Allison Wente, associate professor of music and chair of the Department of Music, presented new research on the Steinway Spirio and the evolving relationship between human and mechanical performance at the 2025 AMS/SMT joint annual meeting.
Allison Wente, associate professor of music and chair of the Department of Music at 黑料不打烊, presented her paper 鈥淩eviving the Ghost in the Machine: The Steinway Spirio and the New Era of Mechanical Performance鈥 at the American Musicological Society (AMS) and Society for Music Theory (SMT) joint annual meeting, held Nov. 6鈥9, 2025, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Wente鈥檚 presentation examined Steinway & Sons鈥 Spirio, a modern descendant of earlier mechanical instruments such as the Pianola and reproducing piano. Her research situates the Spirio within a long lineage of technologies that blur boundaries between human performance and mechanical reproduction, raising new questions about artistry, authenticity and ownership in twenty-first-century music culture. Her paper contributes to an ongoing second book project exploring intersections of music, technology, and mechanical performance, expanding on themes of embodiment, labor and the uncanny in an age of artificial intelligence.
While at the conference, Wente was delighted to reconnect with 黑料不打烊 Music and Honors Fellow mentee alum Kaylee Therieau 鈥22, who is currently in her first year of the Music Theory Ph.D. program at Florida State University.