BY SAMUEL COTTELL
In the past few years, there has been much discussion about a crisis in classical music, particularly for orchestras. This crisis appears to be related to the fact that many orchestral players aren’t being afforded the opportunities needed to carve out a career and audiences are growing tired of the standard concert hall approach to live performance. Enter the Australian Discovery Orchestra – a symphony orchestra offering non-full-time orchestral musicians the opportunity to perform in a professional group, but with a twist.
ADO won’t be performing to live audiences but are instead set to stream concerts to listeners across all different parts of Australia and the world. The first live-streamed event will take place in May. If you’re an orchestral musician who isn’t working full time in a major orchestra, you’re invited to jump on board in ADO’s attempt to reach new audiences and grow opportunities for classical musicians.
“The Mission of the ADO is to increase the opportunities for highly-skilled Australian orchestral musicians who do not play full time in a professional orchestra but possess skills of a comparable standard to do so,” artistic director Janine Hanrahan says. “The ADO was born out of the very real need to create ongoing performance opportunities for the many talented, orchestra-trained musicians who, for myriad reasons, are deprived of access to performing at a level commensurate with their collective abilities.”
“The real issue to manage in terms of breaking down barriers to participation in the orchestral music experience is to partly redeploy it across multiple platforms, so you can capture the audience you need [regardless of] where they live.”
Up to 68 musicians will perform a 50 minute concert, live-streamed in a multi-camera environment. Janine says the ADO’s concerts don’t follow the traditional structures of “overture, concerto, and symphony – we feel that it is time for the concert format to undergo an overhaul”.
“This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how we can present music, associated entertainment elements, education and social interaction opportunities. When you combine all these elements in one package, orchestral events start to take on a whole other look and feel. We’re pretty excited with what we have planned for our inaugural 2016 season,” Janine says.
Janine reflects on a concern for the future of classical music, which is shared by many orchestras: “The big question they are grappling with, or are primarily concerned with, is how to maintain their existing audiences yet simultaneously create new audiences for coming generations”.
“Although there are no easy answers, most orchestras have reached the point of understanding that something has to change. To initiate change, orchestras must develop new ways of engaging with audiences and sustaining this engagement both prior to and after concerts. Frankly, we believe there is a real paucity of understanding in orchestra organization in how to drive this innovation practice. So one of our other reasons for forming the ADO is to lead with new ideas on how this innovation might look.”
Even if there are struggles, Janine insists “there is nothing wrong at all with classical music”.
“The music itself is not the barrier. It is the edifices of elitism and snobbery that have been built up around the music that has created a level of disinterest and unwillingness in people to experience it.”
This stigma is easily avoided in the home, and with live-streaming from HD cameras, additional layers can be added to the concert that simply can’t be experienced live. Further, we can listen and watch the Berlin Philharmonic without travelling to Berlin, or the Detroit Symphony without a journey to the United States. But it’s not without logistical challenges, and while the ADO is avoiding ticketing, venue management, and traditional marketing issues, there are other aspects to consider to ensure a successful performance.
“It’s more like a video production with a shooting script and a camera director, as well as the preparation of video packages for our advertisers and sponsors. In addition, the overlay of real-time social media interactions requires a significant amount of pre-planning,” Janine explains.
“The problem with streaming for everyone – including us – is that we end up dictating the visual element to listeners and, in doing so, we run the risk of subverting the audio experience of listening to the music.”
The choice of music might also be an effective means of breaking down barriers, and repertoire that major orchestras often divide into series such as ‘Masterworks’ or ‘Pop’ can be combined into one concert with the ADO. “Of course, it also helps that our artistic director and principal conductor is one of the world’s most sought after orchestral arrangers [Kevin Purcell], so he can create anything we decide to do,” Janine outlines excitedly. “In fact, he told me about an idea he has for our 2017 season the other day which re-imagines ’80s superstar rock-band Toto’s songs as full symphonic treatments. I’m not sure we’ll do that in the end, but it’s fascinating to think about. The players would love it!”
The ADO will launch its first live stream concert on May 29, presenting the world premiere of the newly revised version of fine Australian composer Brenton Broadstock’s ‘Concerto For Orchestra: Made in Heaven’, an homage and symphonic metamorphosis to the iconic 1959 jazz recording ‘Kind of Blue’; and Tchaikovsky’s ‘Francesca da Rimini: Symphonic Fantasy after Dante’, Op. 32. This will be followed by a second concert featuring Ivor Gurney’s sublime ‘A Gloucestershire Rhapsody’, followed by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs’s heart-wrenching Symphony No. 3 ‘West Moreland’ Op. 104.
So how can you get involved? “Any orchestral musician who is not working full-time in a major orchestra is able to apply. They simply fill in an expression-of-interest form on our website and they receive an email with the link to our online audition platform. Auditions must be submitted at the very latest by 29 January 2016. Early submission is encouraged,” Janine says.
What does the future hold for ADO? “The most important short term goal is to get the message to all orchestral players that this performance opportunity does exist. Australia has much talent to offer and we want to highlight and promote that talent to a global audience,” Janine says.
For further information visit www.australiandiscoveryorchestra.com and to apply visit http://australiandiscoveryorchestra.com/online-application/
Image supplied.
