The orchestra begins playing. An attentive audience listens as the first sounds fill the concert hall. As the music unfolds, many audience members begin to drift away - thoughts of this and that float in and out as they lose the musical thread...
The core problem is that the structures and musical logic of the classical repertoire, regardless of the musical era they inhabit, remain opaque and even intimidating to many classical music lovers.
As Music Director of the Torbay Symphony Orchestra I introduced pre-performance talks to our programmes, but with a LIVE orchestra. More often than not, we do this for contemporary works which audiences find more problematic than say a Beethoven symphony. But - we give these talks for lots of conventional repertoire too. (watch the video above which is on Beethoven's 7th symphony)
The key element is the LIVE orchestra - the talk is illustrated by live examples from ensembles or the whole orchestra as the talk unfolds. The results are amazing - feedback is overwhelmingly positive with audience members feeling included and enlightened and most importantly. more engaged.
I am available for pre-performance talks at concerts in the UK and Europe.
Please contact me via the website contact form, via email at richard@richardgonski.co.uk or 0n +44 (0)7446909337
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