For over 130 years since its foundation, Yamaha has stood by its brand purpose "To deliver the joy of music equally to all" and actively supported all types of music-related activities alongside its main business as a piano manufacturer. In this project, Yamaha’s cutting-edge technology developed through perpetual quest for innovation contributed to an unprecedented live entertainment event in which musicians with disabilities played with one of Japan’s leading orchestras and choirs, embodying and adding a new dimension to the brand purpose.

Context 1: While many Japanese corporations are committed to tackling the issue of DE&I, the progress is lagging behind in the world. About 60% of the Japanese public say when meeting with people with disabilities, they do so consciously. Comparing it to the situation in the US and Europe (roughly 10%), we must admit that there still is a tendency to view physical disabilities as unusual. It is, therefore, no surprise that when it comes to disabled people wanting to enjoy music, opportunities for them to play musical instruments and to play with others are still quite scarce. Considering the situation, we thought this was a challenge that Yamaha, as a leading musical instrument manufacturer, was best positioned to tackle.

Context 2: Listening to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony has become a year-end tradition in Japan, with as many as 23 concerts per day are held in December every year. Numerous orchestras and choirs play the symphony at the end of the year, wishing for people to reunite in the hope for peace. Holding a concert of the Ninth at this time of the year naturally attracted attention but it was also necessary to make it a truly unique one to stand out among many other concerts.

The joy of playing a musical instrument, and doing so with others, is beyond compare. But it is also true that it takes a huge amount of time and effort to attain that joy, and many people give it up halfway through the process. People with physical disabilities are all the more likely to do so, because however passionate they may be, they face great difficulties with playing a musical instrument on stage together with other musicians due to their physical limitations. That is why Yamaha, a leading company in musical instrument manufacturing, decided to rise to the challenge and make the joy of music equally accessible to anyone.

Introducing THE JOYFUL PIANO:

Yamaha’s AI-assisted Piano is an instrument that learns from a huge amount of performance data and automatically plays the part for unmovable fingers in synchronization with the pianist’s performance. Building on it, Yamaha has now developed and installed a new AI technology that controls the strength of keyboard touch and pedal movement to compensate for the player’s physical limitations. Taking advantage of the technology, Yamaha organized a concert performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony that includes the well-known “Ode to Joy” in the fourth movement, featuring three pianists with different disabilities as soloists. Playing with a leading orchestra and choir in Japan, they delivered to the world an encouraging message that with passion, everyone can become a musician.

To deliver the message that "anyone" can enjoy music, we featured as pianists disabled persons who face physical difficulty in playing the piano, and tried to appeal to people "who believe that playing a musical instrument with others is impossible unless conditions such as age, physical capabilities and experience are fulfilled". To make an impact, Yamaha decided to hold a concert of the very well-known Beethoven's Ninth at a prestigious venue and developed an AI that enables physically disabled pianists to play with other musicians. Yamaha also prepared to stream the concert online to the world, sharing the pianists' courageous and successful attempt to play the highly challenging music together with an orchestra and choir.

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was arranged into a piano concerto with consideration to the specific physical limitations of the three pianists (two fingers missing on the right hand, being bed-ridden from birth, cerebral palsy). In the course of joint practices, voluntary piano lessons and online lessons that spanned nine months since March 2023 (total 360 hours), the arrangement was repeatedly edited as necessary to achieve the best balance with the orchestra and choir. The performance data was gathered from the 18 hours/month, total 162 hours of practice for the three pianists, based on which the AI technology that controls keyboard and pedal had been developed and refined through the nine-month period. The concert was held in December at Suntory Hall, one of the most prominent classical concert venues in Japan, while it was also delivered to the world through real-time streaming on YouTube and X.

The concert was covered by major Japanese TV channels as well as foreign media including AFP, and has reached 546 million people in 36 countries including post-event audience. Media and opinion leaders such as university professors praised Yamaha, saying "Yamaha has transformed AI into a moving entertainment". The pianist who played in the concert emphatically commented: "I'm even more motivated to continue playing the piano".

At the same time, this AI system has been made into an app and released to work on more than ten million pianos worldwide, successfully creating an environment that enables everyone, with or without disability, to attempt to play the piano.