The Dresden Symphony Orchestra made music history and was the first orchestra to be conducted by a robot. Strictly speaking, it is a mechanical maestro with three hands that can set different tempos for individual groups in the orchestra. At the premiere of “Robot.Symphony” at the Dresden Festival Hall Hellera yesterday, the technology and the musicians worked flawlessly. The audience cheered and cheered loudly.

The robot was trained

Symphony director Markus Rind was able to recruit experts from the Dresden University of Technology for the project. At the CeTI (Centre for Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop) cluster of excellence, the conductor machine “learned” how to beat and display dynamics. “We don’t intend to change conductors in the future,” Rindt said. But they want to break new ground and try out what happens with a conductor on stage.

At the premiere, Robo hosted two premieres – “#kreuzknot” by Wayland Reisman and “Semiconductors Masterpiece” by Andreas Gundlach. Other works of the evening were conducted by a “real” conductor, the Norwegian Magnus Lodgaard. Even a robot dog named Spot from Boston Dynamics made an appearance. The Dresden Symphony Orchestra also celebrated its 25th anniversary with a concert.

The ensemble is made up of musicians from several local and foreign orchestras and is dedicated exclusively to contemporary music.