Mit S Tod Machover Premieres A Symphony In Which Live AI Responds To The Orchestra

Published: 10/21/2026

Source: MIT News — Tod Machover’s new symphony plays with AI while reflecting on democracy

Composer Tod Machover’s already and not yet premieres with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on October 22 using a Media Lab “Live AI” system that listens and responds to musicians during the performance.

The three-movement work uses orchestral structure as a meditation on democracy. In one movement, the AI emphasizes individual players; in another, it searches for musical common ground and extends new connections through loudspeakers installed around Symphony Hall.

This is not a prompt-generated replacement for the orchestra. Manaswi Mishra designed and built the performance system, Ana Schon handles the live mix, Machover composed the work and Kent Nagano conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

What does the AI do in Machover’s symphony? It reacts to live playing and adds responsive electronic relationships around the human performance instead of generating a finished song from a text prompt.

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