New languages, new tools, new skills

Digitalization is no longer just an option, but a structural dimension of contemporary music education. As part of the MUSIC4D – The Conservatory in the Digital Age project, funded by the PNRR, the technological transition process is addressed systematically, with the goal of integrating artificial intelligence, augmented reality, sound modeling, and interactive platforms into the training programs of the Conservatories and partner Universities.

Innovation does not only concern technical equipment, but profoundly affects teaching, artistic production, and the relationship between students and teachers. It shifts from a linear vision of learning to a networked model, where technology becomes an active mediator of knowledge, creative exploration, and interaction with complex environments.

The project includes the experimentation of generative AI for music composition, the use of intelligent systems for automatic sound analysis, the application of musical robotics, the creation of immersive sound environments, and the augmented sonorization of spaces. The aim is to enhance the students’ expressive and perceptive abilities, but also to make them active players in the ongoing digital transformation, developing skills that are useful in the new cultural and creative markets.

The involvement of the Engineering Departments of the University of Palermo and the University of Calabria (Rende) makes it possible to bring tools and methodologies of artificial intelligence, machine learning, acoustic signal processing, and human-machine interaction to the heart of music education. Thus, interactive laboratories, joint courses, musical hackathons and creative residencies are born, where technologies do not replace the human dimension, but amplify it.

A central role is played by the design of new digital interfaces, capable of translating musical gestures into computer codes and vice versa. Advanced software, sensors, wearable tech, and neural networks become compositional, performative, and analytical tools. Conversational artificial intelligence is also introduced to support individual musical learning, creating personalized dialogues between the student and the repertoire.

From a pedagogical point of view, MUSIC4D experiments with a new grammar of listening and creation, where students learn to move between score, code, and acoustic imagination. This leads to the development of hybrid educational paths that combine music writing and programming, improvisation and predictive intelligence, heritage preservation and the creation of new sound formats.

The digitalization of music is not only an operational tool, but also a form of cultural citizenship: it allows for expanded access, promotes inclusion, documents the sound heritage of Southern Italy, and activates communities of practice among artists, teachers, engineers, and students.

Training in music in the 21st century also means training in a critical relationship with technology, preparing new generations of musicians capable of using AI not as a shortcut, but as a creative, pedagogical, expressive ally.