For a ‘Dramaturgy of the Piano Recital’ – an investigation of interdisciplinary strategies for live classical piano performances

This research investigates interdisciplinary strategies for live classical piano performances. The questions which initiated this research emerged from my practice as a classical pianist, and they are concerned, in particular, with the space of the performance, the formalities of the concert etiquette, and the format of the presentations themselves. Although the conventions of the concert hall and the respective idea of music alone have been widely established since the mid-nineteenth century, the understanding of music as an intrinsically multimedia experience has been increasingly explored in contemporary academic and artistic works. This research aims to contribute to this context by exploring the idea of dramaturgy in the development of interdisciplinary piano performances as comprehensive art works, and by offering alternative ways to engage audiences in classical music performances. To this end, experimental piano performances have been devised to investigate the topics: (1) interdisciplinary dialogues within musical performances; (2) alternative strategies for the space of the performance and for the engagement of audiences; (3) application of concepts of dramaturgy and narrative to interdisciplinary piano performance. Theoretical and practical works in the fields of music performance, theatre and dance have been examined in order to contextualise this study. Findings have been drawn from a reflection-in-action process, which was supported by audience feedback and included considerations on my experience as author and performer, and discussions on the literature review. The outcome of this research shows that interdisciplinary works can demonstrate innovative strategies, introducing new audiences to classical music - to contemporary classical repertoires in particular - and offering fresher ways of engagement to experienced spectators. Ultimately, this research contribution to the classical music field consists of offering new insights for the format of live music performances, new parameters for the classical pianist’s practice, and the introduction of the concept of an artform recital

The Impact of Expanded, Multimodal Applications during a German Lied Performance

This study explored the impact of adaptive methods and modalities in Art Song performance in connecting with adult audiences (aged 18 and older) as explored through a live performance of German Lieder. In addition, this study sought to contribute a qualitative experimental study of in-situ audience perception to an emerging field of practice and research regarding the innovative practices in Art Song performance (e.g. Art Song Theatre). The study was derived from a 2012 informal experiment by Professor Rena Sharon, a leading advocate of expanded Art Song performance practice and pedagogy. Specifically, a single English Art Song was performed in three different treatments: traditional, expanded traditional, and theatrical contextualization. The data helped illustrate a difference in performer interpretation and audience comprehension, confirming a stronger affiliation to the more expansive treatments over the more normative one. Inspired by the anecdotal report of this experiment, the current study compared three gestural versions of Art Song performance, similar to the previously mentioned, on a larger scale (i.e. a German song cycle) and recorded the data through more extensive and systematic data collection before three distinct audiences, categorized according to level of prior classical music training and/or familiarity with Art Song. The conclusions observed provide further context on the effectiveness of innovative performance practices within classical music, such as Art Song Theatre, as well as suggest a set of parameters when putting forth a classical music performance – specifically that of Art Song/German Lied – for present-day audiences

The Entanglement: Volumetric Music Performances in a Virtual Metaverse Environment

Telematic music performances are an established performance practice in contemporary music. Performing music pieces with geographically distributed musicians is both a technological challenge and an artistic one. These challenges and the resulting possibilities can lead to innovative aesthetic realizations. This paper presents the implementation and realization of “The Entanglement,” a telematic concert performance in a metaverse environment. The system is realized using web-based frameworks to implement a platform-independent online multi-user environment with volumetric, three- dimensional, streaming of audio and video. This allows live performance of this improvisation piece based on an algorithmic quantum computer composition within a freely explorational virtual environment. We describe the development and realization of the piece and metaverse environment, as well as its artistic and conceptual contextualization

Musical Haptics

Haptic Musical Instruments; Haptic Psychophysics; Interface Design and Evaluation; User Experience; Musical Performanc

Musical Haptics

Haptic Musical Instruments; Haptic Psychophysics; Interface Design and Evaluation; User Experience; Musical Performanc

Pathway to Future Symbiotic Creativity

This report presents a comprehensive view of our vision on the development path of the human-machine symbiotic art creation. We propose a classification of the creative system with a hierarchy of 5 classes, showing the pathway of creativity evolving from a mimic-human artist (Turing Artists) to a Machine artist in its own right. We begin with an overview of the limitations of the Turing Artists then focus on the top two-level systems, Machine Artists, emphasizing machine-human communication in art creation. In art creation, it is necessary for machines to understand humans' mental states, including desires, appreciation, and emotions, humans also need to understand machines' creative capabilities and limitations. The rapid development of immersive environment and further evolution into the new concept of metaverse enable symbiotic art creation through unprecedented flexibility of bi-directional communication between artists and art manifestation environments. By examining the latest sensor and XR technologies, we illustrate the novel way for art data collection to constitute the base of a new form of human-machine bidirectional communication and understanding in art creation. Based on such communication and understanding mechanisms, we propose a novel framework for building future Machine artists, which comes with the philosophy that a human-compatible AI system should be based on the "human-in-the-loop" principle rather than the traditional "end-to-end" dogma. By proposing a new form of inverse reinforcement learning model, we outline the platform design of machine artists, demonstrate its functions and showcase some examples of technologies we have developed. We also provide a systematic exposition of the ecosystem for AI-based symbiotic art form and community with an economic model built on NFT technology. Ethical issues for the development of machine artists are also discussed