Prof. Tod Machover

Tod Machover is the Muriel R. Cooper Professor of Music and Media and he was named faculty director of the MIT Media Lab on July 1, 2025

Machover is especially known for his visionary operas—as varied as they have been groundbreaking—including VALIS (1987), based on Philip K. Dick’s sci-fi classic and commissioned by the Centre Pompidou in Paris; Media/Medium (1994), premiered by magicians Penn & Teller; Brain Opera (1996/8), based on the work of AI pioneer Marvin Minsky and which invites the audience to collaborate live and online; Resurrection (1999), commissioned by Houston Grand Opera and based on Tolstoy’s final novel of the same name; and Skellig (2008), based on David Almond’s award-winning novel and premiered at the Sage Gateshead. The “robotic” opera, Death and the Powers, premiered in 2010 and was released on SACD by BMOP/sound in 2021; Gramophone called the recording “an electrifying surround-sound thriller” and American Record Guide commended Machover and BMOP for “hit[ting] it out of the park.” Machover’s most recent opera, Schoenberg in Hollywood, commissioned and presented by Boston Lyric Opera, had its hugely successful world premiere in Boston in November 2018 and its European premiere at the Vienna Volksoper in April 2022.

Machover is also widely recognized for designing new technologies for music performance and creation, such as Hyperinstruments, “smart” performance systems that extend expression for virtuosi, from Yo-Yo Ma to Prince, as well as for the general public; the popular video game Guitar Hero grew out of Machover’s group at the Media Lab. His Hyperscore software—which allows anyone to compose original music using lines and colors—has enabled children around the world to have their music performed by major orchestras, chamber music ensembles, and rock bands. Machover is also deeply involved in developing musical technologies and concepts for medical and wellbeing contexts, helping to diagnose and reverse conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, or allowing people with cerebral palsy to communicate through music. His recent Gammified for the Kronos Quartet and VocaGammified for Renée Fleming are examples of powerful healing sonorities embedded in musical compositions.

He is currently working on his next opera, The Overstory, based on Richard Powers’ Pulitzer-prize-winning novel of the same name. The first section of that opera, Overstory Overture, will premiere this season at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall (March 7, 2023), starring mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, and performed by the Sejong Soloists, who commissioned the work. Machover opened the current season with a flurry of premieres. Resolve Remote for solo violin and electronics was commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music (London) to celebrate their 200th anniversary, and premiered there in February 2022. A new recording of the work by violinist Charlie Lovell-Jones will be released in December 2022 as part of the RAM’s anniversary celebrations. And in October, MIT presented three world premieres—VocaGammified, Breathing Together, and Brain Opera 2.0—as part of the opening celebrations for the new MIT Museum in a program exploring the ways that music affects human bodies and minds.

Machover is also working on a new production of his first opera, VALIS, set to premiere at MIT in September 2023. The production will star baritone Davóne Tines (who starred in X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X with Detroit Opera) performing the joint role of science fiction author Philip K. Dick and his alter-ego Horselover Fat. The director is Jay Scheib (Bat Out of Hell and Parsifal for the Bayreuth Festival in summer 2023).

Professor Machover’s music is published by Boosey & Hawkes and Ricordi Editions, and has been recorded on the Bridge, Oxingale, Erato, Albany, New World, Pentatone and BMOP/sound labels. Much of his music is also available via Apple Music, Amazon Music, and on YouTube, SoundCloud and Spotify.