Thursday, 15 May, 2008 4:08 PM

Yo-Yo Ma Plays Second Fiddle To ASIMO The Robot At The DSO

PHOTO BY MIKE WRATHELL / ©AMERICAJR.com

ASIMO The Robot leads the Detroit Symphony Orchestra on May 13, 2008.

DETROIT -- Tuesday night at the Max Fisher Music Center on Woodward in Downtown Detroit, ASIMO, Honda's cute humanoid robot conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's rendition of "The Impossible Dream" before a captivated and utterly silent crowd of Metro Detroit's creame de la creame.

Thomas Wilkins, the DSO's Resident Conductor had first introduced ASIMO and asked him if he could hook him up with a brand new Honda, to which ASIMO replied, "I am just a robot." But what a robot he is. Costing a bit less than a million dollars to make, ASIMO has 45 siblings in the world, but only he got to meet Yo-Yo Ma on Tuesday night.

Yo-Yo Ma shook hands with ASIMO and then left the stage until the Orchestra got ready to play a Hayden song picked to highlight the Paris-born phenom's prodigious cellolicious talents.

It was a thrilling evening for everyone. A night at the Orchestra should be in your plans in the future. Metro Detroit needs to support the arts, as all communities do. These people study music their entire lives to give us joy and it is good karma to make sure they do not end up working at Arby's because not enough tickets are sold. And ASIMO might have to end up saying to you, "Do you want fries with that?"

You gotta have art, right?

PHOTO BY MIKE WRATHELL / ©AMERICAJR.com

PHOTO BY MIKE WRATHELL / ©AMERICAJR.com

Thomas Wilkins, the conductor of the DSO, speaks with ASIMO The Robot.