News from the North has reached American soil with word of a performance in Toronto next month by U.S. Jazz composer David Baker, where members of the audience and orchestra will be asked to use their cell phones to compose music.    The debut performance of “Concertino for Cellular Phones and Orchestra” will open the 20th anniversary season of the Chicago Sinfonietta Classical Music Festival.

Physician and SMC expert, Dr. Mark Marmalard, heralded for his ground breaking work with cellphone containment apparatus, has expressed deep concern with this development and has strong words for Baker. “I hope he understands how grave the consequences of his actions could be. This kind of event has never been attempted before in Continental North America, and this many phones emitting RF radiation simultaneously could be catastrophic for those participating.
Baker, who has more than 2,000 jazz, symphonic and chamber compositions to his credit, said people will also be encouraged to randomly increase and decrease the volume of their ring tones and try to recognize familiar tune fragments on the ring tones sounding on orchestra members’ cell phones. He said he hoped the contrast of chaos and structure in a constantly shifting orchestral scheme would replicate how cell phones create both order and chaos in our society. “There’s a wonderful balance … because that’s how our lives are,” said Baker, a music professor at Indiana University. It is unfortunate, that this dangerous stunt will “shift the scales” towards danger rather than fun.
Baker said in a statement this was first time in his career that he had finished a piece but did not know what the result would be. While he may be unclear, there is little doubt in the opinion of the experts that this is could be the spark that ignites the SMC epidemic.