PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Roger Dannenberg

Also known as Roger B. Dannenberg

Roger Dannenberg is a Carnegie Mellon computer scientist whose AI research connects music understanding, live accompaniment and composition. He completed his computer science PhD there in 1982 and built a computer to accompany live musicians in 1984. His work included the Nyquist language and Audacity, which grew from a 1999 research project with graduate student Dominic Mazzoni. A trumpet player and composer, he co-composed La Mare dels Peixos with Jorge Sastre and coauthored 2021 research on generating songs from an example. He is Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, Art and Music at Carnegie Mellon University and a 2023 ACM Fellow.

Works
273
Citations
4,697
h-index
35
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 27 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1982

    A Carnegie Mellon doctorate

    He earns a PhD in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University in 1982 under Peter Hibbard, with the thesis Resource Sharing in a Network of Personal Computers. His education also includes a BS in electrical engineering from Rice University and an MS in computer engineering from Case Western Reserve University.

  2. 1984

    A computer accompanies live musicians

    In 1984, he builds a custom computer to accompany live musicians in real time.

  3. 1994–1997

    Nyquist for computer music

    His computer accompaniment technology appears in a commercial product in 1994. By 1997, he is a senior research scientist in computer science and a fellow of Carnegie Mellon's Studio for Creative Inquiry in the College of Fine Arts. His Nyquist language provides a common notation for digital signal processing and music composition.

  4. 1999

    The beginnings of Audacity

    In 1999, he works with Carnegie Mellon graduate student Dominic Mazzoni on a tool to visualize audio analysis algorithms. The project grows into Audacity, a general audio editor.

  5. By 2013

    SmartMusic and music tutors

    By 2013, his computer accompaniment work leads to three patents and SmartMusic, a system used by more than 100,000 music students. He also plays a central role in developing Piano Tutor and Rock Prodigy, interactive multimedia systems for music education.

  6. February 2020

    The Mother of Fishes

    In February 2020, he produces the English-language world premiere of The Mother of Fishes at CAPA Theater in Pittsburgh. He co-composes the opera, the English version of La Mare dels Peixos, with Jorge Sastre.

  7. 2021

    Generating songs from examples

    In 2021, he coauthors Personalized Popular Music Generation Using Imitation and Structure with Shuqi Dai, Xichu Ma and Ye Wang. The paper proposes a statistical machine learning model that captures the structure, melody, chord and bass style of an example song.

  8. 2023

    An ACM fellowship

    He becomes a 2023 Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery for contributions to computer science through computer music systems.

  9. By 2025

    Accomplice follows keyboard players

    By 2025, he develops Accomplice, a computer accompaniment system for MIDI keyboard performances. It matches live playing to a score, estimates the position and tempo, and plays a MIDI file in synchrony.

  10. As of October 2026

    Emeritus professor at Carnegie Mellon

    As of October 2026, he is Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, Art and Music at Carnegie Mellon University. His work includes live performance with artificial computer musicians and automatic composition, and he is also a trumpet player and composer.

Career

  1. NowCarnegie Mellon UniversityProfessor Emeritus of Computer Science, Art and Music

Education

  1. 1982Carnegie Mellon UniversityPhD in computer science
  2. Rice UniversityBS in electrical engineering
  3. Case Western Reserve UniversityMS in computer engineering

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Read "Beyond Productivity: Information Technology, Innovation, and Creativity" at NAP.edu nationalacademies.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  2. Roger Dannenberg | Carnegie Mellon University Computer Science Department csd.cmu.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  3. S3 Episode 4: Making Machines Make Music | Where What If Becomes What's Next Podcast cmu.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  4. Faculty Research Guide 1997 cs.cmu.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  5. Credits - Audacity Manual manual.audacityteam.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  6. CIRMMT — Roger Dannenberg, Carnegie Mellon University, USA: Music understanding and the future of music performance cirmmt.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  7. The Mother of Fishes - Soundcool soundcool.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  8. [2105.04709] Personalized Popular Music Generation Using Imitation and Structure arxiv.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  9. Four SCS Faculty Named 2023 ACM Fellows cs.cmu.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  10. Spring 2025 Projects | Roger B. Dannenberg cs.cmu.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  11. Dr. Roger Dannenberg - School of Music - Carnegie Mellon University cmu.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.