Reuter’s: It’s one musical performance where your cell phone can – and should – ring. U.S. jazz composer David Baker is encouraging people to use their mobile phones during the debut performance of “Concertino for Cellular Phones and Orchestra” that will open the 20th anniversary season of the Chicago Sinfonietta classical music festival next month.
During the 15-minute composition, members of the audience and the orchestra will be asked to use their cell phones at various points throughout the piece with red and green lights telling them when to turn their phones on and off.
“I think some people would think it is insane to even think about trying to combine the cacophony of cell phones with the pristine purity, sometimes, of an orchestra,” Baker, 74, told Reuters in an interview.
He also said this was first time in his career that he had finished a piece but did not know what the result would be.