This new mobile app built by Drexel is like Pop Up Video for the Orchestra

Think of LiveNote as your listening companion at the Philadelphia Orchestra.

It’s a mobile app, built by a team of engineers at Drexel, that provides the stories behind what you’re listening to. It’ll only work at selected performances, starting on Oct. 14, during the Orchestra’s Free College Concert. (LiveNote will also be available during concerts from Oct. 16-18, on two pieces: Dvorák’s The Golden Spinning Wheel and Leoš Janácek’s Glagolitic Mass, according to a release.)

It’s meant to be an enhancement, not a distraction. LiveNote was specially designed to not be disruptive in darkened concert halls, Drexel says.

Get LiveNote for iOS and for Android.

The app follows along with the music and gives you information during specific parts. Kind of like VH1’s Pop Up Video.

For the initial launch of the app, a human operator will cue the app to move along with the music, said Youngmoo Kim, the Drexel professor who oversaw the team of undergrads and graduate students who worked with the Orchestra’s IT staff to build the app.

Watch the video below to see how it works.

LiveNote also offers a glossary of musical terms, a digital version of the concert program and info about the Orchestra. The content about the music was created by Benjamin K. Roe, executive director of the Staunton, Va.-based Heifetz International Music Institute.