course

The Musical Online Salon is a concert and discussion event on contemporary music that lasts around an hour and focuses on a single work. The discussion takes place in conference software and is open to everyone who wants to participate. At the same time, this discussion will be streamed as a low-threshold offer for those who just want to listen or don't want to expose themselves as one would in the conference. A change in both directions is possible at any time.

At the beginning there is a short excerpt from the respective work, followed by an impulse contribution from a guest. In the case of more recent works, especially the three world premieres (two of which were commissioned as part of the project), which are scheduled for 2022, this is the composer. For each of the older works it's a speaker who has expertise in a field related to the piece. After this double impulse at the beginning, the discussion is open. At the end there is a performance of the whole piece.

One week before the event, I will publish a video about the piece. In it you will hear a small excerpt from the work, combined with more private commentaries.

The concept of the musical online salon has already proven itself from January to May 2021. In contrast to a classic event, it offers the advantage of internationality and low-threshold accessibility/participation. Due to the possibility of active participation and the fact that it is an original online event, the Musical Online Salon sets itself apart from offers that transfer art purely from the analog to the digital space. Therefore, regardless of the question of whether or not public cultural events are possible due to Corona, it will continue to be held in this form.

The internationality of online events has consequences for the language: With all composers the basic language will be English, with German-speaking guests German. I am happy to translate in both directions upon request.

background

In April 2020 I played my first solo live streaming concert at the beginning of the first lockdown, which was followed by two more until September (see my homepage). The advantages of online events are obvious: they are corona-safe, accessible from all over the world and easy to reach. For online concerts, however, there are two major disadvantages: The sound is never like in a real concert. There is not much you can do about this (especially because it depends heavily on the listeners device), the aspect of space (and its sound) that is so important in the concert hall cannot be reproduced with loudspeakers. Secondly, online communication between the audience and the composer/interpreter is lacking. This is where the Musikalischer Online-Salon comes in. Concentrating on a single work, it enables people to talk about music online and across regions.