Detroit’s Sound Infuses Music, Community

Over a cup of coffee downtown, it was quickly obvious Tod Machover’s passion for “Symphony in D,” the first sonic portrait of Detroit, is largely due to the material at his disposal: The city’s rich, yet often overlooked, relationship with music and a community eager to continue it. “In many ways, I think Detroit’s the place I always wanted to do this project,” he says. His research into Detroit’s neighborhoods and people, along with sounds submitted by Detroiters over the coming months, will be the basis for the symphony, set to debut in November.

Machover is a professor of music and media at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He’s also an inventor and a prolific composer who has written portraits for four other cities internationally. But Detroit is the first city in the United States to commission such a piece. And that just seems right.