Music / News
Research concerts assess the power of live music
Music is a craft that performers dedicate their lives to and avid fans spend countless hours and pounds on. But with the digital age in full swing, live venues and performances are in direct competition with streaming platforms and virtual events.
Music is now available for free whenever and wherever fans want, to be heard or viewed on screen via the click of a button. So is the extra effort and expense it takes to see performers in the flesh really worth it?
Or, as St George’s Bristol put it, “What is so special about coming together to experience live music, and how do our minds and bodies respond to it?”
is needed now More than ever
The concert hall is attempting to answer that question, teaming up with a technology outfit to undertake empirical research into the physical effects the experience of live music has on both performers and audiences.
The award-winning piano trio Mithras will perform a classical repertoire at the first of St George’s two research concerts – photo: Alex Coman
In a pioneering south west-led collaboration they’ve joined forces with MyWorld, creative technology specialists that bridge industry and academia to forge a space where engineering and art can meet and interact.
The company has previously partnered with Watershed, the University of Bristol, UWE Bristol, Aardman and Bristol Old Vic.
The St George’s x MyWorld interactive research concerts will use monitors to measure the heartrate of audience and band members, and will gather listeners’ perspectives with a post-concert survey.
Audience members wearing heartrate monitors will be assigned to a seat either in the concert hall or in a room where a livestream of the performance will be broadcast. The data from each cohort will then be gathered and compared, in a first step towards identifying any potential added value of watching music live.
The first of the two concerts, taking place on Thursday and Friday, features the Mithras Trio playing Haydn, Shostakovich and the Piazzolla Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas.
The second showcases Bristol contemporary piano trio Yetii, an outfit that built its reputation with a monthly residency at the Greenbank pub in Easton and has gone on to perform at jazz festivals across the country.
“We’re really excited to bring our brand new compositions alongside some classical arrangements,” said band leader Alex Veitch of their plans for the concert. “Yetii are so delighted to be part of this exciting research project, and look forward to sharing our music with the community at St George’s!”
Main image: Eoghan McDonaugh
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