• Most Popular
  • Most Shared

Honda's ASIMO Robot Conducted Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 'Impossible Dream'

Tue May 13, 2008 11:54pm EDT
DETROIT--(Business Wire)--
On Tuesday night May 13 Honda's ASIMO humanoid robot brought
attention to the newly established The Power of Dreams Music Education
Fund for Detroit youth at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) by
conducting the orchestra as it performed "The Impossible Dream" to
open a special sold-out concert featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

   Honda, which is contributing over $1 million to the DSO to
establish The Power of Dreams Music Education Fund, hopes ASIMO's
appearance will draw attention to the DSO's music education programs,
and particularly the DSO's effort to encourage and support involvement
of children in Detroit. The fund will provide music education,
including beginner string lessons, to under-served Detroit children.
The public can make a gift to support this program and register to win
a new Honda Accord by logging onto www.detroitsymphony.com.

   ASIMO, which is designed to help people and will someday assist
the elderly and disabled in their homes, will also demonstrate its
unique capabilities for hundreds of area school children on May 14
prior to a master class in Orchestra Hall, where a select group of
music students will receive personal music instruction from Yo-Yo Ma.
In attendance will be students from the Detroit School of Arts (DSA),
Detroit Renaissance and Cass Technical high schools, as well as from
schools across metro Detroit and Windsor, Canada.

Honda
Alicia Jones (ASIMO), 310-542-0622
alicia_jones@ahm.honda.com
or
David Iida (Honda and DSO Partnership), 313-655-5617
david_iida@ahm.honda.com
or
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Jill Woodward (DSO), 313-576-5126
jwoodward@dso.org

Copyright Business Wire 2008



More from Reuters

Photo

Democrats reach deal on health bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democratic healthcare negotiators said they agreed on Tuesday to replace a government-run insurance option with a scaled-back non-profit plan and would seek cost estimates on the deal.

File photo of snow covered Uhuru peak of the largest free-standing volcano in the world, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, taken on March 10, 2006. REUTERS/Neil Wallace
Postcards to Copenhagen:

Wish we weren't here

Mount Kilimanjaro's melting snow cap is one of many things forever altered by climate change. Here's a snapshot of a world dealing with environmental destruction.   Full Article 

People prepare to lower the body of one of the ministers killed in a blast from a suicide bomber last Thursday at Shamo Hotel in Somali's capital Mogadishu December 4, 2009.  REUTERS/Feisal Omar

Scenes of a "slaughterhouse"

War is just about the only story to tell in Somalia. But when one reporter tried to cover an event reflecting positive change, violence reared its ugly head again.  Full Article