With a call on the website of IFAC World Congress 2020, the world’s first Control Orchestra was initiated, consisting of people from the control community. The idea was to practice on site in Berlin during the IFAC World Congress (13-17 July 2020) and present a live performance during the congress. In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was decided to hold the IFAC World Congress in form of a virtual event, and hence also the IFAC Control Orchestra took place in a remote fashion.

Two pieces have been selected for the IFAC Control Orchestra:

• "For a lifetime", based on "Ein Leben lang" by Fäaschtbänkler
  This song features a very nice melody, and originally is about music being a good companion for all one's life; in a sense, this can hold true also for control and mathematics. :)
• "Smoke on the water", based on the original song by Deep Purple
  This song is one of the most well-known modern songs, a rock classic with a driving rhythm.

Each musician played and recorded her/his parts separately, and then all musical contributions were combined into two videos.
A big thank you to all musicians and contributors!
The videos of "For a lifetime" and "Smoke on the water" have been presented at the opening and closing ceremonies of IFAC-2020 (13-17 July 2020).

The links to the Youtube videos:

• For a lifetime
• Smoke on the water

See the following websites for the recordings and the list of participants:

• https://www.ifac-control.org/about/ifac-control-orchestra
• https://www.ifac2020.org/program/social-events/#c2723

 

Jochen Rieber (arranger, conductor, audio engineering): j.rieber@gmx.de

Julian Berberich (organizational topics, video engineering): julian.berberich@ist.uni-stuttgart.de