By Kelli Korducki. 

First, a viola. Then, a bassoon. One by one, before a modest crowd gathered for Moses Znaimer’s IdeaCity conference at Koerner Hall, eight members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra debuted their contributions to a symphonic framework laid out by composer, MIT Media Lab founder, and Guitar Hero mastermind Tod Machover.

Machover, as it turns out, isn’t just a multimedia whiz; he’s also, as of now, a professional Toronto appreciator.

By Victoria Diplacido. 

Tod Machover (Image: Jean-Baptise Labrune)Tod Machover, composer and professor at MIT’s Media Lab (it was his students who were inspired to create Guitar Hero), is teaming up with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and you (yes, you!), the citizens of Toronto, to create A Toronto Symphony: Concerto for Composer and City, premiering at the New Creations Festival next March. Torontonians are invited to capture the sounds of Toronto and submit them to the project’s Facebook page, blog or email. Machover encourages the submission of unique sounds (admittedly, our first thought was to submit the charming tune of the subway doors closing, too) that are recognizable as being quintessentially “Toronto.” Our suggestions: the evangelical Christian shouting man and the “Can you spare a penny, nickel, quarter, dime or dollar?” guy. Happy hunting!

By John Terauds. 

​In early March, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra announced that it had commissioned Boston-based composer, teacher and inventor Tod Machover to write A Toronto Symphony for its 2013 New Creations festival. The announcement came with an invitation to people of the city to begin thinking about what Toronto sounds like, and these sounds could become part of the new work.

Machover was back in town this week to speak at Ideacity, to meet with members of Toronto’s arts community and to report on progress to his patron, the TSO. What was an amorphous wish list three months ago is beginning to take on some shape and contour.

At this point, the most interesting aspect of this project is its collaborative nature. Composers, like other creative artists, rarely want to be told what to do. They want to be left alone to fashion their work which, when finished and rehearsed, will hopefully please its audience.

By Michael Kolberg. 

​Streetcar rumblings. Subway chimes. The “walk sign is on for all crossing” voice at the Yonge and Dundas scramble.

But what would these sounds feel like played by an orchestra?

That’s what Tod Machover and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra want to find out with their new project A Toronto Symphony: A Concerto for Composer and City. They are asking all Torontonians to participate by submitting sounds, either recordings or descriptions, that will be collaboratively assembled into a composition that represents Toronto.