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  • About
    • Apply
    • Leadership
    • Partners
    • Team
  • Projects
    • Cross-Disciplinary Classes
    • Faculty Grants
    • Visiting Artists
    • Performances
      • It Must Be Now!
      • MIT Sounding
      • MIT Performing
  • Publications
    • Articles About CAST
    • Books
    • Press Releases
    • Reports
  • Symposia
    • Active Matter Summit
    • Being Material
    • Frontiers in Science, Technology, and the Arts
    • Seeing/Sounding/Sensing
    • Unfolding Intelligence
    • Lecture Series
  • News
  • Arts at MIT Portal
  • Center for Art, Science & Technology
  • School of Architecture + Planning
    • Architecture Department
    • Art, Culture + Technology
    • History, Theory + Criticism
    • Media Lab
  • School of Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences
    • Comparative Media Studies/Writing
    • Literature
    • Music and Theater Arts
    • Open Documentary Lab
  • Office of the Provost
    • Council for the Arts at MIT
    • Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT
    • List Visual Arts Center
    • MIT Museum
    • MIT W20 Student Art Studios
    • Student Arts Programs

Music

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Miguel Zenón and Luis Perdomo. Photo credit: Jimmy Katz.

El Arte del Bolero

A saxophonist’s love letter to the Latin American bolero
Composer Anna Clyne and audio engineer Jody Elff have worked collaboratively to create scores deploying augmented-orchestra techniques. Photo by Victoria Stevens.

Twisting Light

Composing a symphony from the life cycle of a black hole
Pierre Boulez, 1987. Image: Martine Franck/Magnum Photos.

Boulez at 100

Reimagining Boulez at 100 through performance, technology, and dialogue
Person directing a wind orchestra with arms on the air
2025 Artfinity Gaze to the Stars. Photo by Caroline Alden.

Solar Return for Change

Amplifying the climate challenge through the impact of music, science, and advocacy
Golden City Album Cover. Courtesy of Miguel Zenón.

Golden City

An extended musical composition for Large Ensemble, inspired by California’s rich and complex history.
Orchestra playing at a stage with violet light setting.
KINETIC. Photo credit: Ben Doyle

Kinetic Ensemble

“Agile virtuosity and vibrant sound… brilliantly executed” — Arts and Culture Texas
Derek David. Photo Credit: Courtesy of the artist.

Di Fayerdike Libe – Passionate Love – די פֿײַערדיקע ליבע

Exploring modern love through Yiddish music and culture
In the midst of a teal background, Michael Mayo smiles while standing casually with his gaze to the horizon.
Michael Mayo. Image credit: Lauren Desberg

Michael Mayo

Layers of heavenly harmonizing, hard-hitting beatboxing, and heartfelt crooning
Ekene Ijeoma, featuring Dr. Kristín Taylor, Dr. Bryan Stanley, Deconstructed Anthems: Nebraska 12 (2015) 2021. Software-generated score, incarceration data, piano, machine-plotted ink drawings, duration 18:12 min. Installation view, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE, USA Photo by Colin Conces courtesy of Bemis Center for Contemporary Art.

Deconstructed Anthems: Massachusetts

Sonifying the increasing loss of Black Americans to carceral systems
Jordan Rudess performs with the jam_bot and Camilla Bäckman. Credit Caroline Alden.

Jordan Rudess

jam_bot: Exploring the Potential of AI in Live Collaborative Musical Performance
Large scale projection installation at the Arachnodrone:Spider's Canvas performance at Palais de Tokyo.
*Spider's Canvas / Arachnodrone*, Palais de Tokyo, 2018. Credit: Aurelie Cenno.

Arachnodrone

A three-dimensional spider web soundscape
Clarice Assad. Courtesy of the artist. Credit: Marcelo Macaue.

Clarice Assad

Digital rendering of translucent human tree-like forms against a black background.
One of the augmented-reality motifs in the new production of “Parsifal” at Bayreuth, directed by Jay Scheib. Credit: Bayreuth Festival

Parsifal

Augmenting Richard Wagner’s Bühnenweihfestspiel, Parsifal
Map of Native American Nations in Oklahoma.
Map courtesy of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation.

Native America: The Choctaw Music of Charles Shadle

Capturing contemporary classical music by a living Choctaw composer

Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage

A punk-rock mentality breathes new life into a 350-year-old art form
Pianist Maki Namekawa in a leather jacket looking into the camera.
Maki Namekawa, Credit: Andreas H. Bitesnich

Maki Namekawa Presents Philip Glass, Keith Jarrett, Joe Hisaishi, Evan Ziporyn

Installation view of humans in space from the Hammer and the Feather exhibit.
The Hammer and the Feather is an immersive audio and visual installation, developed at MIT by technical instructor Christian Frederickson and visual artist and filmmaker Greg King. Bridging humanistic and scientific inquiry, the piece uses gravity as a poetic and conceptual departure point for musical, visual, and sonic material. Photo by Danny Goldfield https://bit.ly/3a8YjxW Please ask before use

The Hammer and the Feather

Exploring the sonic poetry of gravity
Profile view of Sean Jones playing the trumpet.
Sean Jones, Jazz at the Bistro. Courtesy of the artist.

Sean Jones

Under the auspices of CAST’s MIT Sounding series, It Must Be Now!, led by Fred Harris, brings together three leading musicians to collectively compose a large-scale work for MIT musicians on the overall theme of racial justice.
Braxton Cook stands in front of a red background, holding his alto sax down at his waist.
Braxton Cook. Credit Tom Van Scoyoc.

Braxton Cook

Under the auspices of CAST’s MIT Sounding series, It Must Be Now!, led by Fred Harris, brings together three leading musicians to collectively compose a large-scale work for MIT musicians on the overall theme of racial justice.
Terri Lyne Carrington smiles while playing on drums.
Terri Lyne Carrington. Credit: Jacobs.

Terri Lyne Carrington

Under the auspices of CAST’s MIT Sounding series, It Must Be Now!, led by Fred Harris, brings together three leading musicians to collectively compose a large-scale work for MIT musicians on the overall theme of racial justice.
2023 Hearing Amazonia

Hearing Amazônia–The Responsibility of Existence

Exploring the plight of the natural world through Brazilian and Amazonian music
A musical score.
VALIS. Courtesy of Tod Machover.

VALIS

Reimagining live performance interactivity for a new generation
Lupe Fiasco. Courtesy of the artist.

Lupe Fiasco

Breaking down and building up the languages of rap
Iva Bittová. Courtesy of the artist.
Iva Bittová. Courtesy of the artist.

Iva Bittová

Czech avant-garde violinist, singer, and composer
Glenn Branca. Credit: Maria Jose Govea.
Glenn Branca. Credit: Maria Jose Govea.

Glenn Branca Ensemble

Honoring a pioneer of the avant-garde
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