Random access: simple but cool technologies for audience communication. (Professional Resources).

The concert hall is buzzing with excitement as the audience enters. Suddenly the lights flash, and there is a mad scramble as the latecomers rush to their seats. A minute later, the lights begin to dim ... and a hush comes over the crowd. For a brief moment, the twinkle of dozens of cell phones cuts throughout the darkness only to disappear quickly as these devices are turned off and put away.

The evening's program features architecturally intriguing works of Bach and Beethoven and concludes with an extended, difficult work of a late romantic master. The audience is prepared for music that pulls at the heartstrings and challenges the intellect.

Two hours later, the last note of the concluding work is met with thunderous applause. Yes, everyone's expectations have been met and exceeded. It has been a magical evening, indeed.

Fact or Fiction?

Does the foregoing scenario describe the typical concert you or your students give? Do you regularly attend concerts of this nature?

Concerts, like the one described, do take place, but usually in a few major cities and other intellectual centers, such as certain university towns. Performers who can attract and inspire large audiences on a regular basis with a classical program, however, are relatively rare these days.

I should note that I do not necessarily believe one's success as a performer should be measured by the size of one's audience or by the decibel level of the applause. However, it is interesting to ask a few questions:

* How can a classical artist attract an audience and build a constituency?

* How does one effectively communicate artistry to a group of strangers?

* Are there some modern tools or new technologies that can assist the performing artist with reaching the potential audience?

Musical Performance as a Mode of Communication

Many young, aspiring performers spend their early years working on music mastery, hoping they will attract and move audiences with their artistry. Their successful early performance experiences--often for audiences comprised of their familiar teachers, family and friends--fuel these ambitions.

A big problem, though, for the young classical artist is that modern audiences, comprised of strangers, are not as easy to reach. A large percentage of our population is simply very interested in the classical music of the past or the so-called art music of the present. There is a huge, intellectual gulf between the music that draws crowds to the modern rock concert and the standard fare comprising the classical recital.

If we compare the rock concert and the classical recital, we can certainly find many of the same ingredients.

There also are some significant differences between the two. In the rock concert, many extra-musical elements add to the total experience, such as the lighting, sound system, costumes and movement of the musicians on stage. In a classical concert, these elements generally constitute a minor part of the total experience.

Classical concerts usually involve music that is intellectually challenging for the listener.

Many aspects of a classical program pose both an interpretive challenge for the performer, as well as a listening challenge for the audience. How many people can really listen to a concert and be moved by the performance without a prior musical education? How many potential, twenty-first-century concertgoers have this prior musical knowledge?

Reaching Out to Today's Audiences

Obviously, when audiences are well educated musically, it is easier for a classical performer to attract appreciative listeners. In my earlier example, the audience was prepared: It had a pre-existing excitement for both the performer and the music.

When audiences are not as well educated and the performer is not known and loved, the classical performer must either be satisfied with small audiences and few performing opportunities, or the performer must work harder to bridge the musical gulf with the potential concert-going public.

One strategy, of course, would be for a performer to take a more theatrical approach and incorporate entertainment elements typically found in the public performances of other musical genres. For many, though, this might seem to compromise the dignity of the art.

Another approach is to create a personal rapport with a strange audience and quickly educate that audience during the actual concert.

The traditional way of educating an audience is to provide program notes, a useful but sterile idea. An even better way--and a way that helps establish that crucial personal connection from the beginning--is to talk to the audience:

* Introduce yourself.

* Introduce the music and its composer. * Discuss the nature of the work and the culture it embodies.

* Make use of visual images that clarify the points you wish to make.

* Tell a story, if appropriate.

Assistive Technologies 

Most of us are not trained to address a large group of people. Fortunately, we have simple and effective technologies that can assist us: namely, a microphone and speakers.

When performing in a large venue, I have found a wireless, lapel microphone to be an incredibly helpful tool. Pinned onto the front of one's garment, the wireless microphone is unobtrusive and enables the performer both to speak in a comfortable manner and move freely about the stage. There are just two things that need to concern you when using a wireless microphone: Remember to turn it on before you speak and turn it off before you play. Both tasks are easy and can be done subtly.

As you prepare your remarks, consider that many people are aural learners, while others are visual learners. Often, the presentation of simple images, diagrams or paintings can assist you with getting your points across effectively.

Let me give you an example. In college, I became fascinated with Robert Schumann's great Opus 9, otherwise known as Carnaval. Like many works of the nineteenth century, this particular work is programmatic in nature. Amazingly, Schumann found a way to paint, in music, an incredibly detailed series of vignettes that trace the romantic evening of two potential lovers attending a masquerade ball.

In once sense, the music stands alone. Schumann certainly fulfilled his musical goals. However, people of Schumann's time--who were familiar with the Mardi Gras festivities as they were celebrated in early nineteenth-century Europe--had a major advantage over modern audiences: They already had a context for receiving and understanding the work.

After first learning this piece in the 1970s, I revisited the music in the 1980s and took the time to further research the implied imagery. With the assistance of an art historian, I put together a slide show of paintings depicting a possible interpretation for each of the twenty-one scenes comprising this work.

Audiences responded quite well if I first discussed the piece and displayed the artwork, then performed the music while simultaneously displaying the artwork a second time. The technology I used was a simple slide projector operated by an assistant.

In the late 1990s, I replaced the slide projector with a computer running Microsoft PowerPoint. Not only did PowerPoint make it easy to assemble and display the visual material, the software also offered choices for subtle and tasteful visual transitions between images.

I decided to handle the presentation of the images myself during the performance. Although it seemed a bit odd at first, I got used to the idea of performing with a laptop computer sitting on top of the piano. In addition, I had to develop one new performance technique: the ability to reach up to the computer in the middle of playing and quickly swat the computer's spacebar to advance the visual display to the next image.

My ultimate goal was to find a way to play the piano and automate the entire process of projecting and changing the visual images. Eventually, I came across a little-known software program called Arkaos VJ (www.arkaos.com). This is a presentation program controllable with MIDI input.

Now that I have Arkaos, my current manner of displaying the visual images is to play on a piano that has MIDI output. I use a score-following program that tracks my progress as I play and tells Arkaos when it is time to advance the images.

I am not alone in taking such an approach to controlling visual images during live performance. Others have done similar things using a musical programming language called Max and a programmable multimedia program called Director.

Obviously, controlling multimedia elements during live performance adds another layer of obligation on top of the performer's already heavy burden. However, it can be a lot of fun and actually can contribute positively to the performer's concert experience.

Reconceiving the Traditional Recital

There are many similar ways to redefine the traditional recital concept and establish a quick and effective rapport with an audience. Modern technologies have placed a number of powerful but usable resources into our hands that make it possible for us to communicate our vast musical training to audiences in ways we have not previously imagined. If we, as performers and teachers, want to preserve and extend our classical heritage and build new audiences for the art music of our own time, we have many new and powerful tools to assist us in this noble effort.

--George F. Litterst, Rehoboth, Massachusetts He is a pianist, music educator and co-developer of the score-following software program Home Concert 2000.