Harvard spinout announces Cadenza music app for iPhone
Making music practice more fun with a personal orchestra
BOSTON, June 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Sonation, a music tech company spun out of the Harvard innovation lab, today announced Cadenza for iPhone. The music app offers a rare experience to anyone learning an instrument – the ability to play with a full orchestra whenever they want. While a musician practices their instrument, Cadenza accompanies them with real orchestra sound instantly personalized to their unique playing style. Cadenza is acclaimed by teachers, students and performers from top orchestras and conservatories including the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Juilliard and the New England Conservatory.
Cadenza is a responsive music accompaniment app that immerses musicians in full orchestra sound and lets them experience the full context of the music as if they were practicing with a live group. Developed by Harvard spinout music technology company, Sonation, and built on National Science Foundation-supported research, Cadenza uses machine learning algorithms to predict musical expression in real time. This enables Cadenza to synchronize the orchestra to a musician's tempo with the accuracy of live performers. Cadenza also allows the musician to record their practice sessions and train the orchestra to fit their style more closely.
"Many parents spend thousands of dollars on music lessons every year, but nearly 80% of students quit playing in orchestra by high school. We want to change that," said Ann Chao, CEO and cofounder of Sonation. "More than 60% of teens have their own iPhone. As a team of musicians, we thought about how we could make music more fun and immersive using this platform. With Cadenza, musicians enjoy the reward of their practice sooner and feel like they're in Carnegie Hall."
"I've never seen my students practice more," said Gene Wie, orchestra director of St. Margaret's Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano, California. "They even stay after school so they can play more with Cadenza."
Cadenza is free to download with music tracks for purchase ranging from $0.99 – $3.99. The library includes easy music for kids, standard repertoire for serious students, and popular music from movies like Lord of the Rings. As a special promotion for Cadenza's launch on iPhone, users can access the entire library for free until June 12, 2015. Cadenza is available in nine different languages including English, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, German, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. To download Cadenza on iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, visit http://sonation.net/cadenza.
About Sonation
Sonation helps people become better musicians by enabling greater self-expression through technology. The company was spun out of the Harvard innovation lab in 2014 and is currently based at the New England Conservatory. Its responsive music accompaniment app, Cadenza, is used by music students and amateurs, as well as teachers and performers from top orchestras and conservatories, including the Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Juilliard and the New England Conservatory. For more information, please visit: http://www.sonation.net.
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SOURCE Sonation
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