Last night's world premiere of "Festival City" went off without a hitch. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra players were on fire, and the acoustics in Usher Hall were excellent. Kudos too to the Edinburgh International Festival audience for their commitment and enthusiasm to new work. Check out this BBC report from the rehearsal, including a …
Rehearsing Festival City
From Tod Machover's Facebook page: Exciting first rehearsal yesterday with full orchestra of FESTIVAL CITY. Here's the Royal Scottish National Orchestra trying out the piece for the first time, in their rehearsal space in Glasgow. On my way back there now for more rehearsing. More pictures soon.
Play the Cauldron Connector game!
Play Cauldron Connector to win two free tickets to Tod Machover's "Festival City" premiere at the EIF's "City Noir" concert on August 27 How's your auditory and musical acumen? Test it out with the Cauldron Connector quiz designed by Akito Van Troyer and Tod Machover at the MIT Media Lab. Correctly traverse your way through the sounds of Machover’s "Festival City", and your name …
Repertoire Remix: Q&A
The MIT Media Lab has posted a terrific interview with Tod Machover and pianist Tae Kim that takes us deeper inside the collaborative process of creating "Festival City". In the interview, Tod also speaks about how the experience is changing him: For Festival City, I have taken a big risk by opening up the compositional process to …
The Scotsman previews “Festival City”
This nice article popped up in The Scotsman! We like this quote: Machover’s Edinburgh project has embraced online participation as far afield as China, Turkey and Thailand. “It’s been a marvellous way of encouraging people to listen to the world around them.” How very John Cage. “Not quite,” Machover argues. “I think what Cage did …
Inside “Festival City” with Wired UK
Wired UK posted this excellent article today that provides an in-depth look at the Festival City project. Included are detailed descriptions of how the music apps work. We loved this: To compose Festival City, which Machover hopes will bring out the contrasts of the city, Machover first invited people to submit raw material that reminded of …
New York Times features Opera of the Future
The M.I.T. Media Lab Opera of the Future group's work is the subject of a full-page article by Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim in the August 16th issue of the New York Times. It's an engagingly written piece that covers the history of Tod Machover's work in music composition and technology, from hyperinstruments to "Death and the …
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What to see in Edinburgh
This guide from The Scotsman and WOW247 highlights its top 13 picks from the Edinburgh International Festival. "Festival City" gets a nice shout out... Yay! 13 stand-out shows at the Edinburgh International Festival The RSNO perform a suite of works inspired by “film noir, big-band jazz and the movies of David Lynch”, which includes a world premiere …
Join our interactive live-stream event Tuesday, July 9th!!
REPERTOIRE REMIX Special Interactive Improvisation Session for Tod Machover's Festival City Commissioned by the Edinburgh International Festival Created at the MIT Media Lab Hosted by The Guardian Composer Tod Machover is in the midst of creating a "collaborative symphony" called Festival City, to be premiered on August 27th at the Edinburgh International Festival. The work is a sonic portrait …
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BBC Scotland interview with Tod Machover
From Tod Machover's Facebook: Just did a live interview on BBC Scotland for my FESTIVAL CITY project for the Edinburgh International Festival. We talked about the idea of collecting sounds of the city, mixing those with music, and the hosts had even made their own collage of Edinburgh sounds for me to listen to. You …
Opera of the Future 