Jazz composer David Baker plans to open the 2006 Chicago Sinfonietta with a chorus of the audience's ringtones.
On October 2, the opening night of the innovative classical music festival's 20th anniversary season will host Baker's 'Concerto For Cell Phones and Orchestra'. Baker will "conduct" the audience by flashing red and green lights to indicate when they should make their phones ring. He also told Reuters that patrons will be encouraged to randomly fiddle with the volume on their phone ringtones.Reuters reports that Baker said he hoped "the contrast of chaos and structure in a constantly shifting orchestral scheme would replicate how cell phones create both order and chaos in our society." Either that or it'll create one triumphantly annoying din.
Baker is aware of the inherent risk of this post-modern classical music experiment, saying that it's the first time in his career where he has no idea how his finished piece will end up sounding. He told Reuters, "There's just no way to replicate 1,000 cell phones going off at once." This fact was previously regarded as a good thing.
