ICMC BOSTON 2025

Panel Sessions 

Curiosity, Play, Innovation - A 50th Anniversary Celebration of Creativity in Music, Science, and Technology

June 8-14, 2025

ICMC BOSTON 2025: Panel Sessions

ICMC Boston 2025 is excited to offer several panel presentations during its 50th Anniversary conference designed to provide diverse perspectives, foster insightful conversations, and engage the ICMC participants in a dynamic and interactive format on topics related to Quantum Computer Music, Artificial Intelligence, and Music Composition.

Quantum Computer Music? Goodness Me!

Panelists:
Eduardo Reck Miranda (Chair), Scott Yeiichi Oshiro, Mark Carney
Monday, June 9, 2025
Time/Location: TBD

In collaboration with the:

Abstract

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of quantum mechanics, UNESCO has declared 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. In addition, 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC). This panel aims to raise awareness within the ICMC community about the emerging field of Quantum Computer Music. The panelists will discuss their ongoing work in this field, with demonstrations and a performance. Computers have become integral to the music industry. The ICMC community is a major player in this prosperous activity. Therefore, it is natural for us to consider how new types of computers might influence the future of music composition, performance, and distribution. Quantum computers leverage quantum mechanical phenomena like entanglement and superposition to process information. They can afford different algorithms, some of which may run more efficiently on quantum hardware than on traditional digital computers. There is a global race to develop quantum computers, and much research is underway to determine their affordances and advantages. Regardless of whether any advantage will ever materialize, small-scale quantum computers are already available, and their size and sophistication are evolving fast. The panelists propose that the time is right for the computer music community to engage with these developments. Enhanced processing power and alleged computational advantages would most definitely benefit the computer music community in the future. Nevertheless, quantum computing can already offer intriguing possibilities for musical creativity right now. It encourages new approaches to developing generative algorithms and AI, which is very exciting. We are already witnessing systems and musical pieces created with quantum computers that would not have been conceived otherwise.

Eduardo Reck Miranda

Eduardo is a composer and computer scientist who has been developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) for music since the early 1990s. In 1995, he obtained his doctorate from the University of Edinburgh with a thesis about AI and sound design. He taught at the University of Glasgow and worked at Sony CSL Paris before becoming a Professor in Computer Music at the University of Plymouth, UK. Eduardo is known for developing brain-computer interfaces to enable people with motor impairments to make music and for his research into unconventional computing for music. He is a Scientific Advisor for Moth, an applied quantum technology startup based in London. Eduardo has composed for the BBC Concert Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta, and his opera, Lampedusa, was premiered by BBC Singers in 2019. The album Qubism, featuring pieces composed with quantum computing, was released by 52beats in 2024.

Scott Yeiichi Oshiro

Scott is a Bay Area-based flautist, composer, music researcher, and technologist whose creative work blends his African and Okinawan American heritage with diverse genres such as jazz, hip-hop, and Afrofuturism. In 2023, Scott earned his PhD in Computer-based Music Theory and Acoustic Sciences from the Center for Computer Research in Music & Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University with a thesis on the intersection between quantum computation and jazz improvisation. Scott is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Stanford’s School of Medicine, where he explores the neural processes underlying improvisation and studies brain wave activity in jazz musicians as they perform. His research bridges the gap between Music, Neuroscience, and technology, shedding light on the cognitive mechanisms that drive creative musical expression.

Mark Carney

For high school, Mark studied at Cheetham’s School of Music in the UK and subsequently studied Music at the University of Liverpool, focusing on classical performance. He also studied the Theremin with Lydia Kavina, niece of Lev Termen. Mark has performed widely as a classical Theremin player. He also holds an MSc in Pure Mathematics and a PhD in Mathematical Logic from the University of Leeds, UK. He struck out as a violinist and viola player for several years before transitioning fully into technology-related activity. Mark worked as a freelance developer, a cybersecurity penetration tester (a.k.a. ‘hacker for hire’), a senior cybersecurity researcher and a cryptographer. Currently, he is head of quantum computing for cybersecurity at Santander Global. Mark has recently been very active in developing pioneering research into Quantum Computer Music focusing on sound synthesis.