- A couple of thoughts
for ensembles that are creating interactive concerts.
What we want to do is, first of all,
we want the audience to be more engaged with the music
as a result of whatever interaction we have.
Not have more information about it, but be more engaged.
So you look for ways that you can get people to
do stuff that takes them further into the music.
I can give you some examples,
and I want you to think creatively
with every piece that you have.
For example, one student was doing
a concert around ornamentation.
So he brought up a big score on laminated paper
and had students come up
and with markers create ornaments all over this thing.
Flowers, and butterflies, and all that stuff.
And then figure out with him what each
of these ornaments would sound like on his viola.
So he then played this melody using the ornaments
that they had naturally created
and then opened it up to what does it look like
with the way the composer had it.
Suddenly they could recognize ornamentation
because of what they had done.
Another example that Ariel Winds,
which has a wonderful young group.
has quite a lot of outreach work.
One of their examples is
they play "Pictures at an Exhibition".
And before the section of "Limoges, the Marketplace",
they have audiences generate a bunch of ideas
of how you would create, a composer could create,
a sense of busy-ness and they make a big long list
of all the different ways you could musically
create a sense of busy-ness.
They then play this segment and the audience is listening
for all the compositional choices to create a sense
of a busy marketplace.
And then they add to their list things
they actually heard the composer do
that they hadn't listed before
and then they play the piece again.
So suddenly all the focus goes on,
wow, compositionally, there's a whole bunch
of things you can do with a wind ensemble
and this particular piece.
It takes people inside the music.
And one final playful idea.
I want to encourage for you.
It doesn't mean in outreach concerts that you
have one person who talks, the good talker in the group.
And then the others who sit there patiently with smiles
on their faces, waiting until they get to the music.
I want to encourage all of you to be speaking engaged.
Even if you hate speaking publicly
you could be the one who speaks only using the instrument,
and Bobby McFerrin does a wonderful thing where you get
to the end of the concert and sometimes have that question
and answer period, which can be pretty dorky, I admit,
where the young people, they don't know what to ask.
So they want to ask socially appropriate questions.
Like when did you start playing?
And how much did that thing cost?
Because they're not engaged.
What Bobby McFerrin does is he'll allow
for those questions,
but everybody in the ensemble
has to answer with their instrument.
So we come right back to musical thinking and listening.
So if you're asked how much did that instrument cost
and you're the viola player
how the heck do you answer that musically?
We're all real interested.
So are your colleagues in the ensemble.
It takes us to the kind
of playful musical exploration
that really invites an audience in.
So what you're looking for is ways to engage
and the jams are wide open to figure out how.