Recognized as the only competition team among the top 30 AI technologies at a global scale by AI XPRIZE and the top 11 Ed-tech startups by USC Rossier EdVentures Cohort3, Mercury Orbit Music brings the new landscape of edutainment with its start-of-the-art of AI music technology. We designed a novel AI-empowered music platform that cultivates human/machine interaction, generating new material to kick-start musical inspiration.
Yang Zhang, Founder of C.E.O. of Mercury Orbit Music; Composer, Technologist, and Innovator; Yang Zhang is recognized as the first composer to reinterpret the principles behind quantum technology, which she developed with her team, into a newly defined artistic language. This language introduces a first-of-its-kind approach to music composition, visual storytelling, and representation across virtual reality and live performance formats, presenting a new level of musical understanding of quantum technology as the elevation of her artistry, as realized in her Quantum Symphony series. She is a two-time Hollywood Music in Media Awards (HMMA) and two-time Telly Award-winning composer, technologist, and innovator working at the intersection of music, emerging technology, and social impact.
Music Creation Renowned for her distinct artistry and pioneering work that elevates the integration of emerging technology and compositional language across domains, Yang has earned international acclaim, including for her latest cross-disciplinary Quantum series project, which premiered at Château de La Napoule and achieved remarkable success through its first-of-its-kind cross-media presentation featuring visual storytelling and immersive audiovisual experiences through the reinterpretation of quantum technology. This premiere took place during her artist residency, for which she was selected as the only composer among 10 global artists chosen by the La Napoule Art Foundation for its 2026 Spring Global Artists Residency Program. Her signature approach, the so-called "Style-Blending" method-treating style as a remolded, rule-breaking language guided by an inner connection within the musical world-has garnered 33 prestigious awards in recent years, including the 2025 Grand Prize for Best Composer of the Future at the World Film Festival in Cannes, two Telly Awards in the Craft category, and two Hollywood Music in Media Awards (HMMA). Yang's 2025 release, Invisible Attraction, is the first-ever quantum-driven music composition, interpreting quantum entanglement through a fusion of intellect and emotion-where inevitability emerges at the intersection of vulnerability, ambiguity, and intensity. It explores the threshold where sensibility, interconnection, and complexity converge, merging emotion, harmony, instrumentation, and sound into a dialogue of intertwined souls. Upon release, the album ranked #1 Best-Selling Jazz Album on Amazon and #3 on the iTunes Jazz Chart, while winning Best Song and Best Composer of the Future at the 2025 Cannes World Film Festival, as well as Best Original Song at the 2025 IndieX Film Festival. Her multimedia projects, Bullet Symphony - Live Coding for Everyone and The Integration of Technical Singularity and Musical Creativity, have received multiple accolades, including the 2024 HMMA Special Recognition in New Media, the 2024 Telly Award for Best Use of Music in a Promotional Video, and the 2025 Telly Award for Craft: Best Use of Music. In 2024, her album The Realm of Desire redefined futurism through philosophical and musical explorations of nirvana-the cycles of existence, birth, and rebirth. Its conceptual paradox, in which opposites transform into their counterparts or reveal unity, earned international acclaim, including nominations for Best Composer and Best Original Music at the Cannes World Film Festival Annual Gala. It also received honors from the IndieX Film Festival, Indie Shorts Fest, and the Global Music 2x Golden Awards. Other highlights include: 2024 Cannes World Film Festival: Best Original Song (Shadow Beneath Fantasy) and Best Composer of the Future (Chinese Magic Box) 2023 Album - The Touch of the Surging Tide: Collaboration with acclaimed South Indian artists, Grammy® winner Brent Fischer (advisor), and Grammy-accredited producer Devan Ekambaram. Submitted to the 2024 Grammy Awards® (Contemporary Instrumental), the album won multiple Global Music Awards (Gold & Silver) and was nominated for the New Age Notes Radio Music Awards. 2022 HMMA: Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Music (The Lord of the Flame) 2016 Montreal "View of the World" Film & Music Festival: Best Original Music (The World Is a Retro) 2009 Debut Album - The Road to Wutumeiren: Released by Universal Records China, praised by UK producer Guy Sigsworth, and later awarded Best Original Song by the Cannes World Film Festival (2024) Yang is also a proud voting member of the Emmy® Music Peer Group.
Tech-Driven Music Venture In 2017, Yang founded Mercury Orbit Music, a tech-driven startup bridging music and emerging technologies. Her entrepreneurial achievements include: Leading an interdisciplinary team of AI scientists, programmers, and Grammy-nominated musicians to the XPRIZE, where Mercury Orbit was recognized as one of the Top 30 AI technologies worldwide (2018) Delivering a TEDx Talk (2020) on the future of AI and music Receiving two California Arts Council grants for the pilot program AI-Enabled Music Education (2022) Speaking at the XPRIZE 30-Year Celebration (2024) as one of five presenters on the long-term impact of AI music innovation Leading an elite team of quantum scientists and programmers in the 2025 XPRIZE Quantum Applications Competition, developing the first quantum-driven music generation application, already adopted by the Rowland Unified School District and two Southern California arts institutions Serving as a California Arts Council Panelist (2025) to evaluate statewide arts grant applications Inventing and developing the first-ever quantum music generator, MeloMuse Serving as a panelist at Filmmaking for Youth (2026), presenting a new perspective on music at the intersection of technology, cross-disciplinary arts, and smart education
Social Enterprise As founder of the Mercury Music Foundation, Yang advances music pedagogy by integrating AI-driven technologies into music
Maximos Kaliakatsos-Papakostas is a principal researcher at Mercury Orbit Music, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Institute for Language and Speech Processing of Athena Research and Innovation Center (ILSP/ATHENA RIC), and a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Music Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He has obtained a personal research grant from the Greek State Scholarships Foundation. Besides, he has also worked as a post-doctoral researcher on the Concept Invent Theory (COINVENT) project (2013-2016) at the School of Music studies at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. During the COINVENT project, his research focused on the development of algorithms for generative conceptual blending in harmony, while he was also the primary developer of the CHAMELEON melodic harmonization assistant prototype. He holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Mathematics, University of Patras, Greece since 2014 where he graduated in 2006 and received his M. Sc. Diploma in Computational Intelligence since 2009. During his Ph.D., he had the chance to develop several algorithms for music information retrieval and automatic music generation. His current research interests include the application of Artificial Intelligence, focusing on Conceptual Blending, Machine Learning, and Evolutionary Algorithms, in music information retrieval and automatic music composition. In parallel, he is an independent iOS music apps developer and freelance music/audio programmer.
Andrew is a highly regarded, innovative, and detail-orientated entertainment executive within the demonstrated expertise in film directing, TV/trailer/film music licensing, music publishing, song catalogs, and post-audio elements. By bringing over more than two decades of first-hand industry experiences and studio relations, he established and developed a direct music license network composed of hundreds of strong relationships with the principal producers, editors and music supervisors. During his career, he contributed more than over 29,000 additional music placements in feature films, network/cable television programs, and feature film trailers. He succeeded multiple music placements in the Best Picture Oscar-winning film "Crash." Other movies and trailers credits include Jungle Book, Pyramid, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Two Night Stand, Stigmata, Memento, Bad Santa and Big Fish, to mention but a few. Established capabilities in sales, performance income management, and network relations management.
He has been served the role as Sr.Director/Director of film/TV music for several top Hollywood-based music publishing & production companies and record label, including Manhattan Production Music/Chesky Records, Music Box, and Megatrax, to name just a few. During his management execution, he grew viable licensing client base at a rate of 45% per year; increased sale at a rate of 30% per year, secured licensing rights to exclusive representation for multiple music catalogs. Supplementary, he is an active speaker and featured panelist at yearly industry influence conferences, such as Hollywood Reporter/Billboard Magazine Film & TV Music Conference, ASCAP Expo, Sync Summit, etc.
Dimos (Dimosthenis) Makris is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Informatics Department of Ionian University and a senior researcher/programmer at Mercury Orbit Music. Besides, he is the owner of Recording Studio facilities and is working as Audio Engineer and Music Producer at Corfu, Greece. His Ph.D. research includes applications of Artificial Intelligence focusing on symbolic data in the Music Information Retrieval (MIR) field, and he has recently been granted from the Greek State Scholarships Foundation. So far his publications are referring to Music Generation, Music Data Mining and Track separation/ Instrument recognition research fields. He has also worked as a research assistant on the Concept Invent Theory (COINVENT) project (2013-2016) at the School of Music studies at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He received his M. Sc. Diploma with the title “Information technology on Humanistic Applications” in 2014 where he created the first Greek Music Dataset for research purposes. His current research interests include Deep Learning Architectures for Intelligent Music Generation of separate instruments (especially Drums). Finally, he holds a diploma on Music Theory and Harmony and is an active piano player.
DIMITRIS KOUTSAIDIS
AUDIO PROGRAMMER (2017 - 2018)
Electrical and Computer Engineer graduate from the University of Patras at Greece, focused on Digital Audio Signal Processing with a background on spatial audio and acoustics. Junior C++ software engineer and R&D engineer for real-time audio plug-ins. Previously, a Research Assistant Intern at the Acoustics Lab of the Department of Signal Processing and Acoustics of the Aalto University. Former sound engineer for live music events. Amateur guitar player and drums beginner.
John Lennon Ellis, Grammy Nominated Music Educator both in 2014 and 2015, has a long establishment in the field of music education, academically and professionally. As a music educator over 30 years of first-hand teaching experience, he has always been to seek and utilize ways that music can impact all of our communities in positive ways. As a board member of the Grammy Music Education Committee, he provides consulting services concerning how to foster the value of high-quality music education. In parallel with educational consultant service, he serves multiple roles as national director, consulting council member, and educational manager. He covers a wide range of educational institutions and organizations to supervise faculty of music teachers, oversee curriculum and lesson plan development for music students. Besides, he does all research and implements the latest trends and best practices in music education, substitutes when necessary for teachers and conductors. Those music education based institutions and organizations including but not limited to: BAND FOR TODAY, INC, Gerson Lehrman Group, D'Addario & Company, Inc, Woodwind Studies, to name just a few. Before that, he holds the B.A at The Honsinger Conservatory of Music and M.B.A at Chadwick University.
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