SCMO-Academic-Industry Network Symposium: Audience Research on Digital Classical Concerts and Performances

A one-day academic-industry online symposium of the Streaming Classical Music and Opera (SCMO) network in cooperation with University of York (York Music Psychology Group), TU Dortmund (Institute for Music and Musicology), and TU Berlin (Audio Communication Group).

The global Covid-19 pandemic, the resulting lockdown imposed in many countries, as well as related safety measures taken by governments and authorities have posed big challenges to classical music culture. Concert producers, artists and audiences are still suffering intensely from the situation, whilst digital streaming of recorded or live music events has quickly turned out to be a new way to supply classical music enthusiasts and to provide way to reach audiences for musicians as well as opera and concert houses.

Shortly before lockdown, in March 2020 the successful kick-of meeting of the European “Streaming Classical Music and Opera” (SCMO) academic-industry collaboration network took place, with 14 participants from four different countries. Nine months later, we arranged a subsequent meeting in December 2020 that focused on the institutional perspective that continued and extended the fruitful discussion between classical music researchers and opera and concert producers regarding psychological, sociological, cultural and economic aspects that pertain to the use of streaming technology in the field of classical music.

We have now organised a follow-up symposium on 15 October 2021 that focusses on the audience perspective on digital concert and performance productions. We would like to invite network members, external researchers, and institutional practitioners to contribute to this event by presenting their research and experiences with audiences of digital offerings for classical concerts and opera performances.