wa2

WIDE ANGLE 2 - an insider's view of the world's first digital robotic opera
with Tod Machover, Robert Pinsky, and James Maddalena

click on image above to launch Quicktime movie of event

TOD MACHOVER is head of the Media Lab’s Hyperinstruments /Opera of the Future group. An influential composer, he has been praised for creating music that breaks traditional artistic and cultural boundaries; his music has been performed and commissioned by some of the world’s most important performers and ensembles. In 1995, he received a “Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres,” one of France’s highest cultural honors, and in 1998 he was awarded the first DigiGlobe Prize from the German government. He has composed five operas and is the inventor of Hyperinstruments, a technology that uses smart computers to augment virtuosity. Machover is also the creator of the Toy Symphony, an international music performance and education project. His research group is currently examining ways to use music in therapy for emotionally and physically challenged individuals. Machover was formerly director of musical research at Pierre Boulez’s IRCAM institute in Paris. He received both his BA and MA from the Juilliard School in New York.

ROBERT PINSKY , United States Poet Laureate (1997–2000), is a translator, essayist, and teacher. His first two terms as United States Poet Laureate were marked by such visible dynamism, and such national enthusiasm in response, that the Library of Congress appointed him to an unprecedented third term. Pinsky is the author of 19 books—most of which are collections of his own poetry—but including critically-acclaimed translations of the Inferno from Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy and a collection of poems by Czeslaw Milosz. Pinsky has become a figure within popular culture through a satirical guest-starring role in a 2002 episode of the animated sitcom, The Simpsons entitled Little Girl in the Big Ten. Throughout his career, Pinsky has been dedicated to identifying and invigorating poetry’s place in the world.

JAMES MADDALENA (baritone) is known for his outstanding work in contemporary music. He created the notable characters of Richard Nixon and The Captain in two operas by John Adams, the award winning Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer, respectively. He is closely associated with other composers such as John Harbison, Eliot Goldenthal, Domenic Argento, and Michael Tippett, among others, via performances with such companies as New York City Opera, The Washington Opera, San Francisco Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, The Frankfurt Opera, Opera de la Monnaie in Brussels, Australia’s Adelaide Festival, The Netherlands Opera, and The Opera de Lyon as well as with The Chicago Symphony, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, The Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome and The London Symphony. He has recorded prolifically for Decca/London, BMG Classical Catalyst, Nonesuch, Teldec, Sony Classical, Harmonia Muni and EMI.

Now a firmly established program of the University Art Museum, WIDE ANGLE is focused on bringing creative thinkers from a range of disciplines for engaging provocative discussions and presentations on culture, music, science, and the arts. The proceeds will fund PROJECT LAB: New Art and Technology, the UAM’s groundbreaking series of exhibitions where artists, designers, scientists and engineers are offered an unparalleled opportunity for working at the frontiers of art, technology, and new expressive media.