The aim of this article is to identify and discuss the evolution fostered by the use of digital technologies in the instrumental music performance. We limit the focus to the musical performance of instruments identified as belonging to the orchestral family of Western tradition, in order to measure the repercussions on both the performance and the instrumentalist and considering three key aspects of new media art: interactivity, controlled randomness, and virtuality. On one hand, the junction of these two areas - new media art and instrumental music performance - enables the acquisition of digital characteristics to the traditional instruments and to their performance, providing new interactive and iterative paths. On the other hand, the same junction also leads to a unique level of performance due to the high level of instrumentalists’ expertise, allowing the work to be singular and unrepeatable. All this leads to an evolution of musical notation, the creation of new instrumental and performance techniques, new concepts, a multidisciplinary broadening of the instrumentalists’ role and an evolution in the relationship between new media art and instrumental music. Regarding the structure, the article firstly presents a definition of both areas, and then develops the three aspects mentioned with the addition of the generativity as an inherent aspect, identifying the different manners in which these artistic characteristics are related and evolved, as well as their repercussion in the instrumental music performance.