The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is asking residents to record sounds around the city in an experiment on how to turn everyday noises into classical music.
The orchestra billed the project as an innovative way to involve the community in the Motor City, which has struggled economically for decades but has increasingly turned into a hub for artists drawn in part by the lower costs.
Composer Tod Machover, who is also a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will use software he designed to mix the sounds for the "Symphony in D" whose premiere will be November 16, 2015, in Detroit.
"Detroit is a city filled with bold and contrasting sounds, from the roar and purr of cars, to the crackle and snap of Motown, to the gentle rhythms of urban gardening," Machover said in a statement Wednesday.
"I look forward to working with Detroiters from all backgrounds to create a collective musical portrait of this exciting moment in the city's history, when everything is being rethought and anything is possible," he said.
Machover has pioneered the use of technology in modern classical music as a designer of "hyperinstruments" which are aimed at giving greater power to traditional instruments.
He earlier worked on musical pieces that bring together technology and community participation in Edinburgh, Perth and Toronto.
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra's music director Leonard Slatkin said: "Clearly this is a project of unique interest to all those interested in the power of collaborative thinking."
The project comes after the orchestra survived labour unrest, with a strike leading to the suspension of much of the 2010-11 season.
The orchestra is asking residents to record and submit the noises on a specially designed app for smartphones.