Day 19: Transient [Part 3 of 3]

…What would a third tier concert design feature?

Co-creation

What a magical word! This is without doubt, the very next step that we will take in our concert design and company structure. While 99.9% of the classical music world is happily fossilized in a tier 1 performance design focused on preservation, we will rise to a tier 3 design in the next couple of years.

Our rise to a tier 3 concert design will further our love for our audiences by giving them active roles in the production of every performance. Music, visuals, and technology will be designed to optimize their experience and the amount of contribution to the final product.

One example would be a piece in which the audience is a choir and they are led by musicians onstage. What if audiences knew our songs before they even walked through the concert hall door and were coming to actually sing, dance, experience, help create our concert? What if the concert were in multiple rooms that forced the audience to travel through a building and view each performance as a journey or story?

This would be real communication – real music – real art.

Are there examples of other industries using Co-creation?

Not only are other industries using co-creation, but they are driving our culture of globalization through this 1 magical word. Every industry which is growing and impacting culture is being driven by co-creation.

Do you have examples?

Wikipedia
Facebook
Twitter
Amazon (marketplace)
Apple (Apps)
American Idol
Crowd-funding (KickStarter, IndieGoGo)
Etsy
Youtube

All of these companies and more are using people or companies who use their platform to create the actual material on the platform. This is the engine of Generation Y, also known as “Generation Me”. Today’s culture empowers people to help create the world around them. What would happen if people stopped creating the constant flow of material? The platform would exist, but it would be a victim of instant desertification and be a barren container left on the shelf – that’s what classical music is today. Someone must lead what’s left of our industry from a tier 1 concert design of dictatorship to a tier 3 design of co-creation.

As we continue to question our definitions, traditions, and beliefs about classical music we must believe that through change we can always be better. That is the only truth in life – change is inevitable.

JT