Composer Viet Cuong rehearses with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra at the Ordway Concert Hall in St. Paul on Sept. 14. (Elizabeth Flores, Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra got the idea for its new Sandbox Composer Residency program from composer Joseph Haydn.

"The whole idea grew out of a thought experiment I had during the early days of the pandemic," said Kyu-Young Kim, the SPCO's artistic director and principal violinist. "What if the SPCO could have a composer in residence like Haydn in Esterhazy? And what would happen if a composer today could truly experiment and innovate like Haydn did?"

Haydn, called the "father of the symphony" and the "father of the string quartet," attributed much of his originality to having an orchestra available to him for three decades in the 18th century at a remote Hungarian palace. Today, such relationships rarely develop. Composers customarily arrive a few days before the premiere with a finished score in hand.

This Sandbox residency is considerably more collaborative, with three different composers each spending five weeks with the SPCO. They'll bounce ideas off the musicians, try out fragments, workshop both orchestral and chamber works and then premiere them at subscription concerts.

The first composers asked to play in this sandbox are Viet Cuong, Clarice Assad and Gabriela Lena Frank. Cuong's residency has already begun.

"It's a dream scenario to have five weeks over the course of a season to develop, workshop, rehearse and unveil a piece," Cuong said. "It alleviates the pressure of having to deliver something nearly perfect on your first try."

In addition to premiering a new work at this week's SPCO concerts, the 32-year-old American composer will continue to refine a work in progress at a 10 a.m. Thursday rehearsal that's open to the public.

That piece — currently titled "Now and Then" — is slated to be completed and premiered at the Nov. 25-27 SPCO concerts, with audience talkbacks after each performance. Cuong and the orchestra rehearsed the latest version of the score Wednesday at the Ordway Concert Hall, engaging in a lively confab between passages. The composer floated ideas for possible revisions, and the musicians responded with suggestions of their own.

"The idea is to capture a spirit of innovation, experimentation and co-creation," Kim said. "Our first workshop with Viet was exactly in this spirit. He wrote five short sketches that we played, but then also started to deconstruct and put back together with input from the musicians."

Cuong said that "Now and Then" was conceived when he attended SPCO concerts featuring J.S. Bach's "Brandenburg Concertos" in December 2021. He started contemplating using harpsichord and toying with some Bach-esque chord progressions. The composer returned with those fragments in February and they were further fleshed out in May workshops.

Assad is up next, arriving in the spring and having some pieces workshopped in June. Frank's residency will take place during the 2023-24 season.

"What the SPCO has developed with the Sandbox residency is unheard of," Cuong said. "What's most special is how the SPCO has placed collaboration and community at the heart of these commissions. ... We've developed a mutual trust."

St. Paul Chamber Orchestra

Open rehearsal with Sandbox composer in residence Viet Cuong: 10 a.m. Thursday; Ordway Concert Hall, 345 Washington St., St. Paul; $15.

Concerts of works by Haydn, Cuong and Mozart: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church, 12650 Johnny Cake Ridge Road, Apple Valley; 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. Friday, Wooddale Church, 6630 Shady Oak Road, Eden Prairie; 8 p.m. Saturday, St. Paul's United Church of Christ, 900 Summit Av., St. Paul; 2 p.m. Sunday, Benson Great Hall, 3900 Bethel Drive, Arden Hills; $10-$26 (students free).

Tickets: Available at 651-291-1144 or thespco.org.

Rob Hubbard is a Twin Cities classical music writer. Reach him at wordhub@yahoo.com.