After so much collective dedication to the development of the concert, or of part of it, it is time for the culmination of the process: the presentation of the final product - the online concert.
Here, there are at least two possibilities when it comes to presenting an online concert:
- The presentation may be the livestream of a performance happening in real time, or
- It may be the presentation of pre-recorded material.
For pre-recorded material, a reasonably common practice is to set a premiere date. This can also be treated as a time of gathering, when all the participants come together to celebrate their collective achievement. In our experience, these moments of online premieres can bring emotions that resemble the experiences of in-situ concerts, which involve the sense of anticipation and the feeling of being part of a temporary community.[1]
However, there may be situations when it will not be possible or not desirable to set the presentation of the online concert as an event. In that case, the online concert will be available on the chosen platform and will remain available for watching on demand.
It might be decided that the final product will only have a private viewing, just for the participants, or for the participants and a few guests. Or, perhaps the concert will be available to the wider public. Or, there may be a situation where the concert will be premiered to a selected audience only (the participants, or the participants and a few guests), and will be available to the wider public later on.
Also, the technicalities of the availability of the concert can vary: perhaps the concert premiere will be openly available on free access platforms such as YouTube or Vimeo. Or it will be publicly available on social media platforms that require registered accounts such as Instagram or Facebook. Or, maybe the concert will be accessed through a paid service such as Stage+[2] or a dedicated website such as the Royal Ballet and Opera Stream.[3] The presentation might also happen through a video-conference platform such as Zoom, where the audience will require a specific link in order to join the event.
The decision regarding the aimed audience and the type of access for the presentation will depend on the characteristics and specifications of the project. Also, in projects like music as an invitiation, it is possible, or even desirable, to decide with the participants who the online project will be available to and how it would be accessed. These decisions will also make an impact on the date and time of the event, and publicity tools and strategies, among other elements.
Regarding the date and time of the premiere, one option is to decide it in consultation with the participants. This option can be interesting to keep the democratic-horizontal style of leadership, if that is the approach of the project.
However, for a number of reasons, there are situations where it may be more realistic for the leader to decide on a date and time and simply inform the participants. In that case, it may be interesting to notice elements such as different time zones, as well as whether weekdays or weekends would be more suitable so that the participants could watch it remotely.
When presenting the concert, it may also be interesting to consider how the interaction with the remote audience will take place. This is an aspect that can make an impact on how the audience - both participants and other audience members - will feel connected and part of what is happening.[4] In our experience, featuring a welcoming message, either pre-recorded or spoken live, showed to be a helpful way of making the remote viewer feel included in the event, even though they are not present in the same space.
Also, several platforms offer the option of interaction via live chat, which can be a useful tool to engage with viewers, especially during premiere of pre-recorded material. In livestreaming situations, an option for interaction can be verbal acknowledgement and responses to comments placed in the live chat. In those situations where the performer is the same person responding to the live chat, it is important to have the equipment to access the live chat (computers and/or smartphones) set up in a way that will not disturb the performance itself. It is also helpful to practice the alternation between music performance and verbal interaction beforehand as if this dynamic was an artistic performance in itself.
[1]Georgina Born points out that ‘music animates imagined communities, aggregating its listeners into virtual collectivities or publics based on musical and other identifications’. BORN, Georgina (ed). 2013 Music, Sound and Space: Transformations of Public and Private Experience, Cambridge University Press. P. 32
[4]‘The feeling of always being connected to other people’ (Auslander 2008: 111) is the core of the definition of ‘liveness’, which was the central topic of the investigation of the project music as an invitation. AUSLANDER, P. (2008) “Live and Technologically Mediated Performance”, The Cambridge Companion to Performance Studies, T.C. Davis, ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 107-119.
Case study 1: music as an invitation (year 1: 2023-2024)
Following the horizontal dynamic that was established in the creative process of the first year of the project music as an invitation, most of the decisions about the delivery of the collaborative online concert were taken collectively with the participants.
Due to the institutional requirements, there was indeed a period deadline for me to present the online concert, as it was the artistic product of the first year of the project. In conversation with the participants, a date and time within that period was then decided.
The participants themselves had chosen to present the online concert as a YouTube premiere of a pre-recorded material they had developed collaboratively. It was also unanimous that they would like the premiere to be openly available to the public, as a moment to show their work to the world. To this, one of the participants volunteered to make a digital poster to be publicised through social media and email by all participants.
The sense of anticipation was enhanced by the intensification of actions in the weeks leading up to the premiere, when we had more workshops to work together on the final editing of the concert. I also sent email reminders to the participants in the week of the premiere.
During the concert, we were all connected and interacting via live chat, which indeed brought a sense of collective experience. The interaction on the live chat including other people who have not been involved in the creative process - in a sense they were our audience - also helped to create a sense of occasion among the participants.
Case study 2: Hecate writes / rsvp: piano, toy piano, electronics, and actions
For the delivery of the online concert of the second year of the music as an invitation project, a more top-down dynamic was needed. Considering how the second year of project unraveled, I made the decision that the piece Hecate writes - which had been developed with the teenage girl participants - would be premiered in an in-situ concert. This concert would be available for the participants to watch, as it was essential for the research to hear their feedback.
However, the decision whether the concert would be live-streamed or recorded and available afterwards was made through conversation with the participants.
Since there were several factors to be taken in account - availability of the venue and technical support, and research deadlines - I decided the date of the concert and communicated it to the participants. Fortunately, all of them confirmed to be available to join the livestream on that date, and to participate in a last online meeting on the following day to share feedback.
Aiming to build up a sense of ‘being part’ in the online viewers, I started the livestream from the moment when the in-situ audience was arriving at the venue. I thought then to evoke in the remote spectators the feelings of anticipation that emerge from the sounds, movements, and social interactions of the audience when occupying the performance room.
During the concert, since I could not access the live chat myself, I had help from the livestream technician, who interacted by posting welcoming and ending messages, as well as instructions for the participatory works and responses to questions from the remote audience.
I did make sure, however, to acknowledge the online viewers in my verbal communication throughout the concert. This included mentioning that some of the collaborators of Hecate writes were watching the concert remotely. I also aimed to encourage a continuous engagement of the online viewers by asking them to leave their feedback in the live chat, stating that I would read them later on.
Summarising the steps of ‘Delivering’ an online participatory concert:
- What type of material: live or pre-recorded?
- What type of presentation: premiere event or on-demand watch?
- What type of audience: limited audience or the wider public?
- What type of access: closed or open access?
- Setting the date and time: building up anticipation
- Presenting the concert: interaction - making the remote viewers feel close
