Classic Express Research project by Ilona Sie Dhian Ho

In a combined qualitative and quantitative research the influence of storytelling in concerts for children is analyzed. In a controlled setting, The Classic Express (mobile concert hall), groups of schoolchildren attend either a concert with or a concert without storytelling. The groups, similar in socio- economic background and age, are compared. In a quantitative research the involved listening, the felt emotional intensity, the interest in classical music and the interest in actively playing an instrument, will be measured. For quantification new grading systems are developed by scientists and musicians in a collaborative process. In a qualitative research on the influence of storytelling the focus is on children with severe learning disorders. The emotional responses of these children in concerts with and without storyelling, and in combination with participatory elements (moving, gestures) are observed by teachers and caretakers, They compare their observations in the concert to the normal behaviour of their pupils. Both Interviews with the teachers and their grading of arousal, attention and emotional levels in the concert will provide data that will be analyzed by the reserachers. This research is the first study of The Classic Expression Research Group, a group of researchers from the Royal Conservatoire and Leiden University, collaborating to provide new insights on the impact of presentation techniques in classical concerts.

Ilona Sie Dhian Ho

Data collection

1. data to create scale:

-We will carry out interviews with experienced presenters of classical concerts for children on how attentive/inattentive listening of children can be observed. In the interviews we ask how this behaviour relates to the Leuven scale, used to quantify the level of engagement in playing of children. Analyzing these interviews we will be able to develop the signals of attentive/ inattentive listening that will be key to score the childrens behavior in our experiment-concerts.

-Coders will be trained to score the behaviour, based on these signals, using recordings of children in a pilot-concert. Discussion on the video recordings in this pilot concert are used to make further adjustments to the Leuven scale. Both musicians and scientists are involved in this process.The signals are described precisely in a new scale.

2. data for the research:

The children in our experiment-concerts that are included (parental consent) will be recorded with two video-cameras. They are numbered with a sticker to ensure privacy. These video recordings will be the key research tool for data collection. By observation of the trained coders of all individual children we will have a data set of chidlren's attention level in concerts with and without storytelling.

The scores that will be given by every coder will be uploaded on surfdrive and will be used for statistical analyses.

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