Philadelphia Voices

Philadelphia Voices is the latest in the series of City Symphonies projects that Tod Machover and the Opera of the Future group have created since 2012. Previous City Symphonies have centered on Toronto, Edinburgh, Perth, Lucerne, and Detroit. Each project paints a musical portrait of a city—using “traditional” musical elements as well as real sounds recorded by residents—to portray the essence of their city’s history and future. Everyone living in that city was invited to collaborate to create the symphony, resulting in an unprecedented creative collaboration around music, sound, and storytelling. A special mobile app has been developed to allow anyone with a smartphone to collect sounds and video and to upload those files to a communal database for listening and morphing.  Opera of the Future researchers have created new software that enables anyone to contribute their voice to a specially-designed sonic landscape from Philadelphia. Workshops and special activities have been organized with local singers from every age and background, and Tod Machover has chosen several hundred of them to sing in the final performances with The Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of its music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin.  Since Philadelphia is considered the birthplace of American democracy, Philadelphia Voices investigates the current state of democracy from a Philly perspective. 

Collaborators

Tod Machover, Diana Robinson, Ben Bloomberg, Priscilla Capistrano, Sizi Chang, the people of Philadelphia

My role

Voice Research and Creative Tools

Date

Spring 2017 – April 2018

Composer

Tod Machover

Performance

• 7 and 8 April 2018:  Philadelphia Orchestra, Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, PE
• 10 April 2018:Philadelphia Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, New York, NY

Press Coverage

• The New York Times – How a Philly Cheesesteak Goes From the Grill to Carnegie Hall
• The Daily Mail – The Philadelphia Orchestra Played a Cheesesteak Solo
• NPR – Composer Tod Machover Discusses How He Created ‘Philadelphia Voices’
• The Inquirer – Mummers and sizzling Philly cheesesteaks get their Philadelphia Orchestra moment
• MIT News – Q&A: Composer Tod Machover presents “Philadelphia Voices”