Over the past couple of years, I have felt myself growing more and more disenchanted by concert life around me. Trying to put into words what exactly disturbs me about concerts, going to concerts and concert 'etiquette' isn't easy, the whole thing often just feels so false and unreal. For example, the process of going to a concert feels incredibly strange; that one should track down a concert ticket from an office, to then go and sit stiffly and in silence in a glamorous concert hall, watching musicians work hard for their bread and butter, and finally to bang our hands together in appreciation afterwards, regardless of if we even liked what we heard - this is so far removed from our real daily lives!
From a musician's point of view too, performing a concert can actually be a really weird thing if you think about it! We work for weeks and months on particular pieces of music, until finally the 'big night' arrives when we get all dressed up in fancy clothes, suddenly leave our comfy practice rooms and march ourselves on stage in a concert hall with an audience half full of mainly retired and old age listeners. When we finish playing, we bow to this audience, go home, and either congratulate ourselves for a job well done or beat ourselves up and hope that next time will be better.
I really started to think more about this whole concert business when I met my boyfriend who, as you probably know by now, is not a musician. We talked about the way classical concerts are, how one must behave at such concerts and why classical music has become such a stereotypical 'elitist' culture. He told me that if it wasn't for me he would never go to a classical concert because, firstly, he would have no idea what was on and when - which concert to go to, what was worth seeing and what not. Secondly, he wouldn't know where to get a ticket from (and not much interest in forking out for expensive tickets). And finally, because the idea of sitting uncomfortably, in silence in a hall listening to music that he didn't understand was not an appealing way to him to spend an evening. And I totally get his sentiment! I am sure that it is exactly because of these reasons that lots of young people do not venture to classical concerts and why classical music has been labelled such as it has; that it is only for well-educated, well-cultured, upper class, stiff-lipped people with money.
I know that these issues are nothing really new, and in lots of places people, who feel the same as I do, are trying to combat them - in the States in particular, where music feels so progressive (much more so than in our traditional European societies), and where so many new concert initiatives and concepts are being introduced all the time. One idea that has seemed really popular and successful is that of a living room concert. Instead of going to see concerts at the big, inaccessible concert halls, musicians are hosting concerts in their own homes, where anyone can come and listen and feel much more personally involved with the performers.
I decided to get on this train and host my own living room concert in my apartment! A few things stood out to me right away as being really important; first, I wanted to perform a mixture of music from different styles and genres, but everything that I would play would be GREAT music and stuff that I would normally play in any fancy concert - I wasn't going to cheat here. Next, I really wanted to have a young audience, people from all different fields and walks of life, who might never go to to a classical concert but were, nevertheless, interested in hearing a violin concert! Finally, I wanted my concert to be really relaxed and chilled, where the audience could get really comfortable, drink a beer, get to know new music and new people and generally have a fantastic evening.
I decided to play a few different movements of solo Bach, from the solo violin Sonatas and Partitas, as well as some new pieces that I have been working on from S. Eckhardt-Gramatte (see my post on this composer here!). Some friends of mine also performed some really cool Polish songs and even a Radiohead cover, and we threw in a couple of classics all together which went down great! Because of the intimate setting, we were able to talk to our small audience about what the music was about and where it came from and I think this was such a great aspect of the evening - that the audience could really get to know and understand music that they might not have heard of.
A lovely bunch of people came to the concert, everyone brought some beer or wine, and everybody just relaxed and enjoyed the music! It struck me that the living room concert works from both angles - it's enjoyable and accessible for audiences and it is much more natural for the performers too, as we can feel much more connected to our audience, and performing in our living room in front of a few people is much closer to practising by ourselves than jumping straight into a huge concert hall. Actually, if you think about it, lots of music that we play, like small chamber music and sonatas and pieces, were written to be played in a small room and not in a big hall at all.
This was just my first living room concert, and already I have the date of the next one planned in my diary! My aim is to really cultivate this special series, have some other different musicians play, expand my audience, maybe even try out playing in some different spaces too. Of course musicians have to earn money, but I really want to keep this series strictly no tickets required, so my idea is to simply ask people for a donation of 10 Euros or so on the door, which will go directly to the musicians. This is an event where music, getting to know wonderful music and hearing great performers play is what is important, and not what you wear or how much you spent on a ticket or who else is happens to be there.
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