Dr. Teresa Marrin Nakra

Dr. Teresa Marrin Nakra, Associate Professor of Music at The College of New Jersey, is a recognized expert in music technology. Her research interests include human-computer interfaces, music theory, music perception, and affective computing. Her interactive conducting experiences (“You're the Conductor” and “Virtual Maestro”) have been showcased across the United States and Europe at museums, music festivals, and concert halls. Her work has been profiled in the New Yorker Magazine, the New York Times, CNN Headline News, BBC World Service, and the Associated Press.

Teresa founded and runs Immersion Music, a non-profit organization that designs technical solutions for the performing arts. Clients have included Harvard University, ABC (Extreme Makeover Home Edition), Boston Children’s Museum, Children’s Discovery Museum (Illinois), the Leonard Bernstein Office, UBS, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Arizona State University, and McGill University. Teresa also has performed professionally as a conductor and violinist, in opera, symphonic, and new music productions. She holds a bachelors' degree in music (magna cum laude) from Harvard University and a PhD. from the MIT Media Laboratory.

Teresa's invention and doctoral research, the "Conductor's Jacket", was nominated by fellow alumni of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for inclusion as Object #55 in the MIT150 Exhibition, a year-long celebration of MIT's founding. It is held in the permanent collection of the MIT Museum. She was also invited to speak at the Festival of Art + Science + Technology at MIT in February 2011, as part of the MIT150 Celebration. Here is a clip of her conversation on "Music, Mind, and Meaning" with Marvin Minsky, Morwaread Farbood, and Mike Hawley: