Hiding the mechanics and avoiding dead air: Designing a seamless, innovative and captivating WAAPA Music Gala performance
Author Identifier
Tim White: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6620-3474
Document Type
Original Creative Work
School
Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts
RAS ID
70309
Abstract
Multi-ensemble musical performances are notoriously disjointed: marred by awkward silences, dead air, technical glitches, and aesthetic dissonances.
This research involved the interrogation of curation and music direction pathways to adopt new performance practices to produce a coherent, seamless and satisfying flow for WAAPA’s 2023 Music Gala Showcase. In addition this program included seven new works which adds complexity to the music direction. These works had at this time been untried and untested in a full program to challenge and innovate further. Drawing on the experimentation of the film Russian Ark by director Alexandre Sokurov (well-known for its innovation of a one-take single 87-minute camera shot), and informed by the work of performance artists Stephanie Richards and Claire Chase, White designed, curated, directed and compéred a single unbroken kaleidoscopic 95-minute 285-performer musical experience in the Perth Concert Hall.
Additional Information
A curated performance program of 19 musical works, 7 world premieres, 240 performers, total duration 95 minutes, total live audience of 1,750.
Metadata record only
Comments
White, T. (2023). Hiding the mechanics and avoiding dead air: Designing a seamless, innovative and captivating. WAAPA Music Gala performance. [Musical Performance]. Perth Concert Hall.