This Startup Delivers a Live Orchestra to Your Apartment

Not everyone has the money—or the energy—to dress up and go out to enjoy a night of classical music at the symphony. If you want to listen to a live orchestra without changing out of your pajamas, just order a Groupmuse instead. As WIRED reports, the startup organizes 25- to 60-minute instrumental programs in your living room for a suggested price of $10 per spectator.

Founder Sam Bodkin was inspired to start the company after falling in love with classical music in college. He want to share the experience of listening to it live with people his own age, but realized that coercing them into a symphony hall for a performance would be an uphill battle.

So he decided to bring the music to them. Since it was founded in 2013, Groupmuse has given more than 1200 conservatory students and professional musicians the opportunity to play intimate concerts in someone’s home. Performers interested in signing up send samples of their work to Groupmuse for approval. If the company likes what they hear, they match the musicians with a place that hosts them (soloists play in spaces for 10 people, quartets for up to 50). The first of the two sessions always consists of classical music, and the second is player's choice. Anything from Guns N' Roses to Brazilian choro music could be on the set list.

Bodkin’s plan to turn younger audiences on to live orchestral music seems to be effective: Of the 20 Groupmuse concerts hosted across the country every week, 70 percent of attendants were born in the 1980s and '90s. If you’re looking for some live entertainment to spice up your holiday party, you can sign up to host a performance here. Spectators who don’t mind leaving home to listen to music can RSVP to one of the Groupmuse concerts happening in their neighborhood (which for now, means Boston, New York City, Seattle, and California's Bay Area.)