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 …
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 …
“Resurrection” Will Air May 6
Listen up! The Classical Discoveries radio program on WPRB 103.3FM (Princeton, NJ) is airing Tod Machover's opera "Resurrection" in full this Sunday, May 6, from 6:00-10:00AM (the music begins at 7:00AM). The broadcast will be available for download as an MP3 for two weeks. Host and producer Marvin Rosen "celebrates new music and living composers" …
“Death and the Powers” a Finalist for 2012 Pulitzer Prize
A wonderful bit of news today! We learned that "Death and the Powers" was one of three finalists for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Music. The prize recognizes a distinguished musical composition by an American that has had its first performance or recording in the United States during the previous year (2011). The award was presented …
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WBUR Visionaries (Video)
WBUR (90.9FM) launched its "Visionaries" series today with a feature about Tod Machover. The program airs one more time today, at 5:50PM EST, and should be available later on as a podcast. The transcript of the story is available online, together with this new video showing some of the projects at the MIT Media Lab's …
Tod Machover’s UC Santa Barbara series
This Thursday, December 8, Tod Machover will launch a four-lecture seminar series at the University of California Santa Barbara, where he is Distinguished Fellow at the SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind. Full details of the talks are now available here. Here's the schedule: Dec 8, 2011. Hyperinstruments: From Yo-Yo Ma to Guitar …
Blast from the past – Brain Opera
You never know what you'll stumble across on the Internet. This week's buried treasure come to light is this video clip from a presentation Tod Machover gave in 1996 at Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria. Visitors to the famous electronic arts festival had an opportunity to explore the interactive installation and take in a live …
Superb review of Death and the Powers
Kudos to Jen Gunnels of The New York Review of Science Fiction for her outstanding article about Death and the Powers. This is a comprehensive review that discusses, with knowledge and insight, every aspect of the production, from the libretto, music and performances, to the art direction, stage technology, lighting and sound. Reading it made us want …
Personal Opera in London
Tod is just back from a whirlwind trip to London where he brainstormed with director Braham Murray, his collaborator on Resurrection and Skellig, about new opera and theater concepts, and launched a new project with theater group Punchdrunk (more soon on these soon). But first he swung by the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden …
Death and the Powers recording session
This just in from Tod Machover's Facebook: "Finished the DEATH AND THE POWERS recording today with two fabulous sessions. All the singers, the BMOP players, conductor Gil Rose, and the whole recording and tech team did an amazing job. I am SO happy that the music is in the can; now we enter the editing …
Opera of the Future 