The Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Berlin Philharmonic Education Programme and Spitalfields Music have begun recruiting performers for Crowd Out, a new work jointly commissioned by all three organisations from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang. Three performances of the work, which features 1000 shouting, chanting and whispering voices, will take place in June 2014 in Birmingham, Berlin and London. Involvement is open to anyone, regardless of musical experience.

The work, which launches with a Discovery Weekend in Birmingham today, has been five years in the making and takes its inspiration from the type of public singing and chanting that occurs during football matches. Lang aims to create a similar sense of community through the performance of his work.

‘The texts all come from things people reveal on the internet about how they feel about being in a crowd - and every sentence begins with the word "I" because that is what interests me about being in a crowd, how you keep or lose your ability to be an individual,’ said Lang. ‘The idea of 1000 people yelling "I AM ALONE" somehow makes me very happy.’

The composer will team with choral conductor Simon Halsey to lead performances of Crowd Out in the three cities, each featuring 1000 local musicians, singers and production teams. The world premiere performance takes place in Birmingham’s Millennium Point on June 8, 2014. This will be followed by performances at Berlin’s outdoor Kulturforum on June 14 and 15, 2014, and East London’s Arnold Circus on June 21, 2014.

For details on how to take part in your area, visit bcmg.org.uk / berlinerphilharmoniker.de/education / spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk.