Friday, September 19, 2008

Interactive concerts: blogging, text messages, and chatting

Look closely at the image on the right and you'll see that the concert poster promotes several concert enhancements for the upcoming band concert at Arizona State University:

1. Play-by-play of the music with a knowledgeable musician describing the event.
2. Blogging with a musician: those with laptops or cell phones may blog with performers in real time
3. Conversation corner: an area of the auditorium will be dedicated to those who wish to discuss the music or event
4. Music only: a traditional concert environment of solitude

Fascinating, eh?

Here's an article from the school website that talks about the experiment. A portion:

The first phase of "audience research" will be carried out Sept. 18, when the wind students present a free concert at 7:30 p.m. in ASU Gammage.

The auditorium will be broken into designated zones for those who wish to text, chat, get a play-by-play, or simply sit and enjoy the music, Hill says.

"After the concert, we will ask for feedback and evaluate the feedback," he says.

This idea isn't as far-fetched as it might seem, Hill says.

"This is a Research I institution, and as musicians, we ask ourselves, 'What does this mean for us?' " he says.

Audience participation used to be a much more vital part of classical concerts, Hill says.

"Mozart, for example, wrote in his letters that audiences sometimes clapped for certain chords," he says.

The idea for offering a large variety of ensembles and having students choose which ones they are interested in came from many discussions among the wind-instrument faculty.

Hat tip, Evan Tobias.

1 comment:

Cherith said...

My 6th grade general music students and I have just been talking about the changes in music over the years and what makes music "modern." I think we'll discuss this audience participation next week - I'm sure they'll like the texting aspect. :)