A singer in the "Rondo" Vocal Ensemble and a co-organizer of a concert which gathered musicians playing 1,000 km away from each other. At our Faculty, she is preparing a doctoral dissertation. Aleksandra Knapińska from the Department of Computer Systems and Networks is our guest in the #JestemzPWr #JestemzWIT series.

Our doctoral student learned to play the piano and violin at a music school, but her true passion has always been singing. “When singing, I feel that I am closer to beauty. I can forget about my worries.” The Rondo Vocal Ensemble, which she is involved in, was established 18 years ago by a group of music school graduates. Aleksandra has known many of the ensemble members since elementary school.

“We sing a diverse repertoire at concerts and competitions in Poland and abroad – early, contemporary, religious and secular music. Recently, we took part in the project "Pan Kleks Philharmonic" with the National Forum of Music Children's Choirs and the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra. We recorded an album and gave eight concerts at the National Forum of Music. I love performing for children! I am pleased with their spontaneous reactions to what is happening on stage. We, as musicians, also have fun then,” says Aleksandra Knapińska.

As part of her doctorate under the supervision of Prof. Krzysztof Walkowiak and Dr. Piotr Lechowicz she is mainly focused on the use of AI in the optimization of optical networks. The idea, put simply, is to transmit data more efficiently via optical fibres. In her talk with the #JestemzPWr and #JestemzWIT series she explains that it is an opportunity to cooperate with scientists from abroad and also develop these musical interests.

Her supervisor put her in touch with a professor from Politecnico di Torino, who also researches optical networks, and... also plays the piano. “Right after I arrived for my internship at the university in Turin, the professor took me to a concert and to music workshops,” recalls our guest.

My visit to Turin resulted in a project named Networked Music Performance. We divided the musicians – students of the Academy of Music in Wrocław – into two bands. One played live in Wrocław in front of an audience, and the other went to Politecnico di Torino and connected with us live using our original MEVO system,” recalls Aleksandra Knapińska.

Using the MEVO system, musicians staying physically in two locations 1,000 km apart from each other, i.e. Wrocław and Turin, simultaneously performed pieces written especially for this occasion by composers from the New Media Arts and Science Club at Wrocław Academy of Music.

The MEVO system allowed a stable connection with very low delay and very good sound quality. It enabled the musicians to play in conditions similar to playing together in one room, and the audience did not experience any delays or quality losses.

Our guest was responsible for the technical layer during the concert. “We had set up all the equipment the day before. Unfortunately, someone moved something during the night and an hour and a half before the concert all that could be heard from the speakers was crackling. Fortunately, we managed to fix it!” she recalls.

The data from the concert served as a basis for a research paper. Who would know that music and computer science can go hand in hand?” observes our doctoral student.

The experiences from the concert along with the analysis of the collected data were described in a paper that was accepted for presentation at the 4th International Symposium on the Internet of Sounds, which took place in October last year in Pisa.