AI MusicCon

Martin Andree

Researcher and lecturer

Martin Andree teaches media science at Cologne University in Germany. He has been doing research on the dominance of Big Tech for more than 15 years. Leading German and international media, conferences and institutions regularly draw on his expertise, calling for his contributions on this subject.

In 2020, he published the highly reputed Atlas of the Digital World. He received the Gunter Wallraff Special Award for Press Freedom and Human Rights for the bestseller Big Tech Muss Weg! (2023), which has also been published in English (Big Tech Must Go!). He studied in Cologne, Munster, Cambridge and Harvard.

Michael P. Aust

Festivaldirector SoundTrack_Cologne and Producer TelevisorTroika GmbH

Business graduate (Dipl.-Kfm.) Michael P. Aust is a German curator, organiser of cultural events and film producer born in 1965. His focal point of interest lies in the intersectionality of art forms, especially in the relationship of music and moving pictures. He heads the filmmusic festival and conference Soundtrack_Cologne that he founded in 2004 – with 850 accreditations Europe’s leading filmmusic industry event – as well as Soundtrack_Zurich since 2020. Parallel from 2014-2019 he was festivaldirector of Braunschweig International Filmfestival that grew to 28.000 admissions under his direction.

Aust has worked in the film industry for more than 25 years with producer credits for 21 feature films and feature-length documentaries, including 101 Reykjavik, Stumbling Block, Low Lights, Parallax Sounds Chicago, Eva Hesse and The Sound of Cologne, focusing on music and art. His directorial debut Can and Me, co-produced by WDR, hit the cinemas and film festivals in spring 2023. 

Michael curates exhibitions and festivals e.g. DuKunst Media Art Festival 1992, Klangvisionen sound art exhibition 1994, StadtKlangNetz conference on cultural education 2007-2014, European Film Music Day at Cannes Film Festival 2009-2016, the highly successful The Art of Pop Video exhibition (MAKK Cologne 2011, Odessa Art Center 2012, Liverpool FACT 2013), Next Level Conference on video games 2012, PLAY!CGN exhibition and conference on video games in art 2013, Digital Distribution conference 2014, BIFF Film Criticism LAB: on the Future of Film Criticism 2015, Hostile Sisters - Interdependencies of Theatre and Film conference 2016, FxM Film meets Music Festival 2018+19. His latest project is the 30-month Re-Educating Digitisation funded by Erasmus+.

He is a voting member of the GERMAN FILM ACADEMY, FILMBÜRO NW and of the WORLD SOUNDTRACK ACADEMY and Board Member of KINO AKTIV, ON NEUE MUSIK KÖLN and MUSIC FILM FESTIVAL NETWORK. He is Managing Director, Owner and Producer at TELEVISOR TROIKA GMBH, a Cologne-based company established in 1993 for film production, art events and public relations in arts.

Yevgeni Birkhoff

Composer, Music Producer, Sound Designer

Yevgeni Birkhoff is a composer, music producer, and sound designer working across media productions, international large-scale events, song production, and acoustic sound art. His musical language ranges from authentic EDM productions and Musique Concrète soundscapes to cinematic orchestral scores.

Over the course of his career, Birkhoff has created tailored music and sound design for internationally renowned brands and organizations, including Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Electronic Arts, the Chinese Ministry of Tourism, and Emaar Properties. His sound installations have been exhibited at prestigious institutions worldwide, including the German Rock and Pop Museum in Gronau, Mann’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, and the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.

In 2010, Birkhoff received the Peer Raben Award at SoundTrack_Cologne for Best Music in a Short Film. In addition, numerous large-scale events featuring his music have received international recognition within the event industry, including the BrandEx Award (2019), the German Design Award (2016), and The Special Event Gala Award (2015).

In recent years, Birkhoff has expanded his artistic and technological spectrum into the fields of game audio and artificial intelligence. He regularly gives lectures and workshops, sharing his expertise and innovative perspectives on the application of these technologies in music and audio post-production. Since 2025, he has served as Advisor on Artificial Intelligence to the Executive Board of the State Music Council of North Rhine-Westphalia (Landesmusikrat NRW).

Philipp Bojahr

Executive director of the NRW K3 AI.Art.Culture Competence Network.

Dr. Philipp Bojahr is the designated executive director of the NRW K3 AI.Art.Culture Competence Network. As a hub for artificial intelligence in art and culture in North Rhine-Westphalia, K3 will bring together networking, knowledge transfer, and continuing education and residency programs for artists and cultural professionals. Previously, from 2022 to 2026, he worked on the “New Media in Museums” tandem position to develop innovative approaches to cultural education: He led the Research & Digital Transformation department at the Siegerlandmuseum in Siegen while also conducting research in this field as a postdoctoral fellow at the Cologne Game Lab at the Technical University of Cologne, participating in various national and international projects.

He studied media studies and media culture at the University of Siegen and received his Ph.D. from the University of Cologne in 2019 with a dissertation on art, technology, and computer game theory.

Varun Desai

Multidisciplinary artist

Varun Desai is a multidisciplinary artist and computer engineer with two decades of experience operating at the intersection of technology, interactive design, and immersive sound art. His research-driven practice investigates how technological advancements reshape human sensory perception, utilizing custom-built electronics, real-time code-based visualizations, and responsive installations to interrogate the boundaries between physical and digital spaces.

As a foundational figure in India's experimental music and digital art landscapes, Desai has championed contemporary new media practices in Kolkata and founded Synthfarm, a premier research and residency platform dedicated to modular synthesis, instrument design, and music production. Additionally, his role as director of the long-running Kolkata Jazzfest bridges global cultural traditions, fostering vital cross-disciplinary and international collaboration.

Desai’s creative methodology is anchored by a rigorous technical framework in computer engineering, software architecture, and creative coding. His artistic projects frequently leverage these skills to build highly responsive, stable cyber-physical environments, as seen in his immersive digital artwork created for Apple, his custom hardware and DIY synthesizers and his fine art pieces showcased at the historic Dhoomimal Gallery. This is further exemplified in his solo exhibition Spectre at Experimenter, which explored wave mechanics, surveillance, and multi-channel sound systems. A defining milestone of his instrument design research is Switched on India, a performance-lecture project centered around his reconstruction of the pioneering 1969 National Institute of Design (NID) Moog synthesizer. Continuing to push the boundaries of how electronic sound is generated, Desai integrates algorithmic logic into his creative practice by exploring both ends of the modern compute spectrum. His current interactive experiments range from lightweight AI sequence patches deployed on low-power edge microcontrollers to complex, web-based deep learning architectures.

Michael Duderstädt

Director of Political Communications at GEMA

Michael Duderstädt has been Director of Political Communications at GEMA since July 2013 and, since December 2024, has also served as Head of GEMA’s Berlin office.

In this dual role, he oversees the liaison offices in Berlin and Brussels and represents the political interests of GEMA’s more than 100,000 members.

Previously, he was Head of Communications & Media Policy at RTL Radio Deutschland and Managing Director of the online radio station the wave – relaxing radio.

After completing his studies in communication, theatre and law, he began his professional career as a media policy advisor to Dr Angela Merkel at the CDU’s federal headquarters. He then worked at the communications agency Pleon, advising companies on corporate communications, public affairs and crisis communications.

Dr. S. Dennis Engbrink, LL.M.

Lawyer

Dr. S. Dennis Engbrink, LL.M. is Head of Media & Entertainment at ZIRNGIBL Rechtsanwälte in Berlin. He specializes in intellectual property, media and entertainment law. He advises media, technology and creative industry clients, including music and film businesses, producers, composers, publishers, agencies and promoters. One focus of his practice is AI and its legal implications for copyright, licensing and regulatory compliance. His academic and professional background includes extended international experience in Tokyo, Brussels, Amsterdam and Wellington. As a frequent speaker on AI, IP and media law, and through his involvement in the International Association of Entertainment Lawyers (IAEL), he contributes actively to international debates on the legal implications of emerging technologies for the creative industries.

Thomas Hanz

Head of the Musikschule.digital.NRW network

Thomas Hanz ist Referent für Digitalisierung beim LVdM NRW und Leiter des Netzwerks Musikschule.digital.NRW. Seine Schwerpunkte sind digitale Transformation und KI in der Musikschularbeit. Für den VdM verantwortet er die Fortbildungsinhalte für die Führungskräftequalifizierung im Bereich Digitalisierung. 2022/23 setzte er die Digitalisierungsoffensive der NRW Landesregierung an öffentlichen Musikschulen in NRW um. 

Zuvor entwickelte und erprobte er an der Folkwang Musikschule Essen digitale Unterrichts- und Kommunikationsformate. Thomas Hanz studierte Gitarre in Essen, Hannover und Köln, konzertierte europaweit und war als Dozent, Komponist, Arrangeur sowie künstlerischer Leiter des Gitarrenfestival-Ruhr tätig und hatte einen Lehrauftrag für Gitarre an der Folkwang Universität Essen.

Florian Hollerweger

Professor of Digital Innovation · Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln

Florian Hollerweger is an Austrian artist and scholar of sound, with a focus on computationally mediated aural experience in sonic arts practices such as live coding, sound installation, data sonification, or electroacoustic music composition.

Since 2023, he is Professor of Digital Innovation at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, where he and his colleagues are currently establishing the Zentrum für Künstlerische Forschung & Digitale Innovation (ZKD). From 2017 to 2023, Florian served first as Assistant, then Associate Professor of Audio Arts & Acoustics at Columbia College Chicago. He was Lecturer in Music Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) fom 2013 to 2017 and at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, from 2011 to 2012.

Florian holds a PhD from the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and a Diplomingenieur from the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEM) in Graz, Austria.

Emilio Jotter

Student at the Cologne University of Music

Emilio Jotter has been studying for a teaching qualification at the Cologne University of Music for four years, specialising in composition, performance and artistic research.

In his projects, he experiments with interdisciplinary methods to explore new forms of musical experience. At the Centre for Artistic Research & Digital Innovation (ZKD), he has taken various courses with Florian Hollerweger and Anna Schürmer on music and AI, live coding and EDM.

Zhiyun Lan

Student for Musicology

Zhiyun Lan is a Master's student in Musicology at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln (HfMT Köln). She studied Art Education with a focus on Music at East China Normal University in Shanghai and worked as a music teacher before continuing her studies in Germany. Her interests include music and society, intercultural music research, digital musical practices, and the growing role of artificial intelligence in music. She is particularly interested in how emerging technologies influence musical creativity, learning, and listening experiences.

Helienne Lindvall

Composer, singer, writer, music industry expert

Helienne Lindvall is the President of the European Composer & Songwriter Alliance (ECSA), as well as an award-winning professional songwriter, musician and columnist. She's Board Director of the Swedish songwriter and composer organisation SKAP and the former Chair of the Ivor Novello Awards, Board Director of the Ivors Academy and Trustee of the Ivors Academy Trust. She’s also the writer behind the Guardian music industry columns Behind the Music and Plugged In, and is the former Head of Business & Songwriter relations for song data management platform AUDDLY/SESSION, backed by hitmakers Max Martin and Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus, and Director of Business Development and Artist Relations, LANDR UK.

Hailing from Sweden, she worked as a session singer, recording artist and performer in Stockholm and NYC before settling in London, where she signed a publishing deal with BMG Scandinavia and, later, UNIVERSAL Music Publishing Scandinavia. Since then she’s been working with recording artists on both sides of the Atlantic, including Roger Sanchez, Sunloverz, Big Daddy Wilson and the Dark Tenor, collaborating with award-winning writers including Jörgen Elofsson (Kelly Clarkson, Britney Spears), Patrik Berger (Icona Pop, Robyn) andSteve McEwan (Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood). In 2016, her song A Better Man, co-written by Andrew Fromm (Backstreet Boys, Mark Anthony) and Peter Kvint (A-ha, Andreas Johnson) made the UK Eurovision finals. Recent releases include Glass Keys, Dani Senior, Menrva and Ava Vox (Queen of the Universe).

Helienne contributed a chapter for the Swedish book Myten om Internet (The Myth of the Internet), and has written for Digital Music News, Netopia, The Musician, The Australian and STIM-Magasinet. She regularly appears on Sky News, the BBC, Irish National Radio, Bloomberg and Swedish National Radio, discussing songwriters’ rights, copyright and other music industry issues.

Nicole Picazo

Composer

Nicole Picazo is an award-winning arranger, composer, and music producer specializing in large-scale orchestral productions and high-end recording sessions. As Head of Production at Musiversal Orchestras, she leads the creative direction behind orchestral recordings for artists, composers, and labels worldwide, bridging composition, orchestration, production, and session execution from first sketch to final master.

Her work has been trusted by producers such as Major Seven, Tristan Seewer, Justin Burnett, and producer Aman Moroney, with projects supported by labels like Epitaph Records, Cleopatra Records and Artiste First. Nicole regularly produces and orchestrates sessions with world-class ensembles including the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, bringing cinematic scale, clarity, and musical storytelling to every production through Musiversal Orchestras. She is a recipient of a Los Angeles Film Awards (LAFA) award for Best Instrumental, and Best Score at the New York Film Awards, shared with Rita Senhor for their work on The Life Of Christ in Song.

Anna Schürmer

Anna Schürmer has been the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation Professor at the Free University of Berlin since 2026; prior to that, she was a junior professor of musicology at the Cologne University of Music and Dance from 2023.

In her academic work, she adopts interdisciplinary perspectives in the context of ‘music and media’ (Sound Studies). On a discursive level, she focuses on intersectional and power-critical approaches in music and sound research (Queer Musicology), speculative forms of music-related knowledge production (Zukunft(s)Musik: Musicking Future – Futuring Music), and auditory perspectives in artistic research (Acoustic Research).

She pays particular attention to new and electronic (club) music. Outside academia, *anna also works as a music journalist: she presents programmes, gives talks and publishes regularly in various print, radio and online media. Further information: www.interpolationen.de

Maja Stark

Project Manager

Maja Stark joined K3 KI.Kunst.Kultur on 1 July 2026 as Network and Programme Manager. Alongside this role, she conceives and coordinates EU-funded programmes at the intersection of art, culture, and new technologies at HTW Berlin, including the AURORA XR School for Artists (2023–2025) and the IUNO – Innovation Centre for Intelligent and Immersive Technologies in the Independent Arts and Culture Scene (since 2026). In 2023, she worked as a Project Manager at BGZ — Berliner Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit. Following studies in Art History and French in Berlin and Paris, and a one-year traineeship at Deutscher Kunstverlag, she served from 2015 to 2018 as Publication Manager at the interdisciplinary Cluster of Excellence Image Knowledge Gestaltung at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. From 2017 to 2020, she complemented her professional practice by attending selected seminars in Media and Applied Computer Science.

Prof. Dr. Francisco Tigre-Moura

Academic, Researcher

Francisco Tigre Moura is a Professor of Marketing at IU International University of Applied Sciences. He holds a PhD in Marketing from the University of Otago (New Zealand) and has spent the last decade researching human response to artificial creativity. He is the editor of two books on the intersection of AI and creativity, and is currently editing a third one on AI and the abundance of creative content. He also has several publications in scientific journals, academic conferences and book chapters on AI and creativity and hosts a Podcast named AI & Creativity. You can find more about his work at: liveinnovation.org

Rita Tulha

Music Producer

Rita Senhor, known for her broad experience in high-level session productions, has been leading high end productions for nearly eight years as Head of Musiversal Orchestras. 

Rita has produced hundreds of remote and on-site recordings across the world's major scoring stages, including London, Prague, Budapest, and Sydney. Her portfolio spans a vast range of media, from hosting the string recordings for Marco Beltrami’s Silent Night OST and collaborating with Justin Burnett's soundtrack The Strangers Chapter II, to producing orchestral layers for producers and labels like Major Seven, David Kalmusky, Dave Cowell, CD PROJEKT RED, MDDN, Cleopatra Records and Artiste First.

Notably, Rita’s work includes the Grammy Award-winning single “Bun Di Ganja” produced by Major Seven, and the Emmy Award-winning track "Winter" by composer Obadiah Baker. With a sensibility that seamlessly bridges the gap between intimate singer-songwriter arrangements and massive cinematic scores, Rita oversees every technical and artistic detail of the production process to ensure world-class results.

Martin Villiger

Composer, focused on film music

Martin Villiger has scored more documentary films than any other Swiss composer of his generation. He has written music for more than 140 films and series, 50 advertising campaigns and over 500 series episodes. And an archive of more than 2,000 of his pieces lives in the internal library of Swiss television.

He has a habit of being first. With the DVD The Voyage (2004) he was one of the first composers in Switzerland to score consistently in 5.1 surround. Today he works in Dolby Atmos and explores where human creativity meets AI. As a lecturer at the University of the arts Zurich he mentors students on their way to become film composers.

Beyond film, Martin develops sonic identities for companies and also broadcast series. Some of his advertising campaigns feature names like Apple, Samsung, Swisscom, Salt, Snickers and Rega, alongside film and series work for Netflix and SRF. On stage, he founded the Culture Clash concerts in 2022 and has performed his Emotional Composing format since 2006 - composing live in the moment, shaped by the audience in real time.

BLICK called him "the Swiss Hans Zimmer.”

Kerstin Weuthen

Kerstin Weuthen is Professor of Music Education and Dean of the Department of Music Education at the Robert Schumann University of Music Düsseldorf. She studied music education in Essen and Cologne, with violin as her principal instrument. She worked as a violin teacher at the Mönchengladbach Music School and served as Director of the Duisburg School of Music and Art.

She holds a doctorate in Instrumental Pedagogy and presents her research at national and international conferences. She is a board member of the Arbeitskreis musikpädagogische Forschung (AMPF), Chair of the Association for Youth Ensembles in North Rhine-Westphalia, and a spokesperson for ALMS (Association of Heads of Music Education Degree Programmes). She also regularly leads courses and workshops on music education and string pedagogy.

Lilly Zintl

Student with a focus on art and technology

Lilly Zintl has been studying at the Centre for Contemporary Dance (ZZT HfMT Köln) since 2024 and joined the Centre for Artistic Research and Digital Innovation (ZKD HfMT Köln) as a working student in 2025.

Previously, she graduated with a Bachelor's degree in IT-Systems Engineering from the University of Potsdam. Building on that background, she currently works with motion capture technologies and gesture recognition, exploring how they can serve as an immediate link between movement and sound.

She is excited about interdisciplinary research at the intersection of art and STEM and is interested in how technology can thoughtfully support artistic practice.