Project In Brief

  • This site-specific electro-acoustic installation asked the question: “What would a house sound like if it could sing?”

  • Original commissioned for a private Brooklyn home, the project has been adapted for various private spaces, galleries, and museums.

  • The source material for the electronic music layer will be derived from the BBC Nature Sound Effects Library.

  • “At moments like this, new music sheds its academic strictures and finds its way back to the era of dinnertime entertainments. music may feed the soul, but it still goes best with a drink… entitling the curious to sounds they’ve never heard.” (New York Magazine)

  • “Give these young performers points for novelty.” (The New Yorker)

  • “The idea of site-specific, ambulatory concerts—or at least disrupting the normal, stationary concert experience—is something that classical composers are dabbling with… the lack of traditional concert infrastructure can be freeing.” (Wall Street Journal)

 
Project Partners
 
 

Commissioning Project

2010
  • Metropolis Ensemble commissioned Jakub Ciupinski to create a site-specific electro-acoustic composition and installation.
  • In subsequent installations of the Brownstone project, Metropolis commissioned new works from composers Ricardo Romaneiro and Paula Matthusen to accompany Brownstone, along with pairings of other innovative works from Christopher Cerrone and NoisoN.
 
 

Brownstone in Clinton Hill

October 28, 2010 in Brooklyn
  • World premiere of the evening-length experience featured wine, hors d'oeuvres, and a contemporary art installation from the gallery On Stellar Rays.
  • The event was the inaugural production of Friends of Metropolis, a collaboration between Metropolis artists and enthusiastic supporters.
 
 

Brownstone Northeast Tour

October 2014 in Concord, NH / Portland, ME / Lewiston, ME
  • Musicians and electronic elements placed throughout several floors, galleries, and former domestic spaces of The Phillips Collection.
  • World premiere of a new Metropolis commissioned work from Paula Matthusen celebrating Phillips Music's 75th Season.
 
 

Brownstone at The Phillips Collection

May 6, 2016 in Washington, DC
  • Musicians and electronic elements placed throughout several floors, galleries, and former domestic spaces of The Phillips Collection.
  • World premiere of a new Metropolis commissioned work from Paula Matthusen celebrating Phillips Music's 75th Season.
 
 

Brownstone on Upper East Side

May 16, 2016 in Manhattan
  • Visitors were transported into a jewel-lit, multi-sensory exploration of interlinked “sound bites” co-curated by Ricardo Romaneiro and food prodigy Jonah Reider of Columbia University dorm pop-up restaurant Pith.
  • World premiere of a Metropolis commissioned work from Ricardo Romaneiro with soprano Ariadne Greif.
  • A roving after-party featured a DJ set with NoisoN.
 
 

Brownstone at Biophony

July 21–September 18, 2021 in New York City
  • Jakub Ciupinski's Brownstone was a featured work in rotation across this series of citywide site-specific music experiences, including 2021–23 pop-up concerts and the 2021–22 festivals at Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
 
 
 

More Projects

Take an in-depth look at Metropolis Ensemble projects over the years.