[ 16. September 2020 ]

DEGEM News – Call for Contributions (Online Conference): Classical Music and Opera During and After Lockdown: Strategic Realignment and a New Role for Streaming?

Von: Lepa, Steffen via ak discourse
Datum: Wed, 16 Sep 2020
Betreff: [ak-discourse] Call for Contributions (Online Conference): Classical Music and Opera During and After Lockdown: Strategic Realignment and a New Role for Streaming?

 

Call for contributions: Classical Music and Opera During and After Lockdown: Strategic Realignment and a New Role for Streaming?

 

A one-day online academic-industry conference of the SCMO network in cooperation with HMTM Hanover (Institute for Musicology) and TU Berlin (Audio Communication Group) on December 3rd, 2020 (PDF-Version of CfP attached)

 

The global Covid-19 pandemic, the resulting lockdown imposed in many countries, as well as related safety measures taken by governments and authorities pose big challenges to classical music culture. Concert producers, artists and audiences are still suffering intensely from the situation, whilst digital streaming of recorded or live music events has quickly turned out to be the only way to supply classical music enthusiasts and to provide a perspective for artists, musicians as well as opera and concert houses.

Shortly before lockdown, the successful kick-of meeting of the European “Streaming Classical Music and Opera” (SCMO) academic-industry collaboration network took place, with 14 participants from four different countries. Sixth months later, we are eager to continue and extend the fruitful discussion between classical music researchers and opera and concert producers regarding psychological, sociological, cultural and economic aspects that pertain the use of streaming technology in the field of classical music. Given the remaining travel restrictions and the unforeseeable further development of the pandemic with the upcoming winter months, we have decided for an online conference format.

 

In the initial part of a series of three consecutive online conferences planned for the upcoming months we will focus on the institutional perspective: Our call for contributions arrives at a point in time, when several European countries have already seen leases in pandemic-related concert prohibitions in terms of open-air concerts and indoor music events with reduced audience. Hence, streaming digital content is no longer the only way to reach the audience, however, a ‘normal’ public service is also still not possible for most institutions. Hence, we expect increasingly heterogeneric conditions for classical music performances across Europe together with an unclear future perspective for the whole field and, specifically, the role of streaming. At this time, we deem it fruitful to invite managers, producers and event organizers to share and discuss their experiences and current strategies amongst each other, as well as with researchers devoted to the institutional perspective in the field of classical music.

 

For December 3rd 2020, we therefore ask network members as well as externals for short 20min presentations on questions such as:

  • How do lockdowns and safety measures affect the work organization of opera and concert houses?
  • How do they alter marketing and advertising strategies for performances and streaming content?
  • How is the work of dramaturgs, the artist booking, and the repertoire influenced and changed?
  • How does the pandemic affect the offered aesthetic formats online and on stage?
  • Which new role does, specifically, streaming technology play in this time of transition?

 

While the SCMO network is centrally devoted to the topic of streaming, we strongly encourage to also submit contributions on related issues regarding to the overall conference theme of “strategic realignment due to the pandemic”. Presentation formats are not limited to scientific research reports, but can also be informal talks on in-house experiences, mission statements, video examples from performances, media reviews etc..

 

Proposals for individual contributions (20 minutes presentation time) should be submitted before October 15th 2020 toruth.mueller-lindenberg@hmtm-hannover.de

 

They should include presenter’s full name, country and institution, e-mail address, and presentation title. For academic research presentations we would like you to also include a short abstract of maximum 350 words. Apart from individual presentations and their discussion, the conference will also provide time slots for general discussions on central topics. Selected contributions of the conference series will be later published online in an academic outlet.

 

For more information and membership in the SCMO network, please contact hauke.egermann@york.ac.uk