Here are five drawings done by Rohan McDonald (age 13) during the June rehearsals of Tod Machover’s Death and the Powers at the MIT Media Lab. Rohan is about to enter the ninth grade at Cambridge Montessori School, and maintains interests in singing, acting, guitar-playing, and drawing, among others. He studies guitar with Jerry Bussiere, …
Royal Society for the Arts -The Future of Music
RSA series - Tod Machover in conversation with John Kennedy. In the future will everyone be an artist distributing their work over the Web? The tendency is for the quality to settle in the middle. If artists can engage fully with their audience to critique and guide work, the quality should get better. Is there …
Continue reading "Royal Society for the Arts -The Future of Music"
Big Thinkers: Tod Machover
Death and the Powers composer Tod Machover talks about his musical vision in the Big Thinkers series on TechTV. Lots of fascinating footage... Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
First Rehearsals – Slide Show!
Posted by June We thought you'd enjoy these photographs taken during the first set of rehearsals in June 2010. Can't wait to find out how these look on stage with lighting and imagery!!
Nature interview with Tod
The current issue of Nature features an interview with Tod about Death and the Powers. Because the venerable science journal lacks a music or opera review section (what an oversight!), the interview ended up under Book reviews. In the interview, Tod explains why he has been drawn time and again to creating operas: "With the …
Death and the Powers Ticket Site Now Open
Buy tickets for the Monaco premiere of Death and the Powers. Shows run on September 24th (invitation only), September 25th (8pm), and September 26th (3pm and 8pm). Ticket prices begin at 80 euros. About Death and the Powers "When the eccentric patriarch Simon Powers departs his physical being and downloads himself into The System, his …
Continue reading "Death and the Powers Ticket Site Now Open"
Boston Magazine feature on Machover
Tod is on a media roll this week... here's a terrific article in Boston Magazine - Genius Composition: How professor Tod Machover and a group of MIT scientists are creating the future of music. Here's a quote: "Machover believes the music - not the technology - is the message. And if this means alienating the …
Smithsonian Magazine interview: Tod Machover
The just-released 40th Anniversary issue of Smithsonian magazine features a terrific interview with our very own Tod Machover, composer of Death and the Powers. Check it out! Tod Machover on Composing Music by Computer "The inventor and MIT professor talks about where music and technology will intersect over the course of the next 40 years." …
Continue reading "Smithsonian Magazine interview: Tod Machover"
Karole Armitage at work with Miseries
by June Kinoshita I dropped by the Media Lab this week to sit in on Death and the Powers rehearsals and had the privilege of catching choreographer Karole Armitage at work. It was fascinating and exhilarating to see her creative process unfurl. She explained to me that when she choreographs for operas she often turns …
Machover and Minsky at World Science Festival
Last week, a crowd gathered under the dome of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City to hear Tod Machover and artificial intelligence visionary Marvin Minsky converse about music and the mind. Tom Ashbrook, host of NPR's On Point, moderated. One take-away that I thought was particularly pertinent to opera was Marvin's opening remark: He …
Continue reading "Machover and Minsky at World Science Festival"
Opera of the Future 