Join Me for A Toronto Symphony

Posted on June 14, 2012 by necsys

Welcome to the A Toronto Symphony project. Over the coming months, I am inviting you – the citizens of Toronto – to collaborate with me to compose a new symphony which will be premiered by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra on March 9, 2013, at the New Creations Festival. Some of the music will be by you, some by me, and some shaped by us together. My hope is that we will create something that neither you nor I could have done without each other, and that will be surprising, stimulating, and beautiful, a musical portrait about – and by – Toronto.

Take a look at the intro video and see below for how to participate. Scroll down for the latest postings about our activities and ways for you to get involved. Please subscribe so that we can send you alerts. (See links at right to subscribe via email, RSS, Facebook or Twitter.)

Thank you so much for taking an interest. Let’s get started!

– Tod

There are many ways to get involved!

Connect and collaborate! Our Facebook community page is where we will all share our creations, ask questions, and form groups to collaborate and create new sounds.

Share your video of what Toronto sounds like!

Upload your video to YouTube (you’ll need an account)
Post your video on the community Facebook wall
Or send a link to your video to tod@tso.ca

Share your sound recording of what Toronto sounds like!

Upload your audio recording to Soundcloud (you’ll need an account)
Post your recording on the community Facebook wall
Or send a link to your recording to tod@tso.ca

A Graphic Score by Peter Torpey

Posted on June 13, 2012 by necsys

Most pieces of music have a score, which shows musicians what to play or helps listeners to listen. For A Toronto Symphony, my colleague Peter Torpey and I have created a score which will help us all to compose and to imagine the shape and sections of the piece that we are creating together. This score tells the “story” of the piece, shows what the sections or “movements” will be, and describes the basic way that we will collaborate to make the symphony.

Here’s the graphic score of A Toronto Symphony, and below the picture is a description of how I imagine each section. This may evolve as we share our music and discuss the project, as a medieval cathedral evolved from blueprint to reality based on the contributions of every sculptor, stonemason and bricklayer. Off we go:

And here is my description of the sections that are shown in the graphic score:

Continue reading →

Project Toronto—Genesis

Posted on June 11, 2012 by necsys

Interview with Gary Kulesha

Interview by Jennifer Green, Project Manager for the 2013 New Creation’s Festival A Toronto Symphony project.

Every March the Toronto Symphony Orchestra presents the New Creations Festival. Season curator and composer, Tod Machover, will create a new work that will be premiered by the orchestra in Roy Thomson Hall on March 9, 2013. The work will be called A Toronto Symphony: Concerto for Composer and City. A unique feature of this project is that Tod will create it with the citizens of Toronto!

I had the opportunity to chat with Gary Kulesha, Composer Advisor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra about the New Creations Festival and how the idea for A Toronto Symphony came to be.

Collaborative Improvisation

Posted on June 11, 2012 by necsys

Our experiment in collaborative improvisation this Tuesday, April 24^th was a great success! Thank you to everyone who participated and shared your music prefernces during the live webcast. Pianist Tae Kim impressively adapted his performance to the live feedback we received from you through our website. We hope you enjoyed hearing and watching him play as much as we did at the Media Lab.

Although Tae is no longer playing, we encourage you to continue to submit your music preferences on the experiment page, if you haven’t already done so.

Collaborative Improvisation

Posted on June 11, 2012 by necsys

Welcome to an experiment in collaborative improvisation!

On Tuesday, April 24^th from 3:00–5:00 pm EST, we’ll be offering the possibility for you to join us at the MIT Media Lab to help shape an ongoing improvisation, designed by me and performed by pianist Tae Kim.

Listen to the 10 music fragments on the experiment page and use the sliders to express your preferences. An ongoing update will be presented visually to Tae, and he will respond by favoring the types of music which emerge. The overall effect will be of a kind of collective musical memory, with well-known melodies, harmonies and textures intertwining, sometimes recognizable and often combining and colliding in unexpected ways.

This improvisation is based on a play about memory—currently running in Cambridge, MA—for which I composed the music and at which Tae Kim performs live. It’s running through May 13^th, so come see it if you have a chance.

In addition, this experiment is part of the process of testing the tools and methods for creating a new symphony in collaboration with the citizens of Toronto, to be premiered by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at the New Creations Festival in March 2013. You can learn more about that project at this site, and we hope you will follow it’s progress from now through the premiere.

Thank you for your interest, please express your musical preferences, and enjoy the experiment.

Best,
Tod
MIT Media Lab

Welcome to A Toronto Symphony

Posted on June 11, 2012 by necsys

I am thrilled to welcome you to join me in a brand new adventure I am undertaking with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Peter Oundjian over the coming year.

For the TSO’s New Creations Festival next season, I will be creating a new work that will be premiered by the orchestra in Roy Thomson Hall on March 9, 2013. To be called A Toronto Symphony: Concerto for Composer and City, a unique feature of this project is that I can’t create it without you, the citizens of Toronto!

I would like invite you to collaborate with me on the creation and development of this symphony, and to spreading the word to your friends and colleagues to take part as well. The more people who participate, the more likely we will together be able to make a vital musical portrait of Toronto today, and also to propose a new model of how a large community can create something substantial together, a work that is beautiful and sophisticated as well as democratic and inspirational.

Between now and early June, I will be regularly updating this website with information about how we can all work together on this new piece, and we will be launching a series of “Musical Journeys” to try a few different formats about how to send music and musical ideas back and forth.

I hope very much that you will join us for this grand musical adventure. I truly look forward to collaborating with you over the coming year to make something that will be surprising and satisfying to all of us, not least to the audiences who will listen to our finished symphony.

Warm regards,

Tod

P.S. For further information about my work and some of the precedents for this project, you might be interested in looking at: