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The Ircam REACH collective is coming to California for a series of workshops, master-classes and concerts and will be in Riverside on June 5\/6 for the CCMSAI. REACH is formed by artists-researchers G\u00e9rard Assayag, Marco Fiorini, and Mikhail Malt with composers Lara Morciano and Jose-Miguel Fernandez and percussionist Thierry Miroglio. REACH has developed Somax2<\/strong>, a highly successful AI-driven improvisation system. Showcasing creative and ethical Live human-AI cooperation<\/strong>, the California tour will engage musicians, composers, and researchers in exploring AI\u2019s role in improvisation, composition, and performance across diverse musical genres, including contemporary, electronic, jazz, and popular music. Activities include workshops and master-classes<\/strong>, where participants engage with Somax2 with their instrument or compositional project, lectures<\/strong> on AI\u2019s impact on creativity, aesthetics and ethics, and concerts<\/strong> including live interaction between REACH people, local musicians and AI. By fostering interdisciplinary dialogue between music, AI, and the humanities, this project will expand artistic and academic networks<\/strong>, enhance accessibility through recorded sessions, and lay the groundwork for future creation in AI-assisted music-making. Somax2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Somax2 is a cognitively inspired multi-agent AI system based on a reactive machine-listening component, smart interaction policies and a corpus-based Somax2generative engine. It creates machine improvisation flows that continuously maintain some form of coherence with the musical content of the corpuses it’s been trained on and the signals it receives from the musicians on stage. Somax2 agents can listen to each other as well, so as to create networks of virtual performers with both autonomy and attention to the ever-evolving musical context. The model accepts a variety of real-time controls acting on its generative process and interaction strategies, making it a digital instrument, or it can be easily scripted to fit in a compositional scheme. Somax2 is implemented in Max with a backend Python server, available as a user-friendly applicative patch or full-featured Max library for advanced Max programmers, online documentation and tutorials, video tutorials and demos and lots of videos documenting concerts and residences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n REACH Somax2 Project Resources SCHEDULE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Monday june 1<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n University of California at Santa Barbara <\/strong>(Host : Professor Tatiana Catanzaro)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 9 am \u2013 12 pm: Workshop – Deep Listening (Mikhail Malt) (@ the Department of Music, 2218) Tuesday June 2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n University of California at Santa Barbara <\/strong>(Host : Professor Tatiana Catanzaro)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 10 am \u2013 12 pm: Workshop – Somax2 on interaction with performers, the REACH Collective (@ the Department of Music, 2218) Wednesday June 3<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n University of California at Irvine <\/strong>(host : Professor Mari Kimura)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3 pm-6 pm Workshop Somax2 for performers and composers (the Reach Collective) Friday June 5<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n University of California at Riverside <\/strong>(host : Professor Paulo Chagas)<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the frame of the symposium Co-Creativity in Music, Sound, and AI: Improvisation, Interaction, Composition (https:\/\/audiovisualmusic.ucr.edu\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8 pm-10 pm Concert by the REACH Collective and Invitees<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saturday June 6<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n University of California at Riverside <\/strong>(host : Professor Paulo Chagas)<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the frame of the symposium Co-Creativity in Music, Sound, and AI: Improvisation, Interaction, Composition (https:\/\/audiovisualmusic.ucr.edu\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4 pm – 7 pm Workshop Somax2 for performers and composers (the Reach Collective) <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/www.campuscalendar.ucsb.edu\/event\/conemporary-music-series-festival<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/seminar.mat.ucsb.edu<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n tatianacatanzaro.net\/ircamucsb\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The focus will be on Somax2, a successful AI-driven improvisation system developed by the REACH collective at Ircam, which enables real-time, interactive cooperation with human musicians. Somax2 features a cognitive learning model and can listen, react, and take coherent musical decisions along with the musicians without superseding them but contributing to their collective creation. It is a unique tool for composition, improvisation and live performance. This tour will highlight its potential for human\/AI cocreativity, demonstrating how AI can transform the creative experience.
The REACH collective will lead interactive sessions where musicians and composers engage directly with Somax2, exploring its artistic, technical, and esthetical implications, in valuable hands-on experimentation with AI in an unseen creative setting.
While Somax2 is an exemplary system for AI-driven improvisation, the core of this discussion must revolve around the shared agency of both human and machine performers. By expanding the focus beyond AI methodologies, this action will explore how AI challenges and redefines human creativity, consciousness, and artistic expression.
The integration of AI in music raises fundamental questions about human creativity. How do algorithms reshape intuition, decision-making, and musical aesthetics? How does AI influence the perception of musical authorship? These theoretical inquiries will align the master-classes and performances with humanities-based perspectives, drawing from historical, esthetical and social discussions on human-machine interaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/reach.ircam.fr\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n
http:\/\/repmus.ircam.fr\/somax2<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1 pm \u2013 2:30 pm: MAT Seminar Series – G\u00e9rard Assayag Lecture at MAT (REACH Project & Somax2) – (@ Elings 2611)
11 am \u2013 5:00 pm : installation and preparation for the concert
6 pm \u2013 7 pm : Concert by the Reach Collective and Invitees (at the Department of Music, 1145)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3 pm \u2013 5 pm: Workshop – Somax2 for composers and programmers (he REACH Collective) @ the Department of Music, 2218)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
8 pm- 9pm Concert (the Reach Collective with the students)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
8pm – Final Concert, with the REACH COllective and the participants to the workshop<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nUC Santa Barbara<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
UC Santa Barbara June 1 Concert<\/h2>\n\n\n\n