"AMERICA’S MOST WIRED COMPOSER" Tod Machover was born November 24, 1953, in Mount Vernon, New York to a mother who was a pianist and a father who was a computer scientist. He received a Bachelors and Masters of Music from the Juilliard School, where he studied with composers Milton Babbit and Roger Sessions, two students of Arnold Schoenberg who built upon his twelve-tone composition method. Machover began his doctorate at Juilliard, but left to attend the Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music in France as a composer-in-residence and became the Director of Musical Research in 1980. Tod Machover has been the Director of the Experimental Media Facility of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab since its opening in 1985, he is currently the chair of the Opera of the Future group.
Tod Machover
with the residents of a city, along with its symphony orchestras and choirs, create a “sonic portrait” of their city by listening to their urban environment to determine its defining aural experiences and translating that into a musical score. This project has been conducted in cities including Toronto, Detroit, Perth, and most recently, Philadelphia, which, for example, used the sounds of sizzling cheesesteak sandwiches in the final composition.
Named the 2016 Composer of the Year by Musical America, Tod Machover was considered by the Los Angeles Times “America’s Most Wired Composer.” Tod has composed six full-length operas (Schoenberg in Hollywood making it seven!), many with sci-fi plots and cutting-edge music technology. In Death and the Powers (2010), which earned him a finalist position for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Music, his work featured robots—operabots, to be exact—and it took forty computers to run the production and over 140 speakers to broadcast the sound. Death and the Powers also featured Hyperinstruments, conceived by Machover and invented at the MIT Media Lab. Hyperinstruments are founded in computer algorithms that measure and interpret human expression and feeling and then use that data to augment traditional musical instruments to create a broader range of sounds. Machover also created a new software, called Hyperscore, that allows children and adults to create entire compositions based off of free-hand drawings and the selection of musical materials. Hyperscore is part of his Toy Symphony project, using smart toys that make complex musical ideas and composition accessible to anyone. These inventions have also been used for music therapy.
The inspiration for Schoenberg in Hollywood has been simmering in Machover’s mind for over two decades. He and his close collaborator, Braham Murray, developed the concept and the scenario. They then invited Simon Robson to write the libretto. Though the score is entirely Machover’s own, Schoenberg’s compositions are referenced in many parts of the production as Machover builds a biographical sound world to explore the interworkings and interpersonal drama of this revolutionary composer. Schoenberg in Hollywood is in some ways more of an “acoustic” composition than some of Machover’s earlier operas, however he will combine live acoustic classical orchestral instruments with electronic instrumentation to enter into Schoenberg’s meditation on his own life and what it means to be a responsible human. Just as Schoenberg pushed the boundaries of 20th century music, so too does Tod Machover push musical convention and innovation into the 21th century. While opera is rooted many centuries into the past, as a medium to explore profound stories through music and theater, it continues to be a vibrant and compelling art form to describe the complex emotions of present day and into the future. Learn more about Tod Machover’s latest projects at www.todmachover.com
Machover’s music and musical inventions cross traditional artistic boundaries, blurring the line of what an instrument can be. Machover also created the City Symphony Project, in which he,
DISCUSS: What ways does technology help or hinder storytelling in opera? What do you think the opera of the future will sound like and look like?
Photo of Machover with Hyper-glove, one of his hyperinstrument inventions. 1990 Wikimedia Commons.
Did you know? The initial technological concepts for the popular video games Guitar Hero and Rock Band grew out of Tod Machover's collaboration and mentorship with MIT students who worked in the Media Lab. 11
