My research focuses on audience experience of classical improvisation. I put this directly into practice in my own performance and in my workshops and masterclasses.
Publications
Engaging with the Audience as Myself: A Cellist’s Experience with Classical Improvisation, in Music Performers Lived Experiences, Volume 2, ed. Mine Doǧantan-Dack, Routledge (forthcoming)
Love at first sound: engaging with Western classical concert audiences through improvisation (2022)
DMus Thesis. This artistic practice research project explores re-introducing improvisation to Western classical performance practice as a musician (cellist and ensemble partner/leader).
Conference Presentations
European Platform for Artistic Research in Music, 2024
This presentation discussed findings from my performance practice and artistic doctorate research, in which the performers’ and audience’s experiences were collected in a series of five concerts incorporating the ‘improvisatory approach’ (Dolan 2005, 2013; Haustein 2022).
Improvisation in Historical Styles: Research, Pedagogy and Performance, 2022
Examining the performer-audience impact of re-introducing stylistic solo & ensemble improvisation to Western classical concert programs.
Improvisation in Historical Styles: Research, Pedagogy and Performance, 2022
Fleeting fantasy: ensemble improvisation on audience-given themes (2022)
This presentation and demonstrative performance arise from a project in which classical musicians sought to learn and re-integrate improvisation ability to their existing professional musicianship, and use it to interact with audiences. Inspired by historical classical concerts, where such elements were customary, the performance demonstrates a number of related processes, such as real-time problem solving, intuitive knowledge, risk-taking and spontaneous creativity - both with successful and unsuccessful outcomes. According to recent research (Haustein 2022), concert audiences appreciated musicians sharing their process of learning and engaging in live improvisation as part of the concert program, even before the musical product and skill sets had fully matured.
l8nite series, eparm 2021
Engaging with Western classical concert audiences through improvisation (2021)
Demonstrating of outcomes rising from a series of four concerts and related audience research of my doctorate project on classical improvisation and audience engagement. In the first part of this performance, the audience hears a song, Mausfallensprüchlein, “The Mousers Magic Verses” by Hugo Wolf (1822, text by Eduard Mörike). As a way to illustrate the improvisatory approach, this song is turned into a series of songs by applying the structure of “theme and variations”. In the second part of the performance, a group of chamber musicians present themselves as improvisors-for-hire and create short pieces according to themes and suggestions from audience members.