These photos of the firework finale at the Edinburgh Festival are just too spectacular not to share! So, what are some 21st-century ideas for merging music, technology and gunpowder? From Tod Machover's Facebook album, where he writes: Had VIP seats for the end-of-Festival fireworks last evening in Princes Gardens just below Edinburgh Castle. Remarkable to …
Photos from Edinburgh
Composer Tod Machover swung through Edinburgh this past weekend to meet with Festival organizers. Looks like he also found time to explore the city. Here are some photos from Tod's Facebook album, with his comments! Click on the photos to enlarge.
Skellig Act 1 Scene 6
Listening to the brief excerpts from Skellig the other day brought back a deluge of memories about its wonderful run at the Sage Gateshead in 2008. Few people have heard the opera because it has not yet been recorded. We thought you might enjoy this glimpse from the first act. Matthew Long sings the role …
Update: A Toronto Symphony
In mid-June, Tod officially launched his project with the Toronto Symphony at the ideacity 2012 conference. On the project blog, Tod explains the ideas behind his "launch music": To officially launch our A Toronto Symphony collaboration, I created a series of chords last month to serve as a kind of “genetic” code for the project, and also …
Listen! Sounds from “Skellig”
Tod's current project, "A Toronto Symphony", is about active, mindful listening to the world around us, in this case the city of Toronto. The composer asks the inhabitants to focus on the sounds that evoke strong feelings, images and memories about their city and their lives, raw sounds that he will transform into music. As …
Wired UK Magazine photo shoot
WIRED UK was at the MIT Media Lab last week to do a photo shoot. The Lab - including the Opera of the Future group - will be prominently featured in an upcoming issue.
Recording session!
Tod was in New York on Thursday recording a new song, "Open Up the House," for soprano and piano, commissioned by Opera America to celebrate the opening of the new National Opera Center in Manhattan next month. Forty new songs - a real cross-section of contemporary American music - have been created and recorded for …
From Our Archives: Toy Symphony in Dublin
"I can play [the Hyperviolin] and it will sound like a flute or a human voice, yet using the technique of the violin that I have learnt. The possibilities are limitless...And the kids respond to it because it is current. Their imaginations are stimulated, they're having fun, and they know they are part of something special. That excites …
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Anna-Sophie Mutter visits Media Lab!
A fun way to start the week! We spotted this photo on Adrian Anantawan's Facebook: "Two amazing people at the MIT Media Lab! 🙂 — with Tod Machover and Anne-Sophie Mutter." Wonder what they discussed? #EarsBurning!
Hyperscore in Action: A-to-A Project
One of the core ideas in Hyperscore, the composing software developed by Tod Machover's team at the M.I.T. Media Lab, is that music is built from "motifs" - small melodies and rhythm patterns - which are assembled into larger musical structures. In this video, Tod coaches a groups of children in Armenia and the U.S. as …
Opera of the Future 