Lauren McCall (photo: Shannel Resto)
When it comes to attracting new talent to our faculty, national borders are no barrier. Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, Lauren McCall is the newest professor to join our School of Music faculty.
Music technology a draw
An assistant research professor in composition and music technology since January 2025, McCall says she was initially intrigued by both UVic’s natural and academic environments. “I was really interested in seeing another part of the world, and I love the School’s combination of music composition and music technology . . . that’s still a pretty new thing for music schools to offer.”
With areas of interest ranging from traditional composition to extended reality interactive systems plus music & computer science educational platforms, McCall received her PhD in music technology from the Georgia Institute of Technology and her MFA in Music Composition from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She’s had her own compositions performed around North America and Europe — some of which you can listen to on her website.
McCall says she was aware of UVic though the reputation of faulty members like George Tzanetakis (music & computer science) and Christopher Butterfield (composition), both of whom had connections with her own professors at Georgia Tech and Vermont College. “I got a really good vibe from that,” she says. “And then when I was interviewing, there seemed to be a real openness to trying new things — like laptop orchestras — so it seemed like a good fit with my own background and research.”
Extending reality
Laptop orchestras and extended reality technologies are of particular interest to McCall.
“With laptop orchestra, I like to build systems where people have non-immersive interactive systems on their computers to interact with other ensemble members through a cloud-based connection . . . it provides a lot of collaborative opportunities for ensembles with composers or even just creating new arrangements of classic music pieces,” she explains. “It could be just like a musical ensemble: you may have a group of four laptops over here and four over there but they have completely different parts and they play music together like they’re an orchestra — it’s really cool!”
While she embraces the future of music technology, McCall says she did come from a traditional background, playing and teaching clarinet, piano and saxophone. “I studied a lot of jazz and classical music, but in college I had opportunities to help teach laptop orchestra classes and create pieces for them,” she says.
Her work in extended realities includes virtual and augmented realities. “Sometimes I’ll build systems where people have VR headsets and they’re immersed in a virtual space, or have augmented reality on their phone and will use a digital overlay to interact with what they see through their camera in the real world,” she explains. “Or maybe we develop an application where the phone is your instrument and your sound design is based on interactions with the digital elements . . . the range of possibilities are just endless.”
With UVic’s combined music and computer science program facing increasing demand, McCall feels access to technology and software are opening more doors than in the past. “Having a laptop isn’t such a barrier as it used to be and there’s so many different programming options: there’s both free and paid programs, online digital audio workstations . . . even social media includes sound-designing and video-editing tools now.”
She’s even hoping to conquer the learning barrier traditional music students sometimes face. “In music & computer science classes, students are always happy to tinker and test stuff out, but composition students tend to be a bit more hesitant. Sometimes they think it’s not for them or that it’s wrong to make mistakes, but the more we engage with these technologies the more people will be comfortable with them. It’s just about adjusting assignments so people don’t feel left out.”
Reflections on her first semester
Having just completed her first semester teaching courses in both composition and music & computers, McCall says some of her highlights included attending the School of Music’s student composer concerts and the annual West Coast Student Composers Symposium (featuring students from UVic, UBC and SFU), as well as getting out of the Music wing to enjoy the year-end BFA exhibit in Visual Arts and discover more of Vancouver Island.
“I enjoyed meeting my colleagues, working with students and getting to know UVic,” she concludes. “I’m looking forward to collaborating with people in the community and enjoying what the students and other professors are creating here.”