Everyone’s a conductor with new game

By Chris Newmarker

updated 1:04 p.m. ET April 14, 2008

PHILADELPHIA - Wave the baton too slowly, and the orchestra arrayed on the screen plays the "William Tell Overture" at a crawl. Wave it too fast, and the music gallops away.

But would-be Leonard Bernsteins who wave the remote control correctly as they try out "UBS Virtual Maestro" can experience a small part of what it's like to be a conductor.

"There's an educational component to it. But it's also a lot of fun. We think it's sort of like the orchestra version of 'Guitar Hero,' the video game," said Peter Dillon, who handles corporate sponsorships in the United States for Swiss banking giant UBS.

Two "UBS Virtual Maestro" exhibits have been appearing in concert-hall lobbies across the country since November as part of a project created by UBS, which often sponsors classical music events and organizations, to increase interest in classical music. Organizers hope to take the project to Europe in the summer.

To create the displays, UBS recorded the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Switzerland, which it sponsors, playing three classical music selections. In addition to Rossini's "William Tell Overture," there are short selections from Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony and Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique."

The conductor’s baton? A Wii-mote
A team of programmers led by Teresa Nakra, an assistant professor of music at The College of New Jersey in Ewing, created software that speeds or slows the replay of the orchestra according to the movement of a remote from Nintendo Co.'s Wii game console — whose games simulate driving, real-world sports play and other movement.

The traveling displays include a tall, freestanding wall with a 42-inch plasma screen where the orchestra's image plays. A speaker atop the wall projects the audio toward a music stand where the player "conducts."

A similar game called "You're the Conductor," also created by Nakra's nonprofit Immersion Music Inc., opened in a permanent exhibit at the Children's Museum of Boston in 2003. There, players try their hand at conducting the Boston Pops.

The games are intended to mimic the feel of conducting a real orchestra, Nakra said.

"That's the way classical music creates a sense of emotion. In the ebb and flow of the beat there's a real flow of emotion," she said.

Nakra, who plays the violin and conducts, said the challenging part of making the games was ensuring the pitch didn't change as the video slowed or sped up.

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