DREAM THEATER's JORDAN RUDESS To Debut jam_bot Technology With Two Exclusive Performances At MIT

On Saturday, October 3, 2026, DREAM THEATER keyboardist Jordan Rudess will perform two concerts at MIT's Thomas Tull Concert Hall during the inaugural MIT Future Fest alongside musical guests and jam_bot, an A.I. model developed with Rudess and trained on his playing. At the heart of the concert is a simple idea: this technology is not here to replace musicians, but to expand their creative possibilities and inspire new ways of making music.

The concert will feature the world premiere of Rudess and jam_bot improvising with the MIT Chamber Chorus, with jam_bot creating music for the singers in real time. Performances are October 3 at 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.

The jam_bot project has been developed over the past three years in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab by Lancelot Blanchard, Perry Naseck and Professor Joseph A. Paradiso during Rudess's Center for Art, Science & Technology Distinguished Visiting Artist residency at MIT. These concerts are a rare opportunity to experience the next chapter of this research project and witness Rudess interact with an advanced real-time system that enables the use of generative A.I. models in live music performances.

Moving from Baroque counterpoint to progressive rock and beyond, the program will be built around live improvisation. jam_bot is able to listen and respond to Rudess in real time, while also generating musical material that can be performed by other musicians onstage, opening the door to new forms of collaborative improvisation.

Rudess comments: "I've spent my entire life studying, exploring, and creating music. What excites me about jam_bot isn't the technology by itself — it's where it can take me musically. I can improvise, follow an idea in the moment, and suddenly have a choir or an ensemble responding to what I'm playing. That opens up a whole new world of creative possibilities."

What: Jordan Rudess + jam_bot: A Human-AI Musical Dialogue

When: Saturday, October 3, 2026: two performances, 5:00–6:00 p.m. and 8:00–9:00 p.m.

Where: Thomas Tull Concert Hall, Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts (201 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02139)

Tickets: $5 MIT community / $10 general admission. Tickets on sale at Eventbrite. A portion of the 5:00 p.m. performance is reserved for ticket holders of MIT Future Fest

Capacity: 300 per performance.

Performers: Jordan Rudess, MIT Chamber Chorus, and guest student performers

Each performance will feature the same program, but because the music is created and shaped through live improvisation, no two performances will be exactly alike.

Rudess is a Grammy Award-winning keyboardist, composer, and technologist best known as a member of the Grammy Award-winning, multi-platinum-selling progressive metal band DREAM THEATER. Widely recognized for his virtuosity and exploration of new musical technologies, Rudess has spent decades working at the intersection of performance, composition, and technological innovation.

In addition to his work with DREAM THEATER and as a solo artist, Rudess has collaborated with researchers, designers, and technologists on new approaches to musical expression and human-computer interaction. His work with MIT began in 2023 and has evolved into an ongoing collaboration exploring how artificial intelligence can expand the possibilities of live musical performance.

The MIT Media Lab is an interdisciplinary research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For 40 years, its students, faculty, and researchers have worked at the intersection of art, science, engineering, and design, guided by a conviction that everyone, everywhere, has the opportunity to flourish. Among its dozens of research groups, the Responsive Environments group, led by Professor Joseph Paradiso, explores how sensor networks, interactive systems, and emerging technologies create new relationships between people, information, and environments, spanning human-computer interaction, wearable sensing, responsive spaces, and new forms of musical and artistic expression. Learn more at mitmedialab.info/mlresponsive.