November 24: The Hyper Musician

Composer Tod Machover, a professor of music and media at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has been a leader in the melding of music, new technologies, and everyday environments, was born in Mt. Vernon, NY to a pianist mother and computer scientist father on this date in 1953. Machover is the inventor of several “hyperinstruments,” including a hyperviolin, a hypercello, and a hyperpiano, all of which wed classic instruments to electronic elements that respond in real time and fantastic ways to the music being played and the musician playing it. Machover is head of MIT’s Hyperinstruments/Opera of the Future group and has been involved with two consortia since 1995, Things That Think (TTT) and Toys of Tomorrow (TOT. He has composed major pieces for a wide-ranging list of musicians that includes Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, the Boston Pops, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and has built interactive performance systems for the likes of Peter Gabriel and Prince. To see him speaking about and demonstrating the music that cities make, look below. “I have always been drawn to the ethical nature of Judaism, and to its dynamic concern with understanding how best to live in the here and now. Such issues, and the struggle to maintain hope in the midst of impossible circumstances, are central to all my work.” —Tod Machover