
| 229 | + |
| 230 | +My general interest in MEI is to help to develop it into a data format that |
| 231 | +complies with FAIR & CARE principles and that can be used in all parts of the |
| 232 | +world for recording musicological phenomena. The MEI community has always proved |
| 233 | +to be a very friendly and open-minded community, and this should remain so in |
| 234 | +these difficult times. |
| 235 | + |
| 236 | +As my focus is mainly on metadata, I would like to work towards being a neutral |
| 237 | +international point of contact for digital catalogs of works based on the MEI |
| 238 | +standard, from conceptualization to digital implementation. This will still |
| 239 | +require a lot of community-based coordination in order to bring together the |
| 240 | +various approaches in the best possible way and to integrate additional |
| 241 | +recording options that have not yet been considered, such as the recording of |
| 242 | +audio metadata. In this context, it is also important to enhance the ways MEI |
| 243 | +interacts with Linked Open Data, thus enriching interoperability of MEI with |
| 244 | +other standards. |
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