In Metropolis Ensemble's “Brownstone,” opening Jan. 23, musicians and audience members roam through a Manhattan townhouse, resulting in a different kind of classical music experience. Photo: Ramsay de Give for The Wall Street Journal

In the Upper East Side townhouse that the AIHS calls home, a violinist ambled down the stairs while tuning her instrument and a harpist improvised with electronic sounds that came from the walls.

“The house will tune you guys,” said Ricardo Romaneiro, who composed the piece that the musicians were playing

Mr. Romaneiro’s “House EQ” and three other distinct works will be performed Friday and Monday by the Metropolis Ensemble, a contemporary-music chamber orchestra, in what is being billed as half concert and half art installation.

Called “Brownstone,” the production requires both audience and performers to roam the space, experiencing the concert however, and from wherever, they prefer. And the light gradually changes with the music.

The idea of site-specific, ambulatory concerts—or at least disrupting the normal, stationary concert experience—is something that classical composers are dabbling with.

John Luther Adams’s “Sila: The Breath of the World” had its premiere outdoors last summer: Musicians and audiences members scattered throughout the Lincoln Center plaza. Composer Christopher Cerrone’s opera “Invisible Cities,” which was nominated for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize, called on audience members wearing headsets to mingle with musicians throughout Los Angeles’s Union Station.

Outside of the classical-music world, the immersive theater work “Sleep No More”involved masked audience members walking freely while actors mimed a drama loosely based on Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.”

The Metropolis Ensemble project began when one of the ensemble’s board members, artist Jennifer Salomon, suggested an unconventional house concert.

“She said, ‘Imagine making the whole house sing,’ ” music director Andrew Cyr said.

In 2010, the ensemble produced a concert where the audience walked among musicians, who performed in different rooms of Ms. Salomon’s brownstone in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

“It was one of the most successful concerts in terms of disrupting the conventions of classical music,” said Mr. Cyr.

Next, the ensemble performed the concert across New England. Friday’s iteration of “Brownstone” will feature works by Mr. Cerrone, Mr. Romaneiro and Jakub Ciupinski.

In Mr. Ciupinski’s work, the electronic sounds come from buffaloes, frogs, rattlesnakes and other creatures. “I’m thinking of musicians as wild animals,” he said.

For composers and audience alike, these nontraditional concerts present new challenges.

Brad Balliett, a bassoonist, described the audience as going through a series of steps: first surprised, then charmed, and, finally, empowered by having control over their experience.

Violinist Karen Kim of the Metropolis EnsemblePHOTO: RAMSAY DE GIVE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

For composers, the lack of traditional concert infrastructure can be freeing as well.

“Sometimes the concert experience can be a bit oppressive,” said Mr. Cerrone, whose “Memory Palace” will be performed by the ensemble. “Most of my personal musical experiences are me walking around with headphones in the city.”

During the rehearsal earlier this week, Mr. Romaneiro and Mr. Cyr debated how to show that the musicians were tuning to the house, which—Mr. Romaneiro asserted—is in the key of F-sharp minor.

“Brad can come in through the elevator,” Mr. Romaneiro said.

From behind the closed door, a bassoon’s hum drifted into the main room.

“That’s amazing! Keep playing in there,” he said. “It’s elevator music.”


The Metropolis Ensemble performs “Brownstone” on Friday and Monday at the AIHS Fifth Ave., metropolisensemble.org.