|
Hello everyone! Here’s an update from Tod + crew:)
At the end of September, Tod attended a special DSO gala where he unveiled a sneak preview of the final Symphony in D coming November 20-21. The performance took place on the rooftop of the M@dison Building in downtown (which also happened to be overlooking a game at Comerica Park!). Check out this news blurb covering the event! While in the city, Tod was also able to meet with important collaborators to brainstorm how to fit all the parts of the performance together in the most creative, compelling manner for a city like Detroit! Here are just a few of the key collaborators: By Chantine Akiyama, MIT Media Lab. Today we’ve got a recap of a recent trip Tod and the team took to Detroit two weeks ago. Akito from the Media Lab, who is an expert at our Hyperscore software, conducted a couple of Hyperscore workshops while he was there, one at the Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences (DAAS), and another at Crescendo Detroit. We also checked in on our Hyperscore exhibit at the Michigan Science Center, where anyone can come and use the software. DAAS is a K-8 educational community located in the heart of downtown Detroit, founded in 1997 by Rev. Jim Holley, Ph.D, who held a desire and vision to create an innovative educational center that met the needs of the children of Detroit and its surrounding communities. At DAAS, Akito got to give seven students ages 10-14 a Hyperscore tutorial where he showed them how to create rhythms and melodies using the software’s visual interface. Soon enough, the kids were were off and on their way to making beautiful masterpieces of their own.  By Chantine Akiyama and Sue Liang, Undergraduate Researchers (UROPs) at the MIT Media Lab.
Hey guys this week we have a special guest!! You have heard bits and pieces from him and about him, but we’re going to get to the nitty gritty this time and really tune into his heartbeat regarding the Symphony in D project through an interview. The special guest is… Composer and Professor Tod Machover, head of the Opera of the Future group at the MIT Media Lab! He is the creative mind behind much of the Collaborative City Symphony work and just an inspiring leader and role model for his students. Here’s our interview with him. What’s on your heart for the Symphony in D project? Detroit is the ideal city; it has an incredible story to tell. It’s a city that grew up very fast and then lost half of its population. Detroit was the center of modern industry with the formative car industry, very proud, and it all crashed and fell apart in a perfect storm of all the problems that underlie capitalism. In Detroit’s history you can see all the potential and pitfalls of the US and modern society. It turns out that using music to think about these issues is great timing. The city has responded the way I wanted it to. We’ve set a process of convening around music and will just let it happen. |