An AI accompanist for Carnatic music

Models that follow a singer’s improvisation and respond with a violin line, and that synthesize the ornaments Carnatic music depends on. This was the core of my Ph.D.

My Ph.D. at Georgia Tech (2024) asked how artificial intelligence and robotic musicianship could accompany the singing voice in Carnatic music.

One model accompanies the ālāpana, the improvised opening of a piece, with a melodic line, without being told the raga in advance. Another adds gamakas to composed melodies, so the notes come out with the ornaments Carnatic music depends on.

The work was published at the IEEE ICASSP 2025 workshops, after an early demo at ISMIR 2022.