Audience Engagement: Our Audience Starts the Conversation
In our last newsletter, we asked you to send us examples of your audience engagement activities. (Audience engagement = artistic programming that increases and enhances audience participation in the arts.) We received several responses…thank you!
We want to keep hearing from you. Email news@arts.on.ca to share your experiences with us!
Tricia Baldwin, Managing Director of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra in Toronto, wrote to tell us about Tafelmusik’s arts & science collaboration called The Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres.
This special project brought together music, choreography, stage direction, projections of astronomical photography and a partnership with Canada’s astronomy community. The International Astronomical Union named an asteroid after Tafelmusik in recognition of the orchestra’s recent contribution to the International Year of Astronomy (IYA) 2009.
The Galileo Project, a co-production with The Banff Centre, was conceived and programmed by Tafelmusik bassist Alison Mackay. Stage Director Marshall Pynkoski worked with the orchestra to choreograph the programme, which the orchestra memorized. After its Banff premiere, the Galileo Project was performed in Toronto, then went on tour to Ottawa, Kingston, Belleville, Niagara Falls and Lindsay. Tafelmusik presented education and outreach concerts at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, the Canadian Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa and theatres in Lindsay and Belleville. In the education programme, actor Shaun Smyth played the role of Halley’s Comet—or, as he told young audiences, “Call me Hal!”
Tafelmusik is planning shows in Mexico, the United States, Australia and Asia.
Meirion Kelly writes: “I am an independent jazz musician and own and operate a small rehearsal space and perform in various groups in the Toronto area. Last week I put together a small gathering of people at my space for a ‘listening soiree.’ The concept was simple: bring along a jazz recording on vinyl and we would listen together and provide insight into the various recordings. It was a great success, going long into the night, with the flavor of ‘poker night’ with no cards.
“There is something to be said for the social aspect of listening that I think we have completely lost with the development and popularity of iPods and directed broadcasts. These methods of experiencing music are very isolating I believe and human encounters really need to be reintroduced when experiencing music. I intend to use these soirees as way of cultivating an audience base for my own projects, recordings and concerts.”