Approaching a new piece of music, especially one as complex as an opera, is an imposing challenge for the audience. There is almost too much to take in - the story, music, language, the action and staging. Most audience members will feel as though they have barely grazed the surface the first time they see …
Interview with James Maddalena (Simon Powers)
Baritone James Maddalena chats about his role as Simon Powers in the new opera Death and the Powers. He describes the character of Powers. At the end of Scene Two, "he goes completely digital. He leaves his body behind and goes into the system." Maddalena vanishes from the set and sings from an off-stage location …
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Variety magazine features Hyperinstruments
Variety, the venerable entertainment trade mag (Variety is in/famous for coining zippy industry lingo), has a story today about composer Tod Machover's hyperinstruments. In Smart instruments: Musician's tools play along with you, reporter David S. Cohen writes: "Ever since the invention of electric amplification, there's been tension in the music world -- a perpetual stare-down …
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50 years of music and technology at M.I.T.
Yesterday's event, Music|Machines: Celebrating 50 Years of Music & Technology @ MIT, was a great success. The all-day program of talks, discussions and evening concert featured some giants of the past half-century of music and technology and attracted an overflow crowd to the M.I.T. Media Lab. The day-time talks were webcast live. Videos of those …
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Q&A with Tod Machover – “What are you working on now?”
Here are the final questions from New Vilna Review Editor Daniel Levenson's recent interview with composer Tod Machover: NVR: Can you give us a little glimpse of what you might be working on right now? TM: Whenever I finish a project as large and involving as Death and the Powers (which took me about 10 …
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Q&A with Tod Machover – “What’s your role at the MIT Media Lab and beyond?”
Here is question 5 from New Vilna Review Editor Daniel Levenson's recent interview with composer Tod Machover: NVR: You are currently the Head of the Media Lab's Hyperinstruments/Opera of the Future group – can you tell us a little about how you became involved with the Media Lab and what role you see the Hyperinstruments/Opera …
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Tod Machover remembers Milton Babbitt (1916-2011)
By Tod Machover I know Milton Babbitt hadn't been feeling well, but he was one of those people you think will never die. Unlike Elliott Carter, who always seemed much younger than he was, Babbitt always seemed older...deep voice, wrinkled, small and intense, ancient in middle age. I got to know Milton well over the …
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Q&A with Tod Machover – “How have your collaborations influenced you?”
Here is question 4 from New Vilna Review Editor Daniel Levenson's recent interview with composer Tod Machover: NVR: Throughout your career you have had the opportunity to collaborate with an incredibly diverse range of artists, thinkers, writers and entrepreneurs – can you tell us a little about how these collaborative efforts have influenced the ways …
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Q&A with Tod Machover – “What inspires you to make music accessible and interactive?”
Here is question 3 from New Vilna Review Editor Daniel Levenson's recent interview with composer Tod Machover: NVR: It seems as though a large part of the work you do involves an educational element – what is it that inspires you to not only want to create this music, theater and art, but to put …
Q&A with Tod Machover – “What role does Jewish identity play in your work?”
Here is question 2 from New Vilna Review Editor Daniel Levenson's recent interview with composer Tod Machover: NVR: During the event at the NCAC, the moderator, Professor Lloyd Schwartz, asked a question about the role that Jewish identity plays in the work you do, and specifically whether it figured into the creation of this new opera. …
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Opera of the Future 