Attention all Musicians and Composers in the IBM Community!

I want to play your music at IBM TechXchange 2025 in Orlando, Florida, October 6-9.  But first, who said, “Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything?”

It was 2400 years ago, and his name was Aristocles, but we call him by his nickname, Plato, a central figure in the history of Western philosophy.

Most of us know about the close relationship of music to technology. Like electricity, music is measured in vibrational frequency, and like enterprise software, music is coded, structured and orchestrated to achieve an effect. While software often achieves a utilitarian effect, music creates an emotional one. Think of John William’s rousing “Star Wars” theme to accompany the dramatic battle scenes, or the gentle, soothing melodies played on an airplane as people board, to calm the nervous flyers.

As a storyteller, composer (BMI) and dramatist, I know that certain chord sequences evoke feelings of sadness, others of triumph, still others of tension and dread. Composers learn chord theory just so they can harness these ancient concepts that go back way before Plato.

Over the years, I've gotten to know many musicians and composers within the IBM Community of Technologists, who are as accomplished at music as they are technology.  And this year, I am inspired to put out a call to submit a 3- to 4-minute musical piece that creates excitement and energy that we can play over an amazing sound system as audiences gather for our large stage events at TechXchange.

Contribute to the party! We need up-tempo, bright, big, something that grooves to create a mood of excited anticipation for the session about to start. But think different too. I’d love to hear creative instrumentation, AI-created sounds, surprising arrangements, or unusual chord sequences. It can be original music, a remix or mash-up.

Here’s an original piece that I’m working on to bring to TechXchange, called "Action Plan." It still needs a little more sonic balancing, but it’s an example of what we can use as walk-in music during the conference.