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Sounds Of The City Come Together For Unique Philadelphia Orchestra Symphony

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Sounds of Philadelphia have been turned into a symphony. The Philadelphia Orchestra debuts its community-based commission later this week with thousands of recorded sounds and voices from the area blended in.

Several Philadelphia-area choirs will be on stage performing live with the orchestra for the Philadelphia Voices symphony at the Kimmel Center, April 5-7. Recorded sounds of Philadelphia will also be interspersed at times, like a man making cheese steaks in South Philly, a day at the Philadelphia Zoo, or at the Museum of the American Revolution.

MIT professor Tod Machover, who will be at a giant mixing board during the show, has been collecting the Philly sounds for several months.

"I can't lie to you. Putting this piece together was very difficult because Philadelphia is a big city. It's spread out," Machover said. "I didn't want to simplify or do a cliche version of what the city is, what it feels like, what it sounds like. I really wanted to explore it."

Machover say more than 8,000 sounds were gathered. About a third of them are being used in this symphony.

Ticket information can be found at the Philadelphia Orchestra website. 

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