New Music: New Audiences Exploring venues and concert formats � �
Re:New Music [2008-10] • EU 2007-13 Cooperation project • 12 organizations (11 countries) and 22 ensembles • Coordinator = Danish Composer’s society • Goal = repertoire exchange • 135 concerts • 70 works performed abroad+ travelling of composers
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New Music: New Audiences [2012-14] • EU 2007-13 Cooperation project • 17 organisations (18 countries) - 34 ensembles • 12 researchers • Coordinator = Danish Composers’ society • Goals = audience development, sharing of good practices (+ repertoire exchange) • 19 workshops, 3 conferences, 65 concerts � �
5 Themes - 19 workshops • Mixing art forms • Ditching the concert hall [Exploring venues and concert format] • How music and audience meet • Online with your audience • Engaging young people and children.
Toolkit - Researchers • 12 academics or audience research professionals supported ensembles in carrying out primary research to answer questions about their audience and evaluate the audience development approaches being tested as part of each concert. • The Audience Research Consultant assembled a simple research toolkit that the ensembles could use themselves and the research partners could use as a starting point for their own research. This kit consisted of: • “I ‟ m still wondering” card with two questions about engagement • a set of recommended survey questions for researchers and ensembles to choose from and add to • a description of how focus groups work and instructions for recruitment for research partners to brief ensembles. •
What are the benefits of ditching the concert hall? • It persuades people to think differently about the ensemble • It gets attention from the media • It gets attention from the public (a ‘publicity stunt’) • We can create events where there is an interaction between the music and the physical space • We can introduce new music to new audiences by using spaces that already have their own audience • We can escape the conventions of a traditional concert hall – change expectations and ditch the rituals • It gives the regular audience a new way of experiencing the music • It transforms spaces, turning expectations of physical spaces upside down • It inspires the musicians and gives the ensemble a new energy • It helps get sponsorship.
What makes an effective event outside the concert hall? • An informal atmosphere • Intimacy • An unfamiliar space that enhances the relationship between the audience and the music – different expectations and a different emotional involvement • Stage the concert to break traditional concert rituals • Perform – don’t just play the music • Food and drink (especially drink – even have a bar in the performance space!) • Informal interaction between the audience, composers and musicians – feedback in the bar! • Don’t replace the old formal structures with new ones e.g. avoid lectures before the performance • Tell people what the new space will add to their experience.
What are the challenges ? • We have to make sure the audience can get there • Many people in cities don’t want to travel outside the city centre • Events need much more marketing � • It’s difficult to repeat the concept in other spaces • We are not in control of the new space • It’s expensive because the new space is not usually equipped for presenting performance • The acoustics are always compromised
Choices of new places/spaces [Historic / outdoors / other genres / work / new places in concert venues] • Fortress (Cikada and Carola Bauckholt) • Court room of Gallway [Contempo & Crash] Moving audiences around + visuals • Geological monument (St Christopher - Devil’s Hole) • Concert walk (Scenatet at Glorup Park) • Rock venue in Denmark (Athelas in Huset KBH) • Jazz venue in the Netherlands (Lunatree at Paradox Club) • Office (Soho - Kontor Hotel - Athelas) • Latvian academy of science (Sinfonietta Riga - White nights) • Old engineer library of the National concert hall (Dublin) - Crash Ensemble • Turbine hall of the Museum of Technology in Vilnius (St Christopher) [performers within the audience // Choir] • Unusual spaces of a Philharmonic hall (Kwartludium at Swientokrzyska philharmonic) • Intimate concert in a Church (LCO)
Database Repertoire pieces: Langzame verjaardag (Andriessen): a free canon with free entrances and no strict (tempo) coordination. Performed by Avanti! at Helsinki Music Centre. More than 30 musicians were placed in the public and on balconies.
Example 1: Concert walks - Scenatet • Site-specific experience. • Curated by Anna Berit Asp Christensen, acting as a guide (suggested max. 30 participants at a time - ticketing issues) • The unique combination of a musical program and a walk creates a new kind of encounter between music and audience. The Concert Walk s mix music with their surroundings, creating a completely new and interesting situation in the borderline between art, music and urban environments and cultural heritage. Many surprises along the way (and technical support needed).
• #1 Glorup Park, Odense. As a part of the opening of the art exhibition GEIST Glorup, SCENATET presents a Concert Walk featuring six musical performances at six different sites in the park (about 60 minutes total). • #2 Astrid Noacks Atelier, outer Nørrebro, Copenhagen. The audience is invited on a collective journey through the neighborhood’s quirky, unique and also very diverse environments, that this evening will provide the frame for six unique musical artworks. • #3 In the park of the Warsaw University Library – located on the library roof! – and inside the library the audience met the music here and there. A walk through park and library offered singing from the trees and piano playing from hidden corners. (+ Kwartludium)
Example 2: Spatialization at Les Halles de Schaerbeek • Federation of 3 ensembles Ensemble 21 / Ensemble ON / Ensemble Sturm und Klang • Charles Ive’s Unanswered Question + 2 premieres (one for 3 conductors), 2 repertoire database works and another piece. • A fully spatialized concert adapted to the specific opportunities given by the volumes and acoustics of the venue. • “Let the volumes and the acoustics of the Halles be more than just a host for the music. Let this particular place fully participate to the music and shape the concert taking place. As the performance itself is spatialized, the public will not be seated in a frontal relation with the orchestra but installed on deck chairs in a fully relaxed way.”
Example 3: Sinfonietta Riga at Spilve airport • Part of the R ī ga Festival organized by Latvijas Koncerti. • Programme related to the architectural and acoustical dimensions of the chosen venue – a partly abandoned airport 6 km away from R ī ga City Centre which is a great example of so called Soviet baroque architecture and interior design. • Works by Alfred Schnittke, Kristaps P ē tersons (premiere), Gyorgy Ligeti, Jesper Nordin, and Gregory d’Hoop.
Conclusions If you can handle: • Longer preparation and higher costs; • Uncertainties (weather / partnerships / audience); • Partnerships with Festivals and cooperation with venues/places; • Commissions or thematic concerts in relation to place. Then you can expect: • Larger audiences; • New public.
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