Music Premiere in Dresden: robot conducts an orchestra

The Dresden Symphony Orchestra was conducted by a robot for the first time on Saturday. To be precise, it was a mechanical maestro with three arms that can set different tempos for individual groups in the orchestra.

At the premiere of the "Robot Symphony" program on Saturday, the technology and musicians at Dresden's Festspielhaus Hellerau ran like clockwork. The audience was enthusiastic and applauded enthusiastically, as the German news agency DPA reported.

Symphony director Markus Rindt was able to recruit specialists from the Technical University of Dresden for the project. At the CeTI (Centre for Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop) Cluster of Excellence, the conducting machine "learned" how to beat bars and display dynamics. "We are not aiming to replace conductors in the future," said Rindt. But we want to break new ground and try out what is possible with a conductor on the podium.

"Real" conductor takes over

The robot conducted two world premieres at the premiere - the piece "#kreuzknoten" by Wieland Reissmann and "Semiconductor's Masterpiece" by Andreas Gundlach. Other works of the evening were conducted by a "real" conductor, the Norwegian Magnus Loddgard. Spot, the robot dog from Boston Dynamics, also made an appearance. The concert also marked the 25th anniversary of the Dresden Symphony Orchestra.

The ensemble is made up of musicians from several orchestras in Germany and abroad and is committed exclusively to contemporary music. The projects have often dealt with political issues. In 2017, for example, the symphony orchestra performed a concert at the border between Mexico and the USA to protest against the wall planned by then US President Donald Trump. In 2013, the symphony orchestra performed the "Symphony for Palestine" with Arab colleagues in the West Bank.

SDA