Germany introduces new three-armed robot conductor in Dresden debut

Despite lacking charisma or passion, she excels in maintaining a perfect rhythm and does not exhibit emotional outbursts towards the musicians under her three batons. Enter MAiRA Pro S, the next-generation robot conductor that made its debut this past weekend in Dresden.

Her two performances in the eastern German city aim to showcase the latest advancements of this mechanical virtuoso and music explicitly composed to leverage 21st-century technology. Markus Rindt, the artistic director of the Dresden Symphony Orchestra, emphasized that the intention is not to replace humans but to perform intricate music that would be otherwise impossible for a human conductor.

Symphonicar, renowned for its innovation and political voice, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The concert at the Hellerau Hall is divided into two parts: a section led by humans and a segment conducted by the robot after the intermission.

In the second half, the three-armed MAiRA keeps time by holding three stubby lightsabers of different colors. The ensemble is divided into three sections, each responding to the baton and creating intersecting rhythms.

Composer Andreas Gundlach crafted a “semiconductor masterpiece” for 16 brass players and four percussionists to explore a wide range of time signatures. Some sections start slow and accelerate, while others slow down. Gundlach mentioned to local broadcaster MDR that MAiRA’s technology enables a smoother musical experience, almost as if it were emanating from a single source.

To bring his 20-year-old vision to life, Rindt collaborated with experts from CeTI (Center for Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop) at the Dresden University of Technology. The focus was on fostering innovation through the synergy between robots and humans rather than fostering competition.

Rindt trained MAiRA to conduct like a human, showcasing up to 40 arm movements and allowing her to learn and implement increasingly complex gestures during the two-year development phase.

Each “arm” boasts seven joints capable of multidirectional movement and extension. However, a safety mechanism kicks in if she exerts excessive force or strikes too hard on the beat to prevent harm to herself or the musicians.

MDR reported that the idea to develop a sophisticated robot occurred to Rindt 23 years ago while rehearsing a complex piece. During the rehearsal, a bassoon player remarked to the conductor, “You’re conducting the clarinet in 3/4 time, but I’m in 5/8 time, which is a completely different tempo. What should I do when there’s no one conducting me?” The conductor replied, “I’m not a robot.”

Local media hailed the world premiere on Saturday night with enthusiasm. Watch the live streaming concert on Sunday.

MAiRA may be the most advanced robot conductor for music, but she is not the first. In 2008, a 4-foot-tall automaton conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Mitch Lee’s “La Mancha.” Nine years later, Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and the Lucca Philharmonic Orchestra performed in Pisa alongside YuMi, acclaimed as a “cooperative” dual-armed robot conductor. In July 2023, an android robot commanded the stage at the National Theater in Seoul, South Korea.

Over its 25-year history, the Dresden Symphoniker has continually pushed the boundaries of contemporary music. In 2006, they delivered an arrangement of the score for the silent film “Battleship Potemkin” from the balcony of a communist-era housing complex in central Dresden. The Pet Shop Boys performed on the rooftop.

During the Trump administration in 2017, they staged a festival “against isolation and intolerance.” Close to the US-Mexico border wall near Tijuana, they collaborated with musicians from Mexico and the US. Watch the performance here.