Tod Machover - Composer, Inventor, Educator

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.

Tod Machover's brand new opera, Skellig, is based on the best-selling novel by David Almond, who also wrote the libretto. Mysterious, enthralling and exciting, Skellig leads audiences of all ages into the coarse world of an ambiguous world-weary angel who regains his wings through the care and belief of two young people, Michael and Mina. Combining world famous singers with a youth chorus, and the acoustic Northern Sinfonia with Machover's signature electronics, Skellig premieres at the Norman Foster-designed Sage Gateshead (Newcastle, UK) on November 24, 2008.

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