Kanagawa Kenmin Hall, a pioneer of groundbreaking performances, explores the near future of music!

While closed for renovations, Kanagawa Kenmin Hall has expanded its activities to cultural facilities across all 33 municipalities in Kanagawa Prefecture. Throughout its half-century history, the hall has been deeply committed to contemporary music, producing numerous iconic stages and innovative projects that have led the era. This autumn, we are launching a new series, "Featuring Future," to contemplate the near future of music. Produced by Yuji Numano, the foundation's Artistic Advisor for Music, this series goes beyond simply introducing cutting-edge contemporary music scenes from Europe and America; it delves deeply into the possibilities of contemporary music toward the mid-21st century through performances that incorporate symposia. The first installment focuses on "The Relationship Between AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Music." While conversational and generative AI have already permeated our daily lives, their evolution is currently in a transitional phase. In an era where AI allows anyone to create music without reading sheet music, how are composers using and perceiving AI? We are creating a space for everyone involved in arts and culture, from experts to listeners, to face the relationship between AI and music in this era, enjoying its convenience while not neglecting to raise questions. The first half features a symposium with various speakers, including Yuji Numano. Daichi Ando, who has researched and developed music AI for many years from the perspective of a classical contemporary composer, including research on creating music using "interactive genetic programs" that incorporate human musical knowledge. Naoki Tokui, an AI researcher and artist who also engages in DJ activities and music production incorporating AI. Hideki Nakazawa, a contemporary artist who took the world by storm in the early days of the internet with his "Baka CG" illustrations and developed the world's first bitmap 3D software; he now produces and presents works using AI as the representative of the AI Aesthetics and Art Research Society. With a lineup that appeals to a wide range of people beyond classical and contemporary music fans, we will discuss this theme, which can be called a social issue of our time. In the second half, we will present new works commissioned from three of Japan's leading composers on the theme of AI. Shintaro Shibayama, a winner of the Japan Federation of Composers' Prize for New Composers who is active both domestically and internationally, explores new forms of musical dialogue and coexistence through composition. Yuta Bandoh, known for his work on drama and film scores and as an arranger for Kenshi Yonezu and Hikaru Utada, originally specialized in sound installations using spatial audio. Hibiki Mukai, who has received numerous awards domestically and internationally, is currently a doctoral researcher at the University of Porto and is engaged in AI-integrated composition at IRCAM in Paris, one of the world's largest acoustic and music research institutions. The works written by these composers, each with different strengths and areas of expertise, will be world-premiered by up-and-coming young performers. Please join us for this exciting endeavor that explores the future of humanity and music from multiple perspectives and opens the door to the near future.