Suren Pahlevan is a PhD student at the Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge and a Student Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence. Suren’s doctoral research is an ethnomusicological study of the usage of AI tools for digital audio workstation production.
Suren’s doctoral project, titled “AI-Enhanced Digital Audio Workstation Musicianship in the Age of Technofeudalism”, is supervised by ethnomusicologist Dr Alisha Lola Jones and advised by music scientist Dr Peter Harrison. Suren’s research is particularly focused on how British music producers in the genres of pop, hip hop, R&B and EDM are incorporating AI into their music-making and production workflows. The project additionally seeks to understand how to best design ethical music AI tools that humans can utilise and collaborate with, rather than compete with. Before commencing with his PhD, Suren completed an MPhil in Music at the University of Cambridge and an LLB in Law at the University of Leeds. Suren holds a doctoral studentship funded jointly by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Isaac Newton Trust.
