<\/p>\n
Music technology took center stage at MIT during \u201cFUTURE PHASES,\u201d an evening of works for string orchestra and electronics, presented by the\u00a0MIT Music Technology and Computation Graduate Program<\/a> as part of the 2025 International Computer Music Conference (ICMC).\u00a0<\/p>\n The well-attended event was held last month in the Thomas Tull Concert Hall within the new Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building. Produced in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab\u2019s Opera of the Future Group and Boston\u2019s self-conducted chamber orchestra A Far Cry, \u201cFUTURE PHASES\u201d was the first event to be presented by the MIT Music Technology and Computation Graduate Program in MIT Music\u2019s new space.<\/p>\n \u201cFUTURE PHASES\u201d offerings included two new works by MIT composers: the world premiere of\u00a0\u201cEV6,\u201d by MIT Music\u2019s Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor Evan Ziporyn and professor of the practice Eran Egozy; and the U.S. premiere of\u00a0\u201cFLOW Symphony,\u201d by the MIT Media Lab\u2019s Muriel R. Cooper Professor of Music and Media Tod Machover. Three additional works were selected by a jury from\u00a0an open call<\/a> for works:\u00a0\u201cThe Wind Will Carry Us Away,\u201d by Ali Balighi; \u201cA Blank Page,\u201d by Celeste Betancur\u00a0Guti\u00e9rrez and Luna Valentin; and \u201cCoastal Portrait: Cycles and Thresholds,\u201d\u00a0by Peter Lane. Each work was performed by\u00a0Boston\u2019s own\u00a0multi-Grammy-nominated string orchestra, A Far Cry.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ICMC is all about presenting the latest research, compositions, and performances in electronic music,\u201d says Egozy,\u00a0director of the new Music Technology and Computation Graduate Program at MIT. When approached to be a part of this year\u2019s conference, \u201cit seemed the perfect opportunity to showcase MIT\u2019s commitment\u00a0to music technology, and in particular the exciting new areas being developed right now: a new master\u2019s program in music technology and computation, the new Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building with its enhanced music technology facilities, and new faculty arriving at MIT with joint appointments between MIT Music and Theater Arts<\/a> (MTA) and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS).\u201d These recently hired professors include Anna Huang, a keynote speaker for the conference and creator of the machine learning model\u00a0Coconet that powered Google\u2019s first AI Doodle, the Bach Doodle<\/a>.<\/p>\n Egozy emphasizes the uniqueness of this occasion: \u201cYou have to understand that this is a very special situation. Having a full 18-member string orchestra [A Far Cry] perform new works that include electronics does not happen very often. In most cases, ICMC performances consist either entirely of electronics and computer-generated music, or perhaps a small ensemble of two-to-four musicians. So the opportunity we could present to the larger community of music technology was particularly exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n To take advantage of this exciting opportunity, an open call was put out internationally to select the other pieces that would accompany Ziporyn and Egozy\u2019s \u201cEV6\u201d and Machover\u2019s \u201cFLOW Symphony.\u201d Three pieces were selected from a total of 46 entries to be a part of the evening\u2019s program by a panel of judges that included Egozy, Machover, and other distinguished composers and technologists.<\/p>\n \u201cWe received a huge variety of works from this call,\u201d says Egozy. \u201cWe saw all kinds of musical styles and ways that electronics would be used. No two pieces were very similar to each other, and I think because of that, our audience got a sense of how varied and interesting a concert can be for this format. A Far Cry was really the unifying presence. They played all pieces with great passion and nuance. They have a way of really drawing audiences into the music. And, of course, with the Thomas Tull Concert Hall being in the round, the audience felt even more connected to the music.\u201d<\/p>\n Egozy continues, \u201cwe took advantage of the technology built into the Thomas Tull Concert Hall, which has 24 built-in speakers for surround sound allowing us to broadcast unique, amplified sound to every seat in the house. Chances are that every person might have experienced the sound slightly differently, but there was always some sense of a multidimensional evolution of sound and music as the pieces unfolded.\u201d<\/p>\n The five works of the evening employed a range of technological components that included playing synthesized, prerecorded, or electronically manipulated sounds; attaching microphones to instruments for use in real-time signal processing algorithms; broadcasting custom-generated musical notation to\u00a0the musicians; utilizing generative AI to process live sound and play it back in interesting and unpredictable ways; and audience participation, where spectators use their cellphones as musical instruments to become a part of the ensemble.<\/p>\n