Experimental laboratory for concert formats
Creative music project ‘Concertlab’ with MDR-Clara
Since the beginning of the winter semester, a particularly practical project has been running at the Department of Music Education and Church Music at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar: as part of a research seminar, students of the subject ‘Teaching Music at Grammar Schools’ are developing an innovative concert programme for pupils at various levels.
The initiative for this experimental laboratory came from Weimar music teacher Julia Keidl (practical school piano playing). She contacted the concert educator Ekkehard Vogler, who works as a music mediator at the youth music network MDR-Clara of the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk.
Together with the Weimar music didactics professor Dr. Kai Martin, Julia Keidl and Ekkehard Vogler run the so-called ‘Concertlab’, the results of which are to be made very specifically audible. Two rehearsals with the MDR Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Tobias Engeli are planned for 22 and 23 January.
This will be followed by a concert for schoolchildren on Friday, 24 January in the MDR orchestra studio in Leipzig. The concert will be repeated for the general public on Saturday, 25 January at 6 p.m. in the MDR studio on Augustusplatz in Leipzig. Tickets for the concert on 25 January are available at www.mdr-tickets.de. Admission is free, but there is a processing fee of €2 per ticket.
The seminar also aims to discuss unconventional concert forms – hence the name ‘Concertlab’. The overall topic ‘Identity’ was selected for the final concerts. ‘It is therefore about the important process of identity formation (not only) for young people,’ explains Prof. Kai Martin.
And so questions such as ‘Who do I want to be?’, ‘Who am I?’, ‘What are my defining characteristics?’, or more specifically: ‘What are my hobbies?’, ‘How do I feel in and out of school?’, ‘What career do I want to pursue?’, ‘Who are my role models?’ play a central role in the programme design.
The very different pieces of music that the participants in the seminar selected for the concert programme correspond to these very different perspectives on one's own person, which the questions mentioned above open up.
The spectrum ranges from the last movement of Joseph Haydn's ‘Trauersymphonie’ in E minor to Maurice Ravel's ‘Ma mère l'oye’, from Ludwig van Beethoven's 5th Symphony to Edvard Grieg's ‘Wedding Day at Troldhaugen’ and from Johannes Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 1 to Jacques Offenbach's “Cancan” from the operetta “Orpheus in the Underworld”.
At the moment, the project seminar is working on the presentation of the various pieces of music. ‘The main focus is on the emotional qualities that the individual pieces of music can convey,’ explains Prof. Dr. Kai Martin. ‘The central question is to what extent these emotional qualities affect the personality (i.e. the identity) of the young people. In this context, we discuss possibilities for moderating the individual pieces.’
For example, the question arises as to how the young people can be addressed directly and whether an imaginary journey is suitable as an introduction to a piece or the entire concert. The possibilities for visualising the pieces of music, the lighting design and the places in the room where the orchestra and the audience are seated are also discussed.
One open question is whether some students should sit in the orchestra or whether they should always stay in the same place during the concert. ‘Furthermore, we are looking at ways of evaluating the impact of the concert on the audience,’ says Kai Martin in conclusion.
[18 December 2024]