Hailed as a “musical visionary” and “America’s most wired composer,” inventor, composer, professor, and Faculty Director of the MIT Media Lab Tod Machover will deliver the address for the Peabody Conservatory’s 2026 Graduation ceremonies on Wednesday, May 20. Machover will attend both the morning ceremony for undergraduates and the afternoon ceremony for graduate students, and will receive the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music and Dance in America, the highest honor bestowed by the Peabody Institute, presented annually since 1980.
“The breadth and depth of Tod Machover’s career—his work in participatory opera, as an educator and Faculty Director of the MIT Media Lab, his genuinely groundbreaking and prescient work at the intersection of music and technology, along with an overall and broad impact on the American music scene—make him an ideal recipient for the Peabody Medal,” said Fred Bronstein, dean of the Peabody Institute. “Today, Peabody’s own innovative and expanding tech-based arts training programs are built upon the foundation created by Tod Machover and other early leaders in the field, and Machover continues to provide inspiration especially in the fast-evolving relationship between AI and the creative process. We are honored to welcome to campus a true pioneer and thought leader.”
Opera of the Future 