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Tod Machover—visionary composer, inventor and faculty director of the MIT Media Lab— believes AI technology is best used for enhancing and engaging with human-made art, not replacing it. He has been a pioneer in creating new technologies for music since the 1980s, and using AI for human-centered music composition and performance ever since he incorporated AI elements into his 1987 opera VALIS.
In October, his new symphony, already and not yet, to be premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, addresses the current moment—democracy in peril—and offers the possibility of a better future. Three performances in October, in Boston, are also part of the MIT Media Lab’s 40th Anniversary celebration.
Full Biography of Tod Machover
October 22 - 24, 2026
WORLD PREMIERE by TOD MACHOVER: already and not yet
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Kent Nagano, Conductor
Part of the MIT Media Lab's 40th Anniversary Celebration
Machover’s newest symphonic project, already and not yet, refers to the state of the world and of our country: there is already much to appreciate, but it is unfinished and imperfect and urgently in need of pushing forward.
This plays out in a first movement that is a clash/crisis, the second an awakening, and the third an unfolding depiction of a future democracy as Machover imagines it. Throughout, the symphony is powered in part by a new, specially designed "live AI” system created with Machover’s team at the MIT Media Lab.
“Electronics enhance the orchestra throughout,” says Machover, “but our Live AI system becomes prominent in movements 2 and 3. In movement 2, I use it to spin enhancements and variations on solo lines that sweep through the orchestra, emphasizing the individuality of—and difference between—each player. In movement 3, the AI system pulls in the many-layered orchestra and creates—I think—a new kind of sound that balances detail and wholeness, polyphony and texture, and also (if we can manage it) allows the sound to extend off the stage into the hall, embracing the audience.”