About Us

The Illiac Software team is not an anonymous group of software programmers. First and foremost, we are professional musicians, teachers and educators, composers and theorists.

We have over well over 50 years of combined experience teaching music theory at the university level. We use Harmonia in our own classrooms, and we designed it to improve the quality of education for our students, our TAs, and ourselves.

We believe it can help you, too.

Dr. Heinrich Taube

President

Dr. Heinrich Taube
President

B.A., M.A. Music Composition, Stanford University; Ph.D. Music Composition, University of Iowa.

Professor of music composition and music theory at University of Illinois since 1995.

Author of Notes from the Metalevel, an Introduction to Computer Composition and the music software packages Common Music and Grace. Recipient of the Eric Siday Prize for Musical Creativity from the ICMC 2003.

Dr. Ashley Wang

Director of Marketing and Sales

Dr. Ashley Wang
Director of Marketing and Salse

DMA in Music Composition and Theory

Recipient of the Theodore Presser Award, a New Music USA Composer Assistance Program grant, and an American Composers Forum Encore grant.

Dr. Ming-ching Chiu

Senior Software Engineer

Dr. Ming-ching Chiu
Senior Software Engineer

DMA in Music Composition and Theory

Author of LASSIE, a graphical interface for DISSCO (Digital Instrument for Sound Synthesis and Composition)

Dr. Rachel Mann

Senior Content Developer

Dr. Rachel Mann
Senior Content Developer

Ph.D. in Music Theory (University of Texas)

Assistant Professor at the University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley

Dr. David Psenicka

Senior Software Engineer

Dr. David Psenicka
Senior Software Engineer

DMA in Music Composition and Theory

Author of FOMUS: a Music Notation Software Package for Computer Music Composers.
Author of Sporch: a software application that converts audio recordings into orchestrations, selecting pitches and instruments that best recreate the original sound.

Garon Fok

Quality Assurance Engineer

Garon Fok
Quality Assurance Engineer

BME in Music Education (Class of 2021)

Junior in instrumental music education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with added coursework in composition.

Dan Fontana

Frontend Developer

Dan Fontana
Frontend Developer

BA in Political Science (University of Illinois)

Graduate of the Fullstack Academy of Code (Software Engineering Immersive) and instructor at Codeverse.

Grants, Publications, Presentations, Posters, Clinics, Workshops & Exhibitions

GRANTS

Beere, Halim (PI), Illiac Software, Inc. (Co-PI) “STTR Phase I: Automated Music Theory Instruction for Secondary and Post-Secondary Education.” Sponsored by National Science Foundation, STTR Phase II Program, Educational Technologies and Applications. Federal, Amount awarded $225,000.00. (Submitted June 11, 2014 for period January 1, 2015 – December 31, 2015; status: funded).

Heinrich Taube, Heinrich (PI). Proof Of Concept Grant for Harmonia from Office of Technology Management, UIUC, 2014. University, Amount awarded: $15,607.

Taube, Heinrich (PI) “Harmonia: a music theory application that combines notation, automatic analysis and grading, word processing, and multimedia playback.” Sponsored by University of Illinois NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Sites program. University, Amount awarded $3,000. (Submitted 2013; status: funded).

Taube, Heinrich, Paris Smaragdis, P., Mark Hasegawa-Johnson, M., and Stephen Downie, S. (Co-PI’s), Heinrich Taube. Strategic Research Initiative, UIUC College of Engineering, 2012. University, Amount awarded: $100,000.

Taube, Heinrich (PI), and Rachel Mann. “Building an Interactive Music Board for the Music Theory Classroom.” Sponsored by the University of Illinois Provost’s Initiative on Teaching Advancement (PITA). University, Amount awarded: $7,500. (Awarded June 2, 2011; status: funded).

Taube, Heinrich (PI). “Teacher-Driven Design for Automated Music Instruction.” Sponsored by the University of Illinois Campus Research Board. Also Designated an Arnold O. Beckman Research Award (for projects of special distinction, promise, or resource value). University, Amount awarded: $11,320. (Submitted September 13, 2010; status: funded).

Taube, Heinrich (PI), Wm. Andrew Burnson, and Rachel Mann. “Returning ‘Practice’ to the Music Theory Classroom.” Sponsored by the University of Illinois Provost’s Initiative on Teaching Advancement (PITA). University, Amount awarded: $7,114. (Awarded May 29, 2009; status: funded).

Heinrich Taube, Heinrich (PI). College of Fine and Applied Arts Creative Research Award (initial grant for software Chorale Composer), 2008. $6700.

PUBLICATIONS

Taube, Heinrich. “Automatic Tonal Analysis: Toward the Implementation of a Music Theory Workbench,” Computer Music Journal, 24:3, pp 18-32.

PRESENTATIONS

Rachel Mann, “Core Theory Reboot: Harnessing Automatic Tonal Analysis Technology in the Music Theory Classroom.” Paper presented at the joint national conference of the College Music Society and the Association for Technology in Music Instruction (CMS/ATMI), Santa Fe, New Mexico, 29 October 2016.

Rachel Mann and Heinrich Taube, “Harmonia: Multimedia Software for Paperless Music Theory Instruction.” Panel presentation at the Designs on E-Learning Conference, University of North Carolina-Wilmington, Wilmington, North Carolina, 11 September 2013.

Rachel Mann, “Harmonia: A Tool for the 21st-Century Music Learner.” Paper presented at the joint national conference of the College Music Society and the Association for Technology in Music Instruction (CMS/ATMI), San Diego, California, 17 November 2012.

Rachel Mann, “Introducing Harmonia: A Technological Approach to Teaching Music Theory.” Paper presented at L’apprentissage de la musique: son apport pour la vie de l’apprenant du 21e siècle/Music Learning: Benefits for the 21st-Century Learner, a joint international conference of the Fédération des Associations de Musiciens Éducateurs du Québec and Observatoire interdisciplinaire de création et de recherché en musique, Québec City, Canada, 22 November 2012.

Rachel Mann, “Returning ‘Practice’ to the Music Theory Classroom.” Presentation presented at the Provost’s Initiative on Teaching Advancement Colloquium, ACES Library, University of Illinois, 12 October 2011.

Taube, Heinrich and Burnson, Andrew, “Software for Teaching Music Theory,” Heinrich Taube and Andrew Burnson, in Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference, Music Conference; Montreal, Quebec, Canada: pp 175-178. 2009

Rachel Mann and Wm. Andrew Burnson, “Chorale Composer: Software for Teaching Music Theory.” Multi-media presentation delivered at the University of Illinois composition forum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 6 October 2009.

POSTERS

Rachel Mann, “Computer-Aided Analysis and Pedagogy: Algorithmic Harmony and Voice Leading.” Poster presented at the annual conference of the Texas Society for Music Theory, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, 24-25 February 2017.

WORKSHOPS & CLINICS

Rachel Mann, “There’s an App for That: A Part-Writing and Analysis Tool for the Music Theory Classroom.” Workshop accepted to Pedagogy into Practice: Teaching Music Theory in the Twenty-First Century, Music Theory Pedagogy Conference, Lee University, Cleveland, Tennessee, 3 June 2017. Rachel Mann, invited workshop and training session on Harmonia music theory software presented for academic faculty and administrators at Temple University. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 9-10 January 2017.

Rachel Mann, “Automating Music Theory Instruction for the 21st Century.” Clinic presented at the joint annual conference of the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) and Technology Institute for Music Educators (TI:ME), San Antonio, Texas, 10-13 February 2016.

Harmonia Project selected to the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (I-Corp) program as part of the first regional cohort hosted at the University of Illinois, Urbana, IL. 2014.

Harmonia project accepted into competitive I-Start Entrepreneur Assistance Program at the top funding level of 90%. I-Start targets University of Illinois researchers that have a strong potential for technology commercialization through new company formation. 2014

INVITED GUEST LECTURES

Rachel Mann, “Harmonia and educational technology.” Invited Skype demonstration on presented for a music theory pedagogy class at Baylor University, Waco, Texas, 14 February 2018.

Rachel Mann, “Building Quality Education Software for the Music Theory Classroom.” Invited Skype demonstration on presented for a music theory pedagogy class at Youngstown State University, Youngstown, Ohio, 11 April 2017.

Rachel Mann, “Introducing New Technology in Music Theory Pedagogy.” Invited Skype demonstration on Harmonia presented for a music theory pedagogy class at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, 15 September 2015.

Rick Taube, “Harmonia, Multimedia Software for Music Theory Instruction.” Lecture presented at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 14 February 2014.

Rick Taube, “Automatic Theory Instruction.” Lecture presented at National Taiwan Sport University, Taoyuan City, Taiwan, 21 September 2010.

Rick Taube, “Interactive Theory Instruction.” Lecture presented at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, September 2008.

EXHIBITIONS

Society for Music Theory, Arlington, Virginia, 2-5 November 2017.

College Music Society, San Antonio, Texas, 26-28 October 2017.

Illinois Music Education Association, Peoria, IL 28-29 Jan. 2017.

American Musicological Society and Society for Music Theory, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 3-6 November 2016.

College Music Society, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 27-29 October 2016.

Texas Music Educators Association, San Antonio, Texas, 2016.

Illinois Music Education Association, Peoria, IL 28-29 Jan. 2016.

Society for Music Theory, St. Louis, Missouri, 29 October – 1 November 2015.

College Music Society, Indianapolis, 5-7 November 2015.

Illinois Music Education Association, Peoria, IL 28-29 Jan. 2015.