Finalists Announced for the Second Edition of the Reply AI Music Contest, the International Competition Exploring the Relationship Between AI and Live Performance

Music and artificial intelligence come together at the Reply AI Music Contest to explore the relationship between AI and live performance. The competition, created by Reply and organized in collaboration with Kappa FuturFestival — one of Europe’s leading festivals dedicated to electronic music and cultural innovation — announces the five finalists selected by an international jury of professionals from music and creative industries: Agoria, Max Cooper, Fleur Shore, Tini Gessler, Ali Demirel, Albi Scotti, Oliver Bohl and Sarah Grimaldi. The finalists represent a new generation of innovators using AI to explore new forms of integration between sound, visual arts and live performance.

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Creativity as a new form of imagination — Imaginatio Nova — is the theme of the 2026 edition of the contest, inviting participants to discover how human creativity can be revitalised through its encounter with technology. The high level of participation confirms the success of the Reply AI Music Contest: more than 1,400 applications from 45 countries and over 300 performances submitted, an increase of more than 55% when compared with the previous edition.

The five selected projects reflect the variety of languages that define AI-assisted artistic experimentation, ranging from immersive audiovisual performance to contemporary club culture. Among the finalists is Violeta Valcheva from Spain, a multimedia artist based in Barcelona who develops immersive performances where sound composition, AI-generated imagery and interactive visual environments merge into a single narrative experience. She is joined by the Spanish collective POLARIS, which will bring to the stage an audiovisual live show built around collaboration between musicians, visual artists and performers. The project explores the potential of artificial intelligence as a shared creative tool, creating a performance in which sound and image interact in real time. Italy will be represented by Ciauru, the alias of Simone Privitera, a DJ and producer who integrates artificial intelligence tools into a musical practice rooted in the contemporary electronic scene. His project combines music production, AI-generated visuals and diverse cultural influences, transforming the live set into a multisensory experience. From the United States comes Yichu Li from New York, an artist and creative innovator who uses AI to develop new forms of audiovisual expression. Her research spans digital art, computational design and musical experimentation, offering a reflection on the role of generative technologies in contemporary creation. Completing the selection is PARAFRAME & Avis Vox, an international duo based in Frankfurt combining melodic techno, vocal performance and visual design. Their proposal explores new forms of interaction between artist and machine, creating immersive audiovisual environments where music, imagery and AI converge in a single narrative.

This selection is the result of a project that confirms the growing interest in a new multidisciplinary ecosystem connecting music and artificial intelligence. The five finalists will perform their live sets on the Nova Stage powered by Reply, active until the end of Kappa FuturFestival, on Friday 3 and Saturday 4 July. At the end of the performances, the jury will announce the winner of the contest.

“I see AI as an Alternative Intelligence. Its purpose is not to imitate what musicians already know how to do, but to make possible what would be impossible without it. The goal is to improvise together with AI and to experience, in creating with it, the same pleasure one feels when using any other traditional instrument or expressive medium,” commented Agoria.

“What impressed me most about the submissions received for this second edition of the AI Music Contest was the diversity of creative approaches,” commented Filippo Rizzante, Chief Technology Officer at Reply. “The finalists do not use artificial intelligence simply as a technical tool, but as a new expressive medium to explore different artistic territories. From immersive audiovisual live performances to experimentation across sound, image and interaction, a generation of artists is emerging that is helping to redefine the very concept of performance. It is exciting to see how AI can amplify human imagination, opening up creative possibilities that did not exist just a few years ago.”

The AI Music Contest is part of the Reply Challenges programme, a series of technological and creative competitions that reflects Reply’s commitment to developing innovative learning models capable of engaging new generations. Today, the Reply Challenges community includes more than 250,000 participants worldwide.

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Reply [EXM, STAR: REY, ISIN: IT0005282865] specialises in the design and implementation of solutions based on new communication channels and digital media. As a network of highly specialised companies, Reply supports major industrial groups in the telecom and media; industry and services; banking and insurance and public sectors in defining and developing business models enabled by the new paradigms of AI, cloud computing, digital media and the internet of things. Reply's services include: consulting, system integration and digital services. www.reply.com

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