Guest Lecture & Book Launch: Audience Experience and Contemporary Classical Music

What does newly composed music sound like from the audience’s perspective? What do people value about their interactions with live contemporary classical music? And what can alternative formats or forms of audience participation bring to these experiences?

This talk will introduce a new publication that explores these and similar questions - the first large-scale audience experience study on contemporary classical music. Drawing on data collected across ten European countries, the book makes contributions to future discussions on audience diversity and accessibility. Contemporary classical music is analysed as a ‘high art subculture’ rife with contradictions and conflicts around its cultural value. At the event, Gina Emerson will present insights and ideas from the publication and come into conversation with members of the collective gather (formerly FEM_MUSIC_), which is based at the music faculty of the UdK.

Book on Routledge's website: www.routledge.com/Audience-Experience-and-Contemporary-Classical-Music-Negotiating-the-Experimental/Emerson/p/book/9780367696818

Dr. Gina Emerson is a musicologist, project manager and curator. Her research explores and connects the topics of audience experience, sustainability, cultural participation and the use of new technologies in art music contexts. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the IASS Potsdam in the Art-Science Cooperations for Sustainability group. Since 2020, she has been a board member in the BGNM (Berlin Society for New Music) collective. Her first monograph, Audience Experience and Contemporary Classical Music, will be published by Routledge in March 2023.