Have a flute? Join the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and superstar flutist Claire Chase for this flute extravaganza

Do you play the flute?

Are you any good at it? Great. Not so good? That's OK, too.

Acclaimed flutist Claire Chase will lead a "flute force" of more than 100 people — no mastery necessary — for a February performance at Ordway Concert Hall. So this month, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra is putting out a call for 150 flute enthusiasts.

"The only requirements are an open mind and open ears," said Chase, winner of the MacArthur "genius" grant and founder of the International Contemporary Ensemble. "Everything else will be learned and enjoyed and shared while we're there.

"It's really that simple."

Flutists who want to be a part of the performance, "Cerchio Tagliato dei Suoni," or "Cutting the Circle of Sounds," by Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino, will spend a couple days in rehearsals and workshops. Players must be at least 10 years old. Read more here.

Past performances of the piece included flutists young and old, Chase said, folks with little experience and luminaries from the New York music scene. "What really excites me most is getting people together who don't share a common language but who develop one very quickly with the power of sound and movement patterns," Chase said by phone.

The flutists then begin improvising, moving around, "enjoying something we don't often get to enjoy as flute players, especially in the classical tradition," she said. "We're usually told to sit or stand in the same place."

But this group gets to be playful, seeing what happens from "simply turning your head this way, pointing the flute upwards or downwards," she said. "Very quickly, the youngest members of the group, the least experienced, understand how much emotional impact they can make with a single sound."

In the end, the chorus of community flutists will be part of an immersive performance with four soloists stationed in four corners of the concert hall. St. Paul's performance will involve the biggest flute force yet, Chase said.