Ringtones and The Symphony Orchestra

“This is a great moment in history, when we can say to you, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, turn on your cellphones.’”, Paul Freeman, the group’s music director, told the audience beforehand. And that triggered the birth of a new style Musician called 'CellPhonists'. Audience went on to play ringtones on their cellphones at defined moments, signaled by the Conductor at the world premiere of the Concertino for Cellular Phones and Symphony Orchestra by David N. Baker in Chicago.

Watch a NYT narrated Slide show of the concert here.

Scores of cellular phones trilled and twittered, beeped and burbled all at once inside a concert auditorium in this community outside Chicago. The orchestra onstage was unfazed. The composer was delighted.

On Sunday, in a perverse commentary on the scourge of modern concert halls, the Chicago Sinfonietta played the world premiere of the Concertino for Cellular Phones and Symphony Orchestra by David N. Baker, a professor of music at Indiana University and a prolific composer.

A device similar to a traffic light signaled the audience members to activate their rings — red for the balcony, green for the orchestra seats — at various points in the piece. An assistant conductor, Terrance Gray, followed the score and activated the lights.

Four amplified mobile phones were also onstage.

Source: Chicago Sinfonietta’s New Work Incorporates Cellphones - New York Times

[tags]mobile-handset, mobile-life-style, mobile-applications, symphony, ringtones[/tags]