2020 was the year when a global pandemic toppled industries and claimed millions of lives worldwide. Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company and the 1st to develop the COVID-19 vaccine, wanted to bring hope to the world by showing how science could win by displaying how it could save lives through drugs and medicines, as well as create music that calmed people’s minds, bodies, and souls.

Pfizer created Mozart 80, a technology-driven symphony. The idea was inspired by the possibility of what could have been if there were proper vaccines to save Mozart who died at 35 years old. If he were able to live up to his 80s, what other masterpieces could he have composed? Thanks to Open AI and by feeding it two kinds of classical music scores in the form of data, the deep neural network was able to learn how to compose an original Mozart piece. One set of data was all of Mozart’s existing work, the other was musical trends within 45 years after his death. Finally, the symphony was performed live to the public, in collaboration with the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Austrian composer Kurt Schmid, and Dutch multi-media musician Teoman.

We got all the data from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. We fed the deep neural network all music scores in the form of Midi by Mozart and other work that represented the musical trends within 45 years after his death, including masterpieces from Beethoven, Bach, Haydn, and many more. Midi is the data form of music. Processed by the deep neural network, the algorithm was able to predict the next harmonies, rhythms, and styles of music he could’ve made. Under the supervision of multi-media artist Teoman Acikgoz, and composer Kurt Schmid, the glorious new Mozart symphony was true to his style.

First, we worked with Dutch multi-media artist, programmer, and musician Teoman Acikgoz, to create this symphony. After getting the symphony, we consulted with Austrian composer professor, Kurt Schmid, who studied Mozart for over 70 years. We then collaborated with the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra to do a live performance on September 22, 2020, in the world-famous Shanghai Symphony Hall. The concert was conducted by award-winning conductor, Zhao Xiaoou, with performances by pianists Ge Hao and He Nannan. The live event was attended by 600 concert-goers — a full house despite the pandemic control which offered only half of the seating capacity to the public. At the same time, the concert was live-streamed on Douyin (Tiktok’s Chinese version), healing minds and hearts of over 2 million people.

Mozart 80 garnered unexpected results. Not only did it rock pharmaceutical communities, it was also able to help Pfizer become China’s Most Responsible Company in 2020. It also generated more interest from the youth for the pharmaceutical and medical fields. Hong Zhiguang, a local celebrity musician with a doctorate in Opera from Yale University, also featured the symphony in his social media accounts.

- 600+ live audience

- 2M+ livestream viewers

- Covered by China National Radio, China Daily, Bilibili, The Paper

- 4,873 applications from 211 universities during the first 8 weeks, 81 from Ivy League universities