ULYSSES Network – MID-TERM MEETING in Milano (IT)

On 27th and 28th February 2015, the ULYSSES Network partners will come together for a mid-term meeting in Milano, upon invitation by Divertimento Ensemble.

The meeting will allow the partners to discuss
# their ongoing and upcoming artistic cooperations and projects for 2015 and 2016,

# a future application to the European Commission in order to continue the network’s cooperation above April 2016,

# issues of audience building and development.

The first day of the meeting, Friday 27th February will be public (upon registration, see flyer below) and particularly dedicated to the discussion of the issue of Audience Building for New Music.

For that discussion, the ULYSSES Network, in cooperation with the Divertimento Ensemble, has invited several European experts and guest speakers. We are looking forward to an exciting exchange of experiences and knowledge – feel free to join!

DETAILED PROGRAMME

10.00 Reception and registration of attendees

10.30 Sandro Gorli (Divertimento Ensemble)

Welcome and greetings

11.00 Filippo Del Corno (Councillor for Culture City of Milan)

An ecosystem for contemporary music

Building an audience for contemporary music has always been a critical issue because composers have rarely considered their dependence to an audience. The issue of how to build an audience for contemporary music for the city of Milan is today a crucial need. The presentation will focus on the role played by an ecosystem for contemporary music in which different experiences together may all contribute to creating a fertile breeding ground to develop creativity and to spread new music to a new audience in Milan.

11.15 Luisella Molina in representation of Francesca Colombo

(Secretary-General and Artistic Coordinator Festival MITO SettembreMusica, Italy)

Strategies and proposals for the promotion of the appreciation of contemporary music. A case in point: The MITO SettembreMusica Music Festival

Since its first edition, one of MITO SettembreMusica’s primary objectives has been the diffusion and the promotion of contemporary music to large audiences. Each year the Festival offers a special focus on two contemporary composers: two musical portraits featuring a cycle of concerts – many with free admission, others with super affordable tickets – and panel discussions with the artists. It’s a great way for both fans and the less adept to get in touch with the music of today.

11.30 Achim Müller (Center for Audience Development Freie Universität Berlin, Germany)

What relates People to New Music? This impulse will start on empirical result about audiences for New Music and about motives that make people want to experience New Music – and what might keep them from doing so. Specifically, audiences for New Music are compared to other genres in order to develop a preliminary audience profile for New Music. Selected state-of-the-art strategies in audience development are presented and discussed in the light of the audience profile established before.

12.30 Thomas Demidoff (New Music : New Audiences, European network)

Getting bigger audiences through new concert forms

These years more and more musicians are experimenting with new concert forms as a tool to win a bigger audience. As the traditional classical concert form is seen as alienating by modern people, perhaps the solution is to renew the whole concert concept. But does it work? New Music: New Audiences is an EU project where 32 ensembles are cooperating in their effort to define tomorrow’s concert form. In this speech project manager Thomas Demidoff will present what has been learned from it.

13.30 lunch break

14.30 Jutta Toelle (Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Germania)

Scientific perspectives on audience research

The question what actually happens during a concert is at the heart of the MPIEA’s project in „concert research“. Cooperating with different institutions and ensembles, we investigate the aesthetic experience of musicians and audiences during a concert. While we apply various methods for collecting empirical data before, during, and after the concert, we accompany and also plan experimental concerts, systematically modifying different components in order to know more about today’s musicians and audiences.

15.30 free discussion

After the meeting, the ULYSSES Network partners, guest speakers and other persons attending the discussions, will have the opportunity to listen to a concert performed by Divertimento Ensemble at Teatro Litta, at 21:00.

During this concert, pieces that have been premiered during the International Workshop for young composers 2014 in Mazsalaca (LV) will be presented again to a new audience.

More information and detailed program here.