After seeing robots dancing, singing, acting and talking, it’s now time to listen them playing music. Roberto Prosseda, an Italian classical pianist, will join hands with robot pianist TeoTronico in a concert.

TeoTronico is a robot pianist who has many fingers to play the piano as well as a head which is fitted with lights reacting to the music. The robot was designed by Italian company Teotronica, which was founded in 2007 by Matteo Suzzi.

Since 2012, Prosseda has given lecture-concerts with TeoTronico to demonstrate the differences between a literal production of music and human interpretation. In 2012 in Berlin, Prosseda appeared as a ghost pianist, playing a Clavinova digital piano from backstage, connected in real time via Midi with TeoTronico. The robot, onstage, mirrored Prosseda’s performance of Chopin’s “Polacca Brillante Op. 22,” reproducing it on a normal grand piano with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. This was the first experiment of a live teleconcert with a ghost pianist.

Prosseda repeated the experiment in Palermo, Italy in 2012, performing Mozart’s “Concerto K. 488” backstage, with TeoTronico on stage with the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana.

Besides playing, TeoTronico can talk, sing and make funny facial expressions. This concert is intended to renew the piano recital format and to give the public more incentives for a conscious and participative listening.

Time: 8 p.m., Aug. 15

Tickets: 80-480 yuan

Venue: Nanshan Cultural and Sports Center, 2106 Nanshan Boulevard, Nanshan District (南山区南山大道2106号南山文体中心)

Metro: Line 1 to Taoyuan Station (桃园站), Exit B

(SD News)