Turning Street Noise Into a City Symphony

An MIT composer is collecting snippets of sound to turn Miami and Philadelphia into audio masterpieces.

“The really important thing is that the musical ideas come out of the sound we collect,” Machover says. “But the piece has a to tell a story; it has to exist for some reason.” 

Tod Machover's  latest project, called Project 305 and funded by the Knight Foundation, takes him to Miami, where he’s teamed up with the city’s New World Symphony academy to create an audio and visual masterpiece. He’s helping lead community tours to collect sounds and videos, and working with schools to teach students how to do the same. He’s also launched a similar project in Philadelphia, in partnership with the Philadelphia Orchestra.