Edinburgh Fringe 2025
AI Mozart: ChatGPT Composed This Concert
Moonlight
Genre: Music
Venue: St Vincent's Chapel, Stockbridge
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
An intriguing exploration of the rapidly growing capabilities of AI as Matthew Shiel challenges a suite of music related applications to compose new works in a variety of styles, which he then proceeds to play with considerable aplomb.
Review
It’s a bit of a late evening hike down to the New Town and there’s something cheekily futuristic about sitting under the vaulted ceiling of St Vincent’s Chapel, expecting sacred silence, only to be greeted by a number entitled “Viking Progressive Death Polka.” It’s pure Fringe mischief, exactly what AI Mozart promised, and delivered. The brainchild of pianist‑storyteller Matthew Shiel, this is no droll lecture on algorithms, but a full‑blooded, ear‑worming plunge into AI’s compositional whims.
From Beethoven‑tinged flourishes to jaunty boogie‑woogie and Latin salsa rhythms, each piece feels like a surprise party. You think you know classical music—but then suddenly it’s tango‑meets‑Brahms or something else entirely, yet it somehow all remains coherent. The evening is less overture and more “what’s on earth will this be next?” It dances on past notions of creativity, teasing us with how close (or far) these machine‑made melodies veer from human composers. Shiel doesn’t just play them though; he narrates them, coaxing meaning, mood, and even humour from what at first appear to be coldly generated notes.
I wasn’t sold on a concert of AI music at first but Shiel’s evident joy, paired with a direct, approachable delivery, made it feel intimate rather than the artificial I’d expected. One moment you’re pondering AI’s artistic boundaries; the next, you’re tapping your foot, grinning at how bizarrely catchy it all is.
It’s all rather enlightening, if by that we mean being awakened to a new notion of creativity—one where artificial ingenuity meets human interpretation in perfect, if somewhat improbable harmony.
What could have been a sterile experiment turns out to be a spirited theatrical event: modest in scale but audacious in concept. The tension between programmatic novelty and emotional resonance is what gives the performance its heart. In the chapel’s hush, Shiel teases the audience with possibility, inviting us to imagine a future where artistry isn’t lost in cogs and code, but reborn in curious, collaborative invention.
Downright Fringe, infinitely playful, surprisingly soulful—AI Mozart turns out to be far more alive than I thought any algorithm could have generated.
Now, all I need to work out is how to save myself two or more hours of story writing in an attempt to create an enticing review that’ll lure a few more punters down to a show that was entertaining and enlightening in equal measure. And just a little bit frightening. I wonder if there’s an AI application that might help………….
