At Carnegie Hall, AI-backed music's possibilities take stage

As the conductor guided the orchestra's musicians with precision, he suddenly reached for a laptop computer, tapping commands that synched the digital with the symphonic.

That nuance stood out as Orchestra Now from Bard College in New York state performed at the Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall on Saturday to open the seventh annual China Now Music Festival in New York City with the theme Composing the Future.

At the weeklong festival that runs through Saturday, Oct 19, different generations of Chinese composers form the 1960s to the present will feature pieces that merge traditional elements with emerging music techniques, including the use of artificial intelligence.

Sun Yuming, a composer, music producer and lecturer on electronic music composition at the Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM) in Beijing, introduced his piece Starry Night to the New York audience.

Instead of offering a composer's traditional acknowledgment after the symphony while seated in the audience, Sun took to the stage with his laptop, programming in real time with conductor Cai Jindong, who also was equipped with a laptop and the full musical score.

The composition featured AI-driven visual algorithms and real-time timbre rendering to blend physical and virtual instruments.

"Sound has countless forms of expression, and through technological means, we create simulated sounds, as if crafting a virtual instrument that fuses electronic and traditional music," Sun told China Daily. "This approach combines the unique characteristics of traditional instruments with the innovations of electronic music, integrating AI throughout the entire performance — not only in sound but also in the visual effects on stage."