When Clara Yang plays the piano, she seems lost in another world. Sometimes she plays slowly, her fingertips barely touching the keys, the sound soft and sweet like a lullaby. But then, suddenly, she leans forward, and her hands forcefully race across the keyboard as if she’s fighting a battle.
Her playing is both aggressive and sensitive, fierce and beautiful. One reviewer described it as “wrestling and dancing and running wild with a sparkler.”
Yang is an associate professor in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences’ music department and a classically trained pianist who’s been playing since she was 4. She’s performed all over the world, from Carnegie Hall in New York City to the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing.
Before 2020, her whole world was focused on in-person experiences, from classes to concert performances. But during the pandemic, she taught classes online and connected with colleagues and friends via text and video messaging.
Using technology more than ever got her thinking.
“It made me realize that we are tightly connected to technology in every way possible during our everyday life,” Yang says. “From small things like our phones (and) social media to bigger things like AI development. In fact, every single (musical) instrument is a piece of technology that people invented years ago to make music.”
Yang wanted to explore this relationship between humanity and technology by collaborating with others across genres to develop an entirely new experience.
“I wanted to create a world for the audience to reflect on the emotional impact of what AI and all these different technologies are doing to our psychology,” she says.
The result is “Ex Machina: Piano in an AI World,” a collaboration with 10 composers to explore humanity and technology through their music.
For example, Yang and electric guitarist Yvette Young created “Conception,” a hauntingly beautiful musical exploration of the birth, evolution and final moments of AI consciousness. Blending electric and acoustic guitar, violin, piano and electronics, the work culminates in a poignant farewell monologue from the AI itself, blurring the line between machine and human emotion.
“We wanted to create this emotional moment to show that our lives are finite,” Yang says. “The final monologue from the AI being in ‘Conception’ resonates with this idea. It’s heartbreaking but also very human.”
Mixed media messages
Yang wanted “Ex Machina” to be immersive for the audience, with visuals as important as the music. She reached out to her friend and new media artist Xuan, who used 15 projectors to move a series of textured and colorful images across three screens while the performers play.
“With music written by so many different composers, my goal was to weave a throughline aesthetically while making sure each compositional voice remains distinct,” Xuan explains. “I experimented with a variety of mediums, from ice to ink to handwriting to purely generative media.”
Yang adds: “I really wanted my audience to experience music in this way that they would feel like they’re living in this new, unknown and hopefully fascinating world.”
“Ex Machina” premiered in 2024. The 75-minute performance includes 11 composed works across three acts and a postlude. Carolina composers Allen Anderson, Stephen Anderson, Suzi Analog, and Lee Weisert wrote new music for the show.
“It was my first time trying to perform and compose together with nonclassical musicians,” Yang says. “It gave me a glimpse into what it means to be a great artist across genres, and there are a lot of common threads: the dedication, an almost obsessive attention to details and this overwhelming urge to create to reflect on the human experience.”