Berklee Announces Lineup for Inaugural AI Music Summit

Berklee Announces Lineup for Inaugural AI Music Summit The three-day event puts musicians at the center of conversations around AI, creativity, ethics, and the future of the music industry, featuring performances by Rance, Jordan Rudess, L'Rain, and BT.

May 13, 2026

By

Media Relations Staff

Jordan Rudess will perform at the Berklee Performance Center on June 4 as part of the inaugural AI Music Summit (AIMS).

Image by Jerry LoFaro

Berklee College of Music announces the full lineup of keynote speakers, panelists, workshops, and topics for its expanded AI Music Summit (AIMS), an annual symposium hosted by the Berklee Emerging Artistic Technology Lab (BEATL), taking place June 3-5, 2026, on Berklee's Boston campus. A hackathon will follow June 6-7. The announcement was made by Mark Ethier, executive director of BEATL, and Jonathan Wyner, BEATL's head of artistic technology and the former AES president.

The multi-day gathering of musicians, technologists, researchers, educators, and legal experts will explore how artificial intelligence is transforming music creation, production, performance, education, and rights management. Centering the musician, the event will also examine how AI is becoming embedded in everyday creative practice, with a focus on workflows, artist impact, and the ethical questions shaping the future of creative work. Presentations will offer an early look at new developments in AI and music, as innovators share emerging tools, technologies, and creative approaches.

AIMS is built around the idea that musicians should have a voice shaping new technologies and not just responding to them, explained Wyner.

What makes this moment important is not just the speed of innovation, but the fact that creative practice is already changing inside writing rooms, studios, and classrooms. As educators and music professionals, it's our responsibility to drive conversations and take a critical look at how rapidly evolving technologies are affecting our industry, added Ethier.

Grammy-winning producer Rance, whose credits include Kendrick Lamar, Bruno Mars, and Anderson .Paak, will build a song live onstage in collaboration with his engineer, guest players, vocal contributions from the audience, and Suno. Rance will reveal how he thinks about songwriting and how he integrates AI into his workflow during a Q&A with Sunos chief music officer, Paul Sinclair.

Keynote speakers include musician and AI-art pioneer Holly Herndon, who explores new authorship and consent in AI-generated media, and AI:OK founder Dr. Martin Clancy, who examines ethics and how AI is reshaping the definition of musicianship. The summit will also include a conversation between Berklee associate professor and music industry strategist Drew Thurlow and composer and Emmy winner Lucas Cantor Santiago on creativity, authorship, and industry transformation. Also featured are Elizabeth Moody, partner at Granderson Des Rochers, and Carletta Higginson of Warner Music Group, who are helping shape the deals and legal frameworks driving AI's impact on the music industry.

The 2026 program includes applied workshops, research presentations, industry panels, live demonstrations, sessions on pedagogy, and a June 4 concert at the Berklee Performance Center with performances by Dream Theater keyboardist and music technologist Jordan Rudess, experimental artist L'Rain, and Grammy-nominated EDM musician BT (Brian Transeau '89). On June 6 and 7, Berklee will hold a hackathon in partnership with Music Hackspace.

Leading voices from companies and institutions shaping the future of music technology at AIMS include Adobe, Google, MIT Media Lab, Splice, Ableton, Suno, Sony AI, Warner Music Group, iZotope, Native Instruments, Moises, ElevenLabs, Universal Audio, and others.

For a full list of programming and speakers, visit the AIMS conference program. Tickets are on sale now for the Berklee Performance Center concert featuring Jordan Rudess, LRain, and BT.

Please see our guiding principles to learn more about Berklee's commitment to exploring AI and machine learning in a way that is artist-centered and honors our core creative values.

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