About
There are four areas of potential interest: academic, music and dance, open source, and contact information.
Academic
I have four degrees:
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Electrical Engineering & Electronics from the University of Glasgow, UK (2009-2013)
- Master of Arts (interdisciplinary) in Computer Science and Music from the University of Victoria, Canada (2006-2008)
- Bachelor of Music from the University of Victoria, Canada (2004-2006)
- Bachelor of Arts (first-class Honours) in Philosophy, with an extended minor in Music and a minor in Mathematics from Simon Fraser University, Canada (1997-2003)
Contact
Email: graham@percival-music.ca
Of course, thanks to various heroic whistleblowers, we know that all emails are being stored and read at will by various intelligence services. Fortunately or not, so far I've never dealt with anything sensitive. For that reason, when my latest GPG key expired, I didn't bother setting up a new one.
In the past, I set up a non-expiring key and forgot the passphrase; you can see the details on my blog post I'm an idiot: forgotten GPG passphrase.
If you need to communicate with me privately, I'm quite willing to set up a new GPG key.
Open Source
GNU LilyPond, a sheet music engraver:
- Documentation Editor, 2003–2013, including one year of running the LilyPond Grand Documentation project involving over 20 people to train my replacements. Just after GDP finished, I stopped doing documentation for four months (just after I finished my Master's), but then returned to this job.
- Project Manager, 2009 – 2013. I built the binary releases, trained new volunteers, and organized anything that was needed.
- Bug Meister, 2006 – 2007.
Marsyas, a framework for audio processing and feature extraction:
- Documentation, 2006 - 2008
- Bugfixes and some new features, 2010 - 2014
Strasheela, a constraint-based music composition system:
- Documentation, 2008.
Rosegarden, a music composition and editing environment:
- Programming, 2011: ported an old 19-tone equal temperament pitch tracker to the current version.
Music and Dance
Music
I began playing cello when I was four years old, and joined my first orchestra when I was nine. I began composing in Aug 2001, started playing viola in 2002, and started playing violin in 2004.
I've played cello, viola, second violin, and first violin with the West Coast Symphony Orchestra, (the best non-professional orchestra in Vancouver, Canada). I teach cello and violin as a hobby.
My primary instrument is the cello; I played the Dvorak cello concerto with two orchestras (although I should clarify that this occurred during rehearsals as a "warm-up act" or "practice stand-in" for the real soloist).
Dance
I began social partner dancing (ballroom and swing) in 2016. I was originally planning on trying half a dozen new hobbies, but I was so enthralled by dancing that I never got around to trying the others. I love the non-verbal communication in social dancing -- we don't use any choreographed steps; instead, the "leader" improvises the movements on the spot and the "follower" acts on the given directions. I happily dance both parts.