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Today was a day of outreach concerts for the local symphony orchestra in the retirement and nursing homes of Canberra. I know that there are many "professional" musicians that hate doing this stuff, and they can do a half-arsed job just doing it for the money... but I really enjoy doing outreach concerts in aged care, hospitals, and schools. Obviously, there is the selfish aspect of doing it to hopefully increase community awareness and support of classical music in general...

... but there is something quite joyful about presenting a casual concert with good musicians and good music in front of an appreciative audience that might no longer have the ability to get to their own concerts on their own steam. Generally, the concerts take the form of a talk and play... so the musicians are chatting with the audience members, and then presenting the music as well. It is an informal sort of setting, but one that I enjoy much more than the sort of stiff and formal atmosphere of the "classical" concert stage.

... of course, sometimes you end up telling or hearing some "interesting" things... for instance, I'm not sure what my fellow musicians (or the audience members... ) thought of me describing Pisendel as the most "kick-arse violinist of the Baroque era"!... yep, when I talk in front of an audience, I sort of talk a bit like a write... a bit rambling, and hellishly informal... I'm not a swearing sort of person, but I'm definitely not really one who likes using big words and academic language!

Just like teaching Maths and Physics... rough scrawls and talk of blobs and stuff!

Anyway, today was quite an interesting one... we rehearsed in the morning, before heading off to do the two concerts. The first one went quite well... but the second was full of challenges! Unknown to us, the aged care provider (marketing team...) had decided to swap us to a different location... and you would think that telling the musicians that are presenting the concert would be a sort of useful thing to do.

But no, they didn't... as long as middle management got the memo, I guess that their job was done! So, everyone knew... except for the performers! We arrived, and we were told to go to another campus! Sigh...

... and then I got a message saying that I had left my music at the first concert location, which was too far to go... especially as we were now late, and needing to hurry to the second concert location!

At least my colleague had scores...

So... we arrived, and we both played up the idea that the other campus had tried to steal their concert... which oddly got a few laughs. Perhaps aged care campuses are a bit like team sports... or maybe like motorbike gangs, they are in perpetual competition against each other?

Anyway... there is something quite nice about presenting the concerts, answering some questions about ourselves (yes, this is our job... that we earn money from... and no, we don't have another job...)... and just having a bit of a laugh and banter with the braver members of the audience! I really think that this is the essence of music-making... this sort of casual and intimate performing atmosphere where the audience and performers are in close proximity and able to interact directly with each other...

... this is in stark contrast to the large concert halls that we normally play in... where there is so much distance and a psychological barrier between performers and audience. Those are the sorts of things that I really think is killing classical music... the idea that we are aloof and so distant from our supporters and community.

Of course, those large events are the ones that earn the most money... pack the most amount of butts on seats at the one time, in order to maximise money for performances. It really is a bit of an economic calculation as much as anything else. That said, there is also something quite special about one of those concerts... the idea of creating a special atmosphere for a special night out or something like that...

... but we musicians really need to get over ourselves, and realise that that is only one form of music-making, and that we shouldn't consider ourselves "too good" to do other more informal sorts of concerts. I really wish that more of my colleagues would think the same... as it is also quite refreshing for myself, I find myself recharged with new energy after doing these outreach concerts... and I think that is a great way to still stay fresh in mind and open to new influences and creativity!

So, I think I will always be putting up my hand for these sorts of things... partly for the audience fulfilment, but more selfishly... because I like doing it, and I find that it recharges my energy and enthusiasm! Too many "serious" concerts makes one a dull musician!

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