Daniel J. Levitin

Daniel J. Levitin is associate professor of psychology at McGill University, where he holds the Bell Chair in the Psychology of Electronic Communication and the FQRNT Strategic Chair in Psychology, and where he heads one of the largest laboratories for the study of music perception and cognition in North America. He is an Associate member of the Department of Music Theory, Program in Sound Recording, and Program in Music Technology at McGill. He earned his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology with a Ph.D. minor in Music Technology from the University of Oregon, his B.A. from Stanford in cognitive psychology (with honors) and did post-doctoral training in psychoacoustics at Interval Research Corporation and in neuroimaging at Stanford University. He has also studied at M.I.T., UC Berkeley, Berklee College of Music, and completed the professional management executive course through Harvard Business School.

As a musician (tenor saxophone, guitar and bass), he has performed with Mel TormÈ, Nancy Wilson, and members of the Steve Miller Band and Santana. Levitin served as Vice President of Artists & Repertoire at 415/Columbia Records (now Sony Records) from 1984- 1988, as President in 1989. After 415, Levitin ran a successful production and consulting company whose clients included every major American record label and several film companies. Hhe has produced or consulted albums by artists including Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, and Chris Isaak.

Levitin has published 20 peer-reviewed scientific articles, and over 300 articles about music and music technology in commercial and trade magazines including Billboard, Electronic Musician, Mix, and Grammy. For his technical and marketing contributions to the recording industry, Levitin has been awarded 12 gold or platinum records, and two of his projects received Oscar nominations. He has consulted on underwater sound source separation for the U.S. Navy, and currently directs the McGill Laboratory for the Study of Music Cognition, Perception and Expertise.