The audience at a Chicago Symphony Orchestra MusicNOW concert is in for a vastly different experience than is the norm at most other CSO concerts.

In the neon-lit lobby of the Harris Theater, there are live DJs spinning electronica. When audience members enter the concert hall, they will not be given anything as prosaic as a printed program.

"Instead, there are video program notes projected between pieces," said Mason Bates, CSO composer-in-residence and one of the curators of the MusicNOW series. The videos include composers talking about the new music the audience is about to hear.

MusicNOW, curated by Bates and fellow CSO composer-in-residence Anna Clyne, is the Chicago Symphony's nationally recognized new music series.

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