The Spanish project featuring Ara Malikian receives three w3 Awards across education, interactive storytelling and entertainment, highlighting a cultural use of XR.
Madrid, Spain | 5 October 2026
Vivaldi 3.0 — The Immersive Universe of Four Seasons has won two Gold awards and one Silver at the 21st Annual w3 Awards, recognising a Spanish project that brings classical music into interactive virtual environments.
Directed and produced by Carlos J. Ochoa and developed by ONE Digital Consulting / ONE XR Studio, the experience was created featuring violinist Ara Malikian and the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía (Reina Sofía School of Music).
The project received:
- Gold — Immersive Experiences–Education
- Gold — Immersive Experiences–Interactive Storytelling & Narrative Experiences
- Silver — Immersive Experiences–Media & Entertainment
The three distinctions recognise one work across connected disciplines. Vivaldi 3.0 brings the expressive power of a familiar musical composition into a format designed for exploration, cultural discovery and audience participation. For the team, they reflect the ambition at the heart of the project: bringing learning, artistic expression and audience engagement together within one immersive experience.
When Music Becomes an Environment
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons offers a rich starting point for immersive interpretation. Its birdsong, storms, pastoral scenes and winter tension connect musical expression with images of the natural world.
Vivaldi 3.0 develops those associations through virtual environments, immersive video, interaction and spatial sound. Audiences encounter the performance within seasonal landscapes, gaining a spatial relationship with the music.
The artistic challenge is to make that relationship coherent. Visual detail, sound and interaction must work with the composition’s rhythm and emotional structure. A change in atmosphere can sharpen attention; a spatial encounter can invite someone to listen differently.
Ara Malikian and the Camerata of the Reina Sofía School of Music provide the musical foundation. Their participation places performance at the centre of a collaboration between musicians, cultural institutions and immersive creators.
The project’s relevance lies in this meeting of disciplines: a classical work becomes the basis for a contemporary experience while retaining musical interpretation as its organising force.
Education and Storytelling with a Shared Purpose
The Gold in Education recognises Vivaldi 3.0 within a category closely aligned with ONE’s cultural and educational work. An immersive encounter can offer an approachable entry point for audiences unfamiliar with classical music, giving teachers material for listening, discussion and further exploration.
Its educational potential extends to what happens afterwards: recognising musical passages, comparing interpretations or attending a performance. Audience and learning evaluation can establish how those encounters contribute to understanding and participation.
The second Gold, in Interactive Storytelling & Narrative Experiences, highlights the project’s approach to participation. In an immersive environment, storytelling can unfold through space, attention and perspective. For a work led by music, these elements must follow an artistic logic that supports the performance.
The Silver in Media & Entertainment adds recognition for a further dimension of the project. Together, the three awards acknowledge an experience that brings educational purpose, narrative design and entertainment into a single production.
A Cultural Medium with International Momentum
The w3 results build on earlier recognition. In a March 2025 Forbes column, XR commentator Charlie Fink reported that Vivaldi 3.0 won Experience of the Year, Education Experience of the Year and Entertainment Experience of the Year at the fifth annual Polys Immersive Awards in New York.
The w3 Awards recognise digital creativity through the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts (AIVA), which evaluates entries against standards of excellence. Vivaldi 3.0’s two Golds and one Silver acknowledge its work in three specific categories: education, interactive storytelling and entertainment.
What Cultural Institutions Can Take from the Project
Vivaldi 3.0 offers a practical point of reference for organisations considering immersive arts. The central question is what a spatial, participatory format adds to the audience’s encounter with the work.
For educators, the answer depends on its connection with teaching. For curators, it depends on artistic coherence and the quality of participation. For producers, it also depends on how the experience is presented and supported in real settings.
The project’s collaborative model is equally relevant. Musical performance, cultural knowledge and technical production contribute to a shared creative brief. Audience feedback helps identify what invites discovery and what needs refinement.
An Achievement Shared by Many
We extend our heartfelt thanks to the w3 Awards and the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts for this recognition.
Above all, we thank the people who made Vivaldi 3.0 possible: our extraordinary team, musicians, creative and technical partners, collaborators, institutional supporters, clients and friends.
Our gratitude goes to Encarna Mora, Spatial Networks, AR Future and PICO XR, to the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía and its Camerata, and especially to Cause & Christi for their exceptional contribution amazing work. Every collaborator brought talent, dedication and trust to this project. These awards celebrate a shared effort.
At the heart of that effort is Ara Malikian, whose extraordinary talent and inspiration shape the experience’s emotional character. His interpretation brings Vivaldi’s Four Seasons to life and gives the immersive worlds their musical purpose.
We are equally grateful to the teachers, students and audiences who have experienced Vivaldi 3.0. Their curiosity and responses give this work its purpose and help shape what comes next.
Creating What Comes Next
These awards encourage us to continue exploring how immersive arts can broaden participation in culture.
For ONE, that means developing experiences with care for the people who use them: their curiosity, abilities, expectations and freedom to discover. It means working towards cultural experiences that are more accessible and inclusive, and using innovation to support a more open, equal and democratic society.
There is still much to create, test and learn. Our continuing ambition is to give classical music additional ways to meet its audiences, encouraging attentive listening, participation and curiosity beyond the headset.
Two Golds. One Silver. A shared commitment to opening new doors into music.
Explore Vivaldi 3.0
w3 Awards — Vivaldi 3.0 award entry
ONE Digital Consulting — Project website
Watch the Vivaldi 3.0 trailer on YouTube
Director & Producer, Vivaldi 3.0
Founder, ONE Digital Consulting
