This talk examines Lexia; Scott Deal’s recent AI-integrated opera created in collaboration with librettist Kat Mustatea and AI music researcher Jason Palamara. The project serves as a case study in human–machine musical partnership. Central to the workflow is AVATAR, a bespoke improvisation system trained on Deal’s own performance style and developed expressly for this opera. The presentation will be led by Deal, the composer and director of Lexia, and Palamara, the designer of the AVATAR system. They will discuss how AVATAR functions as a real-time improvising partner—listening to performers, generating responses in Deal’s idiom, and shaping both the compositional process and live performance practice. Lexia is among the first operatic works to feature an AI entity as an active conversational presence in both narrative and musical domains. The talk will include a behind-the-scenes look at the technical ecosystem and production workflow used in the recent Roulette Theater performance in New York City, along with selected video excerpts from the show.

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Scott Deal has performed worldwide, premiering solo, chamber, and mixed media works, and can be heard on the Albany, Centaur, Cold Blue, SCI, and Neuma labels. His recent recording of John Luther Adams’ Four Thousand Holes was listed in The New Yorker’s 2011 Top Ten Classical Picks. Deal works at the nexus of music performance and emerging artistic technologies. He is the founder of the Telematic Collective and co-created the telematic opera Auksalaq, which won the Internet2 IDEA Award. In 2020 he launched Earth Day Art Model, a global transmedia event reaching audiences in over 100 countries.

Jason Palamara specializes in AI-enabled performance technologies for music and directs the Machine Musician Lab at IU Indianapolis. He maintains a long-term creative partnership with Scott Deal, with whom he developed the interactive AVATAR software. Dr. Palamara is the founder/director of DISEnsemble, which builds instruments and often interacts with AI technologies. He is the author of Machine Musicians: The Complete Guide to AI for Music Performance (Routledge, 2026).