Watch as a robot performs the cello with a symphony orchestra in a world first

23 October 2024, 12:41

Watch as a robot plays the cello with live orchestra

A robot has made its glittering debut with an orchestra in Sweden.

In an age of increasingly sophisticated AI and the fear that one day humans will be made obsolete, the classical music world has remained relatively unfazed, with the prospect of a robotic symphony orchestra the stuff of a sci-fi movie.

Now though, that illusion has all changed, as a robot made its debut playing the cello with a symphony orchestra.

In a mesmerising piece written by Swedish-born contemporary classical composer and producer Jacob Mühlrad, the lines between acoustic and electronic music are skilfully blurred in this performance which took place in the Malmö Live Concert Hall.

Read more: Watch the piano-playing robot developed by leading AI lab that can also read human emotions

In this clip of Jacob’s new piece, ‘Veer’, the orchestra creates a serene and hypnotic soundworld, before the cello joins and complements this with a sustained solo and laconic passage. The contrast between the unison shimmering of the orchestra and the lamenting solo voice of the robotic cellist creates a powerful visual and auditory spectacle. It seems as if the robot is trying to tell us something through its lonely song, which in turn makes you question whether it is possible for a robot to feel emotions if it can elicit them from an audience...

For Jacob, whose music draws on global and multi-facetted influences, this project is not about showing how technology could theoretically replace musicians, but rather a study of the cello’s possibilities when played by a tool with a very different anatomy from a human, and of how technology can complement human musicianship when man and machine performs side by side.

The robot will also perform in the US this December in this groundbreaking collaboration between a robot and a symphony orchestra.

Listening to this performance, fearers of a global AI take-over may be able to rest easily and appreciate the new possibilities of sound that this project has unlocked, which may prove to change ‘live’ music forever...