The Akron Symphony gave Clint Needham’s “Southern Air” its world premiere in the spring.

Now Needham, composer-in-residence at Baldwin Wallace University, is writing another symphonic piece, with a lot of help. 

“I’m thrilled to be working with Akron Symphony and really with the whole city of Akron this year on a collaborative symphony.”   

Crowd-sourcing a symphony
It’s a Knight Foundation pilot project in just two cities so far, Akron and Detroit. The idea is to use music and technology to create a sense of place and bring people together.

MIT composer-in-residence Tod Machover is writing “Symphony in D” for a premiere Nov. 16th by the Detroit Symphony.

Clint Needham’s using the same software Machover developed to turn Akron’s chimes, fountains, bells, blimps, train whistles, traffic noise and nature sounds into music.

City meets symphony
On April 16th, the Akron Symphony will perform the world premiere of “Sounds of Akron: City Meets Symphony.”  

Needham says he's "integrating the sounds with the orchestra and using the
orchestra to mimic some of those sounds.”  

Contributors have been recording sounds they consider representative of the city and uploading them using a free smartphone app. 

“You hit the record button. You hit the stop button when you want to stop recording, and then it just prompts you. It already has your location in there, and it prompts you to say something about the sound and then you hit 'OK' and there it is.”  

Beloved as well as annoying sounds
Needham has invited Akronites to send in sounds they like, as well as ones that drive them crazy.

He encourages contributors to open their ears for a deeper appreciation of their surroundings. 

“Someone mentioned that this train goes by every day at this time, and it’s annoying because they’re trying to get work done, and it’s just blaring. I personally love the sound of trains, how a distant train sounds, when you’re close up, how aggressive it sounds. So maybe (we can have) this person sort of reevaluate how musical this sound is. That would be a dream, right, for this person to come up to me at intermission and say, “Now I think the train is something I’ll meditate on.’”  

More than a day’s length of audio
Needham’s been going out and actively listening, too, to what Akron sounds like, using his own smartphone to capture sounds he thinks are evocative.  

“I was lucky enough to go on the Portage Lakes, really amazing sort of water sounds. I was able to ride the Cuyahoga Valley train. So many train sounds, and people talking, bicycling, their bike bells.

"I think I have right now about 25 hours of sound. The symphony will be about 18 to 22 minutes. So I have some whittling down to do, that’s for sure.”  

The musicality of the mundane
It’s the ordinary sounds that Akron residents have submitted that delight Needham with their musicality.

Like the crack of a bat at Canal Park, wind chimes in someone’s front yard, tires rolling over the red bricks of Mull Avenue, footfalls on the steps of Akron’s main library, a power saw at Fairlawn Country Club, or the whirr of a laundromat.  

“A lot of people back in the spring recorded themselves watching the Cavs game when they were in the playoffs. And I thought that was a really great sound. Someone uploaded their pushing their child on a swing set, and the creak of the swing set, the laughter of the child, it’s a really joyous sound and very special to people’s lives.

"So it’s sort of the seemingly mundane things that I didn’t think I would get that I kind of have fallen in love with.” 

Contemporary approach
In his early 30s, Needham’s a rising star in the classical world who’s had his works performed at Carnegie Hall. He says he wants most of all to sound like a 21st century composer.

“Growing up in the 80s and early 90s, rock music, ska, grunge era music --Nirvana, Pearl Jam -- those were the first things that really excited me about music. And then I discovered classical music.

"And as a composer, I want to own up to all of that as being an influence. So using technology is not a stretch for me.”

Since technology’s not going away, he’s glad ensembles like the Akron Symphony are figuring out ways to use it to appeal to a wider audience. 

“Maybe wider meaning younger. This, where you’re crowd-sourcing. What I love about it is it’s really of 'now,' where you’re really asking people to take their smartphone, to go record a sound they love or hate, and to upload and expect that sound to be in the piece; it could only have existed now.”   

Sounds may emerge from the audience
Needham’s thinking about taking it even further, having his collaborators in “Sounds of Akron: City Meets Symphony” play their recorded sounds right along with the orchestra: “Having an app that people can download, and when they’re cued, they turn their app on. So maybe some of the sounds come literally from the audience in real time.”  

He’s still working that out.

Meanwhile Akronites have less than a week to download the free app and upload sounds for the collaborative symphony. The deadline is November 11.