Tod Machover - Composer, Inventor, Educator

Is it possible to see sound?

Or touch sound? Or to have sound touch you so deeply that it can change your mind, your body, your life?

Tod Machover certainly thinks so, and his work over the past 30 years demonstrates an extraordinary range and diversity that enhances our definition of music itself and our conception of what it can achieve. Called "America's Most Wired Composer" by The Los Angeles Times, Machover is widely recognized as one of the most significant and innovative composers of his generation, and is also celebrated for inventing new technologies for music, including Hypersinstruments which he launched at the MIT Media Lab in 1986.

Whether it is creating genre-breaking compositions for the concert hall, "robotic" operas for worldwide stages, software that allows anyone to compose original music, or musical activities that can diagnose illness and restore health, Tod Machover's unique vision is shaping the future of music, while producing work after work that touch the hearts of audiences here and now.

For news, background, and other info, visit the Opera of the Future blog, website, and 2022 update.

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2012 Pulitzer Prize in Music, Finalist

Recent Projects:

Death and the Powers

Death and the Powers is a groundbreaking robotic opera by Tod Machover that brings a variety of technological, conceptual, and aesthetic innovations to the theatrical world. The opera garnered critical acclaim since its 2010 premiere in Monte Carlo, Monaco and has been recognized as a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for music.

Omar Ebrahim as Arnold Schoenberg sings as if Humphrey Bogart in a film noir

Schoenberg in Hollywood

Schoenberg in Hollywood is the most recent opera by Tod Machover that explores the complex relationship between uncompromising art and mass appeal, and of whether—and how—art can change the world. The opera explores the hypothetical scenario of what would have happened if composer Arnold Schoenberg had indeed composed for Hollywood.