A concert where artificial intelligence became the world's first soloist and improviser was held as part of the cultural program of the Eastern Economic Forum 2023 in Vladivostok.
Symphony No. 1 "Cosmos," written by musician and composer Pyotr Dranga for artificial intelligence and the Great Symphony Orchestra with the participation of virtuoso soloists from China, was performed on the Primorsky stage of the Mariinsky Theatre.
The symphony in four movements was written in a classical structure. In the first and second movements, the Chinese virtuosos played solo, while a neural network model called SymFormer controlled the expressiveness of the performance directly on stage using a virtual synthesizer.
The third and fourth parts were improvised in real time by SymFormer. According to the composer's idea, the neural network reinterpreted the symphony, changing and adding to it, becoming a participant in the creative process and co-author of the composition.
An additional element was an art object symbolizing the neuromusician - a techno-matryoshka doll. The center of the musical installation, according to the organizers, was SberBoom - a powerful smart speaker with the Salute virtual assistant. The organizers asked the audience not to applaud in the pauses between parts, but the audience could still not resist, as shouts of "bravo" and applause were heard.