Narrative
The Manchester Robot Orchestra is an engagement project run by Danielle George, and coordinated by the School of Engineering at The University of Manchester, with funding from the ESPRC, Siemens and the Granada Foundation.Its main aim is to enthuse young people about engineering and music by encouraging their creativity and passion for making. Camden Reeves of the Music department has been involved with the project since its inception in 2016.
To open the project, young people across Greater Manchester were encouraged to recycle old instruments and electronics to form the robot orchestra. Its premiere performances took place at the EuroScience Open Forum's Opening Ceremony in Manchester in July 2016, and at the Manchester Science Festival the following October.
The orchestra was conducted by a life-size robot built by Siemens, and the children created their own pieces for their robots with assistance from educational outreach teams at several of our cultural partners (principally the Hallé orchestra).
The concert also included a new professional composition by Camden Reeves – Concerto for Flute and Robots. The piece explores relationships between chronometric and experiential time through the interaction between the fixed robots in the orchestra and the live performer.
Following this event, PhD and undergraduate students from the Music department ran an education project designed by Camden Reeves at seven Greater Manchester schools. Pupils were helped to create their own music for their robots, using ideas from Camden's concerto.
This culminated in a performance of the children's own concerti for instruments and robots at the Trafford Centre, Manchester on 23 April 2017.