Steps away from the Chinatown gates lies a shipping container-turned-studio where both musician and listener are active participants in a one-minute live performance.

Celebrity Series of Boston, a non-profit that organizes live shows, launched their annual free public performance series Friday, Sept. 20. It ran at the Rose Kennedy Greenway’s Chin Park in Boston and the Harvard Science Center Plaza until Sept. 29. Taiwanese violinist Rayna Yun Chou’s most recent project, titled “Concert For One,” is the centerpiece. 

“You are both participants. One listens, the other plays, yet the field is even,” said Gary Dunning, the president and executive director of the series. “It’s an exploration of the changing nature of live performance.”

Dunning said one of his motivations behind the project was his observation that after a concert, the audience often reacts the same: a collective cheer and standup applause. He was curious how people would react in a more intimate setting.

Chou, the event organizer, is a graduate of the Yale School of Music and New England Conservatory.

“Back in 2015, I was still a master’s student, and my teacher shared a quote with us: ‘Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen,’” she said. 

This was the inspiration behind the project “Music, Distance, and One Minute of Just Us,” which she debuted in Taiwan in an effort to address concerns that classical music has become inaccessible to everyday people and that on the performers’ side, musicians are increasingly isolated from their audiences. 

The concept in Boston is the same. No tickets or reservations are needed, and anyone who shows up for a free concert can have one. Chou intended to work with 60 individual performers to produce 5,000 individual concerts between the two locations. 

As the creator of the series, Chou was able to both listen and perform. 

“As a musician, it’s always nerve-wracking,” she said. “What I realized was that the things we concern ourselves [with], such as dynamics and intonations, they don’t care about. It’s not that important anymore.” 

Although the majority of the acts are classical, the series also integrates different genres. The performers are a fusion of locals, recent graduates and other professionals at liberty to play their favorite pieces or take recommendations. 

Kathy O’Donnell, who attended the series Sept. 24, had previously read about the event, but was able to experience it for the first time at the Chin Park location during her lunch hour. 

“I just love music, and it’s a very core thing to me,” O’Donnell said after her time with double bass player Zihen Wang. “To have a one-minute respite from my crazy day to listen to some classical music is very nice, and to have one musician dedicated to playing for me was such a personal experience.”

Chou said she also liked the idea of presenting classical music in shipping containers. 

“It was all about the surprise element. A majority of listeners that have been to our site so far have been unplanned,” she said. “At the Harvard location, there are lots of students on their way to class. Others are students touring the school or people on their way to work.” 

This causes the project to be a middle ground that pushes conversations between performers, listeners and passersby asking about the experience. 

“It is immensely moving to see someone doing what they love just for you,” Chou said. 

Depending on the nature of the performance, the musician or vocalist changes every hour or two, guaranteeing that people have a different experience every time they enter the makeshift room. This encourages individuals to revisit the location for another personalized experience. O’Donnell, for example, planned to go back and witness another performance while the series ran. 

At both sites is a wall where listeners are encouraged to write down their thoughts regarding their experience. Shea Rose, the series’ community concerts coordinator, is a  singer-songwriter and music curator who had her first experience Sept. 23 with cellist Wanda Ryder. 

“My description after she played, especially after yesterday was so hot, was that it felt like a cool cup of iced tea,” Rose said. “It was so refreshing.” 

“Concert For One,” as well as Chou’s past projects, serves as a social experiment in terms of exploring individual reactions to music. In Taiwan, people were more reserved in their reactions, while the current American audience has proven more likely to have an open conversation. 

“I’m hoping to bring it to other cities and see different reactions in different places,” Chou said.