{"id":203824,"date":"2025-09-06T02:14:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T02:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/203824\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T02:14:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T02:14:10","slug":"water-orchestra-makes-philadelphia-city-hall-fountains-interactive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/203824\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Water Orchestra\u2019 makes Philadelphia City Hall fountains interactive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? <a href=\"#Section1\">Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>The splash fountains in Dilworth Plaza at Philadelphia City Hall are now under your control.\n<\/p>\n<p>Anyone can conduct \u201cWater Orchestra,\u201d an interactive public art installation that allows the opportunity to conduct the array of waterspouts like a conductor leads an orchestra.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis program makes classical music accessible right in the heart of our city,\u201d said Preema Gupta, CEO of Center City District, which created \u201cWater Orchestra\u201d in collaboration with the Montreal-based design firm Ottomata Studio.\n  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt allows people of all ages and all backgrounds the opportunity not just to enjoy the transformative power of music, but to discover their inner maestro,\u201d she said.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-715076\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2025-09-05-e-lee-lina-gonzalez-granados-philadelphia-dilworth-park-water-orchestra-1024x683.jpeg\" alt=\"The Water Orchestra on display with jets of water coming up from the ground\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\"  \/>Lina Gonzalez-Granados, former assistant conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra, is the first to conduct the Water Orchestra, an interactive art installation that allows visitors to conduct their own compositions of water and sound using Dilworth Park\u2019s fountains. (Emma Lee\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n<p>Passersby in Dilworth Plaza stand on a designated platform, which scans their body movements and transfers them to the waterspouts embedded in the concrete, acting like an orchestra pit.\n<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a little clumsy. The system cannot react as fast as, say, a string section. But anyone can feel the power of making something happen just by waving their arm through the air.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s extremely fun,\u201d said Mary Spencer of Abington, who spent the day downtown for a little sightseeing and stumbled upon the launch of \u201cWater Orchestra.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>She had never conducted music before.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn my mind, yes. I usually do Beethoven\u2019s 6th in my living room,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m fantastic.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>Like many people, Philadelphia Orchestra CEO Ryan Fleur grew up wishing he could conduct like Mickey Mouse.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-715078\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2025-09-05-e-lee-ryan-fleur-philadelphia-dilworth-park-water-orchestra-1024x683.jpeg\" alt=\"Ryan Fleur speaking at a podium\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\"  \/>Ryan Fleur, President and CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra, speaks at the debut of the Water Orchestra. The interactive art installation is the product of a partnership between the Orchestra and Center City District. (Emma Lee\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was two years old and my father took me to see \u2018Fantasia,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I heard \u2018Sorcerer\u2019s Apprentice,\u2019 I was hooked.\u201d\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":203825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,112512,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,106835],"class_list":{"0":"post-203824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dilworth-plaza","10":"tag-pa","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa","19":"tag-water-orchestra"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115154941920269239","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}