Suffering for art took on frigid new meaning for composer Tod Machover while creating his new symphony for the Philadelphia Orchestra.

His Philadelphia Voices couldn’t possibly live up to its name without Machover experiencing the Mummers, so there he was at the parade on  New Year’s Day. Remember how cold it was? “My butt was frozen to the metal bleachers at the viewing stand,” said the brainy, bushy-haired Machover.

He pursued the very soul of the city for his new choral/orchestral work, the eighth “crowd-sourced symphony” the MIT-based composer and inventor has written or mentored in cities from Detroit to Perth. It will be presented  at the Kimmel Center this week (and on April 10 at Carnegie Hall).