MIT Music Tech Speaker Series Presents: Mari Kimura

About this event

Mastery over Novelty: MUGIC® - a lasting tool for musicianship This lecture explores a pivotal shift in the relationship between technology and the performing arts—from chasing novelty to cultivating mastery. Violinist, composer, and technologist Mari Kimura presents MUGIC® (Music/User Gesture Interface Control), a groundbreaking motion sensor designed to deepen, not replace, musicianship. Unlike many fleeting tech innovations, MUGIC® is a lightweight, wearable device that captures expressive gestures in real time, converting them into control data for sound, visuals, and interactive media. Designed with performers in mind, it emphasizes expressivity, accessibility, and longevity—offering a sustainable model for integrating technology into the arts, education, and therapeutic practices. Drawing from over a decade of development and real-world application—from interdisciplinary curricula to stages such as Lincoln Center, the Venice Biennale, and Expo 2025 Osaka—Kimura showcases how mastering a robust, intuitive tool fosters deeper expression and long-term artistic growth. Speaker Bio: Mari Kimura is a visionary violinist, composer, technologist, and entrepreneur whose pioneering work bridges performance, innovation, and education. A recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Fromm Commission from Harvard, and a residency at IRCAM in Paris, she was awarded the 2025 SEAMUS Award for lifetime achievement in electroacoustic music. The Carnegie Corporation recognized her as an “Immigrant: Pride of America.” Internationally acclaimed for inventing the subharmonics technique, enabling violinists to play an octave below the instrument’s natural range, she was hailed by The New York Times as a “virtuoso playing at the edge.” Her music, integrating contemporary composition with motion-sensor technology, has been commissioned by ensembles such as the Cassatt String Quartet, Harvard New Music Ensemble and others. An active performer and improviser, she has premiered works by John Adams, Luciano Berio, and Tania León, and collaborated with artists such as Jim O’Rourke, Henry Kaiser and Elliott Sharp. A longtime collaborator on the ERC project involving SOMAX — an AI-improvisation engine developed at IRCAM — she regularly performs at IRCAM's ImproTech festivals. Kimura joined UC Irvine’s ICIT program as a Professor of Music in 2017 and retired in June 2026, when she was named Professor Emeritus. She continues to teach as a graduate faculty at Juilliard since 1998. In 2020, she launched MUGIC® (Music/User Gesture Interface Control), a compact motion sensor that transforms physical gestures into data for controlling music, visuals, and beyond. MUGIC® is now used in major venues—including Lincoln Center, the Venice Biennale, and Osaka Expo 2025—and at leading institutions such as Harvard, Juilliard, and Berlin’s University of the Arts (UdK). During the pandemic, Kimura earned an MBA from UC Irvine’s Merage School and was recognized by the U.S. House and California Legislature for her achievements in innovation and entrepreneurship. https://www.mugicmotion.com