“Kanga’s Piano Ex Machina is a rewarding experience, rich in possibility, infused with curiosity and playfulness, and not afraid to explore conceptual and expressive horizons well beyond the boundaries of a traditional piano recital.”
Zubin Kanga is a pianist, composer, andtechnologist. For over a decade, he has been at the forefront of creating,co-creating and performing interdisciplinary works that explore and redefinewhat it means to be a musician through interactions with new technologies.
Since 2021, he has been the Director and Research Lead of Cyborg Soloists, a 7-year music-technology research project supported by a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship and based at Royal Holloway, University of London, where he is Associate Professor in Musical Performance and Digital Arts. Cyborg Soloists is unlocking new possibilities in composition and performance through interactions with AI, interactive visuals, motion and biosensors, and new hybrid instruments. His Cyborg Soloists work has been featured in The New York Times, New Scientist, The Wire, Classical Music Magazine, and the BBC World Service.
Zubin has premiered more than 170 works and performed at many international festivals including the BBC Proms, New Music Biennial, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, London Contemporary Music Festival (UK) Melbourne Festival (Australia), Paris Autumn Festival (France), Time of Music Festival (Finland), Music Current (Ireland), Klang Festival (Denmark), Hamburg International Music Festival (Germany), Gaudeamus Festival (Netherlands), Tongyeong International Music Festival (South Korea), Transit Festival (Belgium) and Modulus Festival (Canada).
In the last two years, he has premiered 8 new concerti with ensembles including BCMG, Explore Ensemble, Ensemble Offspring, Manchester Collective and the BBC Philharmonic.
Recent collaborations include Answer Machine Tape, 1987 by Philip Venables, which uses a KeyScanner to turn the piano into a hybrid audio-visual instrument, allowing it to type text onto the screen like a typewriter; Steady State by Alexander Schubert, which uses EEG brain sensors to control music and holographic visuals; DANCE SUITE by Alex Groves, which combines Baroque forms with the sounds of contemporary nightclubs, and was featured at the 2025 New Music Biennial; Prosoche by George Lewis, currently being developed in collaboration with IRCAM researchers, which features an interactive improvising AI system that duets with Zubin; and TECHNO-UTOPIA, a concerto by Robert Laidlow for AI-integrated digital instruments and orchestra.
