SpringfieldNewsSun.com

SPRINGFIELD — Beethoven's ninth has finally caught up to "I Kissed a Girl" and the "Super Mario Brothers" theme.

It's now a ringtone — brought to you by an unlikely source of ringtones, the Springfield Symphony Orchestra.

"Symphony orchestras can be relevant in the 21st century," said operations director Robyn Zimmann, "and are relevant."

What started as an idea by the symphony's audience development committee is now a reality. The SSO is offering free cell phone ringtones — short clips of the orchestra in concert — on its Web site.

"It's kind of a funny viral way of getting out in front of people," said Springfield resident Alex Loehrer, vice president of Hafenbrack Marketing and head of the committee.

The SSO is offering four ringtones (plus two phone wallpapers) to start with, but let's be brutally honest here — Mozart isn't Lil Wayne, and "Eine Kleine Nachtmusic" ain't "Lollipop."

So how do you squash some of the greatest music ever created by mankind into a 20-second ringtone?

It's Zimmann's job to take a full recording — these aren't short pieces, either — "and find the blockbuster moment."

"With the Dvorak 'New World Symphony,' the opening lines of the fourth movement," she said, "are as blockbuster as it gets."

The SSO records most of its concerts for later broadcast on the Dayton classical station WDPR, so expect plenty more ringtones on the site.

"We're ahead of the curve," Zimmann said.

Not many orchestras, she said, offer ringtones. Fewer offer them up for free.

The idea, according to SSO Executive Director David Deitrick, is to get people talking about the local symphony whenever a phone rings.

"They can be ambassadors for the symphony every place — except at a symphony concert," he said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0352 or amcginn@coxohio.com.

Get the phone, it's Mozart!

Free classical ringtones are available at www.springfieldsym.org.