The Last Piece: Musical AI for an Immersive Syncretic Concert — KEYNOTE
Constantin Basica – Lecturer in Music at Stanford University (USA)
Alexandru I. Berceanu – Associate professor at UNATC ”I.L. Caragiale” Bucharest (RO)
Prateek Verma – researcher at Stanford University (USA)
26 October 2025, 13:00, Sala Cinema UNATC (75-77 Matei Voievod Street)
The Last Piece: Musical AI for an Immersive Syncretic Concert
This presentation introduces an AI-based system that merges brain–computer interfacing with generative audio synthesis in the context of an immersive syncretic concert. Designed for two performances at the 2025 George Enescu International Festival, the project enables composer Constantin Basica to generate new music through imagined sounds captured via EEG. Recordings are made with an EMOTIV EPOC X headset equipped with 14 sensors, and a custom seven-layer convolutional neural network processes the resulting 512 × 14 channel input. The model classifies the imagined sounds and retrieves audio excerpts from Basica’s complete catalogue of recorded works. These excerpts function as prompts for a second AI pipeline, which produces audio that reimagines the composer’s style, effectively turning thought into sound. The concert environment situates this process within an immersive audiovisual setting, where neural activity, personal memory, and machine creativity interact in real time. Beyond its premiere performance, this system contributes to broader discussions on AI, creativity, and human–machine collaboration. The project will also be the subject of a forthcoming Routledge book chapter (2026), offering a more detailed account of its technical development and artistic implications.
Constantin Basica is a Romanian-born composer and intermedia artist whose work stages “symbiotic” encounters between performers, electronics, and video. He is a Lecturer in Music at Stanford University (CCRMA), where he teaches Audiovisual Performance, Concert Production, and Fundamentals of Computer-Generated Sound, alongside composition mentorship.
His music has been heard across Europe, North America, and Asia with ensembles such as JACK Quartet, Spektral Quartet, ELISION, Ensemble Dal Niente, and others, and at festivals including MATA, Currents New Media, ICMC, and SMC. Basica holds a DMA in Composition from Stanford and earlier degrees from the University of Music and Theatre Hamburg and the National University of Music Bucharest. Honours include the ICMA Award for Best Submission from Europe at the 2017 ICMC (Shanghai), the Carolyn Applebaum Memorial Prize (2018), and Stanford’s Chair’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (2015).
He serves on the Executive Committee of the ISCM – Romanian Section, and recent intermedia work includes Lost Interferences (Ars Electronica), created with collaborators from Romania and the U.S.
Alexandru I. Berceanu is a theatre director, researcher, and cultural manager working at the intersection of performance, games, and digital interaction. He is currently the Vice-Rector for Research, Development and Innovation at the National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale” (UNATC) in Bucharest and Associate Professor in the Department of Animation & Interaction at the same university. He initiated and served as director of the International Center for Research and Education in Innovative and Creative Technologies – CINETic, at UNATC. His scholarly work focuses on creativity, affect, and brain-behavior dynamics in performance contexts. He coordinates interdisciplinary projects and frequently speaks on arts-technology methods in training and audience engagement.
The keynote is part of the the second edition of the AI in Art Practices and Research international conference, organized by UNATC in Bucharest from 23–26 October 2025. The event explores the impact of AI on artistic creation and research, as well as its broader applications in society, such as accessibility, healthcare and well-being.