Boston Symphony will premiere a symphony that brings AI into live performance

On October 22, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. Boston local time, the Boston Symphony Orchestra will premiere Tod Machover’s “already and not yet” at Symphony Hall. The promise is AI that interacts with live musicians. Kent Nagano conducts; the BSO’s official event page offers in-person tickets but lists no online watch link.

Three performances at Symphony Hall

After opening night, the program returns on October 23 at 1:30 p.m. and October 24 at 8 p.m., with times listed locally for Boston. Machover’s work shares the program with Mendelssohn’s The Hebrides Overture and Symphony No. 5, “Reformation,” plus the U.S. premiere of Alex Nante’s Ein feste Burg.

Saturday ticket holders can also attend a 6:30 p.m. conversation between Machover and composer George Lewis in the Cabot-Cahners Room. Their subject is the history and possible future of musical AI. The BSO commissioned the symphony with support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s New Works Fund.

An electronic partner for the players

The BSO describes a live AI system that collaborates with each musician and creates connections across the orchestra. Developed at the MIT Media Lab, it works alongside electronic layers crafted in Machover’s studio. Its intended role changes as the composition moves from individual expression toward a more connected ensemble.

In the second movement, the system aims to bring out each instrumentalist’s distinct character, creating what Machover describes as an ensemble of soloists. In the third, it is meant to find common ground between players. Specially installed loudspeakers extend those sonic connections beyond the orchestra and into the hall.

Two Media Lab PhD candidates have central production roles. Manaswi Mishra designed and built the AI systems; Ana Schon will handle the complex sound mixing during each performance. The electronic interaction therefore sits within a production that also depends on live human control of the sound.

Machover draws a distinction between musical responsiveness and musical understanding. Speaking to MIT News, he said current AI can detect significant audio features and patterns, but is less capable at analyzing performance and expressive intent than earlier systems he developed for Yo-Yo Ma. He nevertheless sees the newer tools as a source of surprising musical exchanges.

My biggest wish is that people listen to this piece as music — forget about the AI or the story and just get swept along.

Tod Machover, speaking to MIT News

Democracy, scored in three movements

Machover uses the orchestra as a model of people negotiating their relationships. The balance between written instructions and freedom, and between musicians and conductor, forms part of the story. Each movement presents a different stage of democratic strain or renewal:

• Smash Up: Strings and winds are eventually crowded out by brass, percussion and electronics that Machover calls oppressive and aggressive.
• Wake Up: A pause for reflection and regrouping gradually develops into a flourishing mix of melody and texture.
• Stand Up: More vigorous interaction asks the players to establish a new balance between individuality and community.

For listeners who prefer a musical thread to a political one, Machover offers a melody to follow. It struggles to emerge in the first movement, appears in fragments in the second, and becomes central in the third. He hopes audiences leave with some of it in their heads—a concrete listening cue alongside the work’s technological and democratic ambitions.