IntelliTect is proud to sponsor the upcoming Beethoven vs. AI concert with the Spokane Symphony, where classical music meets cutting-edge technology. In a truly groundbreaking event, audiences will witness an AI-completed version of Beethoven’s unfinished 10th Symphony, performed alongside a human-completed version. This one-of-a-kind concert will take place on January 18-19, 2025, at The Fox Theater, and will also feature Beethoven’s iconic Eroica Symphony.
To prepare for this exciting event, IntelliTect CEO Grant Erickson and Spokane Symphony’s Music Director James Lowe joined Spokane Public Radio’s From the Studio to discuss how AI is reshaping the world of music. In this insightful conversation, they explore how AI was used to complete Beethoven’s work, the role of technology in the arts, and the enduring importance of human creativity in an increasingly digital world.
Together, James Lowe and Grant Erickson delve into the thought-provoking topic of AI’s influence on music composition, particularly its role in completing Beethoven’s unfinished 10th Symphony. They also discuss the unique audience experience planned for the Beethoven vs. AI concert, where concertgoers will interact with an app to share their emotions, further enhancing the connection between technology and live performance.
Listen to the full Interview on Spokane Public Radio
Below is the full transcript of their enlightening discussion on AI, music, and the future of creative collaboration.
From the Studio: Symphony Week Celebration with Grant Erickson and James Lowe
Jim Tevennan:
Welcome to another From the Studio presentation as part of our Symphony Week celebration. The Spokane Symphony is opening its brand new season—the 79th, to be exact—this Saturday and Sunday. It’s a great tradition here to welcome participants from the symphony season to join us for conversation and music. Today, we have a special presentation involving Music Director James Lowe and Grant Erickson, CEO of IntelliTect here in Spokane, who is heavily involved in the AI world. But first, let’s set the context with a bit of music by Wolfgang Mozart.
After playing music
That was Wolfgang Mozart’s Dies Irae from his Requiem, performed by Martin Perlman and Boston Baroque. I bring that up because today’s discussion is about the completion of musical works, much like how Mozart’s Requiem was completed by his students after his death. That leads us to today’s topic, where we will discuss another unfinished work, Beethoven’s 10th Symphony, and how AI is being used to complete it.
It’s my pleasure to welcome James Lowe, Music Director of the Spokane Symphony. Good morning, James. And for the first time on KPBX Airlines, welcome Grant Erickson from IntelliTect.
Grant Erickson:
Thanks very much, Jim.
Jim Tevennan:
I’m going to turn it over to you both. James, could you set the context for the upcoming concerts?
James Lowe:
Certainly! These concerts will take place on January 18 and 19 and are part of our fourth Masterworks series. Lately, AI has exploded into public consciousness. While it’s been worked on for decades, it’s now becoming a part of our daily lives. As a musician and artist, I believe there are two ways to react to this. You can either stick your head in the sand and pretend it doesn’t matter, or you can engage with it and debate it.
The program is titled “Beethoven vs. AI”. As you know, Beethoven died before he could finish his 10th Symphony. We’ll be performing two movements—one completed by a human, Dr. Barry Cooper, in the 1980s, and another, the Scherzo, completed by AI. The audience will get the chance to decide who wore it better: the human or the AI.
We’re also playing Beethoven’s 3rd Symphony, Eroica, which, in my humble opinion, blows everything else out of the water due to its sheer genius.
Jim Tevennan:
Before we dive into that, Grant, could you give us a basic understanding of AI for those who may not be familiar with it?
Grant Erickson:
Sure. AI can be broadly defined, but when people talk about it today, they’re often referring to things like large language models. For example, ChatGPT is a large language model that takes a vast amount of data and organizes it to make predictions or generate meaningful outputs, such as sentences, art, or even music. Essentially, it’s using what it knows to provide answers or create something useful.
In music, for example, the AI model used in this project is called Beethoven X. It works by analyzing all of Beethoven’s compositions and using that information to predict what Beethoven might have done next in his unfinished work. It takes fragments of the Scherzo and predicts the next most logical move based on Beethoven’s style.
James Lowe:
What’s fascinating about Beethoven is how he would set up an expectation and then surprise you with something even better—something utterly unpredictable. That’s part of his genius. The problem with large language models, like the one used here, is that they tend toward the predictable. That’s their job: to find the next most logical step.
Grant Erickson:
Exactly. For example, there’s a site called “This Person Does Not Exist,” where you can refresh the page, and it generates a new, realistic face. At first, it’s impressive, but after a while, you start noticing patterns—no bald people, for instance. It all starts looking the same, and that lack of creative nuance can make it feel empty.
I think the same goes for AI in music. AI can do amazing things, but its strength lies in being a tool for amplifying human creativity, not replacing it.
James Lowe:
Exactly. As musicians and artists, our inner humanity is what’s reflected in the art we create. While AI can mimic that, it can never quite capture the emotional depth of a human-created work.
At IntelliTect, we came up with an exciting way to make the Beethoven vs. AI concert a more interactive and communal experience for the audience.
Grant Erickson:
Yes! We wanted to do something unique, so we developed a system that allows audience members to choose the emotion they’re feeling on their smart devices during the AI-composed section of the concert. Then, a word cloud will appear behind the orchestra, showing the collective emotions of the audience. This allows everyone to experience the performance in a more connected, interactive way.
James Lowe:
We’ll also have a pre-concert town hall where Grant and I will discuss these topics with the audience. It’s crucial that we, as artists, engage with this technology. If we don’t, there’s a risk that AI could take over certain aspects of art, like composing music. That’s why it’s important to be part of the conversation, not left out in the cold.
Jim Tevennan:
One last question that’s been on my mind: When creating an AI model of Beethoven, does the AI consider the evolution of Beethoven’s style over his life, or does it mix elements from different periods of his work?
Grant Erickson:
That’s a great question, Jim. Right now, the AI operates on a more superficial level. It doesn’t fully grasp Beethoven’s stylistic evolution, which is why it tends to take the most predictable next step, rather than something more complex or unexpected like Beethoven would.
James Lowe:
That’s right. The deeper, more unpredictable choices Beethoven made in his later works, like his quartets, are still beyond the reach of AI. We’re far from creating an AI that can match the complexity of human creativity at that level.
Grant Erickson:
To get there, we’d need a whole new revolution in AI development. Current models, like large language models, are still just predictive systems without a true understanding of what they’re generating.
Jim Tevennan:
Thank you both for this illuminating discussion. I look forward to seeing Beethoven and AI “duke it out” in January. It’s going to be an exciting event!
From the Studio on Spokane Public Radio wraps up with a piece similar to the one we started with—this time, Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 10, which was also completed posthumously by another composer, Derek Cooke. Enjoy!
Join Us!
The upcoming Beethoven vs. AI concert is a unique opportunity to witness the intersection of technology and classical music in a way that has never been done before. As Grant Erickson and James Lowe discussed, this concert offers not only a showcase of Beethoven’s genius but also a thought-provoking exploration of how AI can complement human creativity. With a specially designed interactive app, the audience will play an integral part in this groundbreaking event.
Don’t miss out on this one-of-a-kind symphonic experience!
Join us on January 18-19, 2025, at The Fox Theater to hear both the human- and AI-completed versions of Beethoven’s unfinished 10th Symphony, alongside his masterpiece, the Eroica Symphony.
Event Details:
- Date: January 18-19, 2025
- Location: The Fox Theater, Spokane, WA
- Doors Open: 6:00 PM (Saturday) | 1:30 PM (Sunday)
- Pre-concert Lecture: 6:30 PM (Saturday) | 2:00 PM (Sunday)
- Showtime: 7:30 PM (Saturday) | 3:00 PM (Sunday)
Get your tickets now by visiting the Spokane Symphony website at spokanesymphony.org or by calling the Fox Theater box office at (509) 624-1200. Tickets are selling fast, so be sure to secure your seat for this groundbreaking event!