A very unusual conductor – a robot – recently stood in front of the National Orchestra of Korea in Seoul. The humanoid robot EveR 6 bowed to the audience and began to conduct, controlling the tempo of the live concert.
The orchestra at the National Theater of Korea began the performance on cue from the robot, and EveR 6 led the musicians without a single mistake, even in the part where improvisations were performed on its cue.
The humanoid robot was created by the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology. The machine previously stored data on the movements made by a human-performer during conducting, recorded using motion recording technology.
But as the chief conductor of the orchestra claims, the machine also has its drawbacks.
“The conductor’s movements are very detailed, and the robot executed them better than I could have imagined,” said Choi So Yeol, the orchestra’s chief conductor. “A key drawback of the EveR 6 robot is that it cannot hear. During the rehearsal, the other musicians and I made great efforts to understand the robot, because we knew it had no hearing. We were trying to somehow connect with him”, and adds “I think this recital showed that robots and people can complement each other, it’s not about a robot replacing a person”.
At the EveR 6 concert, he conducted three of the five compositions written by Korean authors. During the performance of one of the compositions, the conductor’s baton was shared with the chief conductor of the orchestra.
“I suppose that a robot could only conduct continuously if it was equipped with artificial intelligence that would allow it to understand and analyze the music. That is very encouraging. Regardless of the sense of music and talent, this attempt was very good,” said Song In Ho, editor of a music magazine.