Axel Petri-Preis (mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna) and Constanze Wimmer (University of Music and Performing Arts Graz – KUG) organise the online conference “Rethinking Classical Music Practice: Audience and Community Engagement in Classical Concert Life”. It will take place on 25-27 November and simultaneous interpretation German ⇔ English will be provided.
The conference is based on international studies which have shown that only 5-15% of the population in Europe and the US regularly attend classical concerts. The average concertgoer is white, 55+, affluent and well-educated. These statistics show that classical concerts not only have been but still are places of and occasions for distinction and bourgeois self-assurance and that they do not attract a large portion of people in today’s diverse late modern society. For economic and cultural-political reasons, and even more in the light of the current Corona pandemic, music institutions and their actors have to think of new ways to attract audiences and to stay relevant to all communities. Audience and Community Engagement are therefore key concepts for the classical concert life of the 21st century.
At the conference “Rethinking Classical Music Practice: Audience and Community Engagement in Classical Concert Life” it will be discussed what are the opportunities, goals and obstacles for both audience and community engagement on an international level.
The conference is a cooperation between mica – music austria and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.
