Creating an immersive/interactive classical music concert

Elvis Bendana Rivas

Louisiana State University

To Cite this Article

Bendana Rivas, E. (2022). Creating an immersive/interactive classical music concert. p-e-r-f-o-r-m-a-n-c-e, 6.

Abstract

Classical music is heavily characterized by tradition and conventions that shape and dictate the way is supposed to be performed. As a performer (classical guitarist and conductor) I’ve been looking for ways to negotiate the conventions of the classical music performance by readapting it to the technological and immersive/interactive demands of the 21st Century. Music can also be used to express and declare a social issue such as the migrant crisis we live today, without losing the music’s original value but rather recontextualizing its message to the current events.

I consider the stage as the big screen that frames our performances, but how can we enhance the audience experience with the use of technology, immersion and interaction? Also, if the traditional stage is a form of marginalization that creates separation between the audience (as individual and community) and the performers, how can we reshape it as a more inclusive arena? 

This project explores how, by adding theatre techniques (immersion and interaction) and media (big screens, animations, lights and photography) to classical music concerts, we can create a performance experience that connects with the audience and appeals to their reality, environment and emotions. The main premise behind these additions is that “people want to be engaged” and that empathy can be used to build and enhance the message of a performance to the audience. I show how through media, free roaming (not restricting audiences to chairs) and a focus on social issues, an immersive and interactive classical music experience can be an effective tool to engage audiences, provide a type of enjoyment that goes beyond the sonic layer, and be a form of social declaration and activism.

Keywords

Immersive theater, interactive theater, classical music, classical guitar, free roaming, visual art, concert, audience, performance, stage, empathy.

As an experienced classical guitarist and orchestral conductor, I’ve observed that the classical music audience is getting reduced and that it is also very hard to attract or engage new audiences who are not used to attend these types of concerts. Lately orchestras and classical musicians have been trying to understand why people don’t go to classical music concerts and the research shows that people in general, no matter their age, do not dislike classical music itself, but rather they don’t enjoy the way it is presented (Price, 2007, Kolb, 1998, Dobson, 2010). So, what can we do as musicians to change this reality? What can we learn from other forms of art such as theater and media to enhance our concerts and attract new audiences?

“US” is a performance I created to explore different ways of performing classical music besides the tradition and what some artists have been doing so far. In this performance I worked in collaboration with Eman Al-Zubeidi, a visual artist and Salvador Garcia, an actor who helped me shape and convert the performance into a more complex argument of social declaration and activism. The performance resulted in an exploration on how classical music along with immersion and interaction can be used to engage and discuss a social drama that is very common today, such as the migrant’s struggle that thousands of people in the world suffer every day. The main question became how classical music, immersion, and interaction can be used to create awareness of a social issue and ultimately create empathy and affect in the audience.

“US” is an immersive/interactive classical music performance. It was held at the Blackbox Theater in the Liberal Arts & Humanities Building, at Texas A&M University on February 15th, 2019. I implemented interactive and immersive theatre concepts such as multi-focus (Schechner 1973), performing proximity (Hill & Paris 2014), environmental theatre (Shechner 1973), participatory theater (Boal 1974), the experience economy (Pine II & Gilmore 1999),1 and free roaming (Alston 2016)2 to enhance the classical music concert experience. I also added a second visual layer.3 For this purpose, I used photography as one of the mediums to enhance the experience and worked along with Eman to create a set of digital animations and video mapping. Dance also took part in the performance. We worked alongside two professional dancers from Texas A&M University, Kelsy Clark and Ashlyn Thompson, who created an improvised choreography to one of the pieces. We used a computer-based software that tracked their movements to create a visual animation to develop a human interactive animation that shows realistic human movements rather than artificial movements. This was important to keep the human aspect involved from beginning to end in the performance. While live dancers would not be seen in the performance, the animations and video generated needed to reflect this human liveness experience. I also selected poems that talked about migration to reinforce the topic. Lights also played an important role defining spaces, actions, and focus throughout the performance.

In order to convert the performance into an immersive/interactive experience I had to rethink what is conventionally considered as the stage and think of it as the same space where the audience and performers interact. If the performance happens at the stage, and the audience is usually outside of it, then they become passive participants. Rancière in the Emancipated Spectator, proposes that theater should give power to the audiences. He talks about a “theater without spectators, where those in attendance learn from as opposed to being seduced by images: where they become active participants as opposed to passive voyeurs” (4). Other authors such as Brecht, Umberto Eco and Artaud also engage in the same discussion, but all of them are basically following Plato’s critique of theater who “wanted to replace the democratic, ignorant community of theater with a different community, encapsulated in a different performance of bodies” (Rancière, 5). By bringing the stage into the audience, it means we are creating the conditions to allow them to be active participants, who can play an active role and shape the performance if they choose to. In this way, we are allowing a different type of power to the audience, by inviting them into the same space along with the performers. The audience and the performer are now on the same level; reducing the physical and spatial barriers that restrict their interactions with the artist and others, as tends to be the case in the tradition. It also helps foster the sense of community that this type of theater looks for.

While conceptualizing “US”, it was important that the audience felt and perceived it as immersive from the moment they enter the space. Because of this, it was crucial to define where each of the pieces and poems were going to be performed, where the projections and images were going to take place, and where and how the lights were going to be used to achieve success of the experience. We wanted to make the audience feel part of the journey and as active participants, not as passive members, which tend to be the tradition.

Something new I learned, or found out, from this experience was the different ways or levels in which we can rehearse. Normally as musicians, we think of rehearsal as the mechanical practice and repetitive movements with the instrument, the learning of the score and as the pre-performance before the debut in front of an audience. However, to plan where an action should take place, what an animation should look like, how the story should be told, how the space will be used, how the lights will be set up, where the audience will be standing, sitting, or moving and the many other details that a performance such as this one involves, it is definitely a method of rehearsing, where on paper, in our minds, and in discussions we rehearse many of the details that are necessary to define before starting the “rehearsal” on the stage. I think of this as a “mindful holistic rehearsal”, necessary to achieve the success of a performance of this type.

Based on these concepts and ideas, we reshaped the configuration of the Blackbox theatre. The first important decision made was to eliminate the seats in order to provide more mobility and flexibility to the audience. Besides that, the seats are the first oppressive apparatus in a performance, because of the power they exercise in limiting our movements and freedom, therefore getting rid of them was crucial for the success of the performance and its aesthetics of free roaming.

Next, drawing from Oliver Grau’s book Virtual Art, and his discussion of the panorama and how throughout the centuries the artists have used the panorama technique to create an illusion of a bigger and open space (46),4 I wanted to create the perception that the entire stage was part of the performance. For this, I conceptualized it as a 360º experience so that wherever an audience member looked there is an element of the performance. This was achieved by having a massive curved screen on one side of the stage, and at the other side, pictures hanging around that equilibrate and create balance with the screens (see fig. 1). The space was also filled with candles on the floor to enhance the mood of the performance.

Blackbox theater diagram

I also wanted to explore how we can create a classical music concert experience that differs from the traditional way of performing, without losing its original value but rather increasing it, and that, at the same time, appeals to both nontraditional and traditional classical music attendees. It was very clear from the beginning that any addition or change in the performance would have to be made to the stage and set up, but not in the music itself. As a classical guitar performer and conductor with many years of experience, I understand the value that the music and score themselves have within the music academy. In the same way that the composer is seen as a superhuman figure, the score remains as the material part and presence of that deity even after his death. The score is like a holy scripture that shouldn’t be argued, manipulated or changed because we are not capable or worthy of doing it. This is one of the main features of the canon, preserving the style of playing in terms of sound and music style, and to respect the composer’s intention and deliver the message as accurately as possible. While the score is always subject to interpretations, any musical decision made about it has to be done consciously and well argued, because this is the only way to find validity and yet be loyal to the composer in our own perspective. Music is about meaning, and the score is the way of representing it. Our function as performers is reduced to decode that meaning and pass it on to the audience as loyally as possible, because we somehow presume the audience is not able of understanding the meaning on their own.

This is also an argument that can be found in Rancière’s discussion in Emancipated Spectator, when he argues that according to the conventional theater: “to be a spectator is to be separated from both the capacity to know and the power to act” (2). Therefore, if I am trying to create a different way of performing classical music, I wanted it to be done by respecting this very basic premise of the classical music canon. I have seen many classical music performers trying to change the score itself and play with it, something not broadly welcome in the music academy. Usually, this is seen as disrespectful to the music. Not only that, sometimes they intentionally change the score to ease the difficulty of their playing, showing their own lack of preparation, and a low level of playing and/or musicianship. These “innovations or additions,” if we can call them that, many times are not more than an easy way out for many performers since they find in them a way to hide their inexperience or lack of knowledge in the instrument. I agree with Maestro Leo Brouwer when he says that in order to break the tradition, we must first learn the tradition to perfection because only by understanding its language will we be able to surpass it and create a new language. Besides that, it is evident for a trained musician, when a performer knows and has mastered the music language and plays with it or when it is only an impostor. While an impostor may still find acceptance from the uneducated audience and a decent way of living, in the eyes of the professionals, he/she will never be recognized as a valued musician. In this sense, I wanted to create a different type of performing but still maintain the playing at the highest-level possible, as if it were going to be performed in the traditional canon. I believe that adding any other layer of experience to the performance, should not be in detriment of what is already important, the quality of the music and the musician, only like this it may still find its value within the academy and find acceptance amongst both professional musicians and nontraditional classical music audiences.

Another topic I desired to pursue was how we can use music, theatre, and technology to tell a story with which the audience could feel connected and empathize with. Empathy was one of the most important tools and poles when designing this concert. It is worth mentioning too that it is one of the most common tools used in theater. As Boal expresses in Theater of the Oppressed: “Empathy is the most dangerous weapon in the entire arsenal of the theater and related arts” (113), because it creates a juxtaposition in the spectators, one where the experience they are being presented with becomes real and they adopt it as such. This reality can ultimately change behaviors and provoke change within the environment making empathy a powerful but dangerous tool if desired. While Boal criticizes the use of empathy in theater because it carries a conflict of interests, which can be used by power structures because of the “fact that their ideological penetration takes place subliminally” (114), reaching deeper into our subconsciousness, converting the audience in a powerless and manipulated object, I wanted to use empathy as the vehicle to deliver the performance’s message because of its proven effectiveness.

The performance began in the lobby, not on the stage as would normally happen in a traditional classical music concert. First, I wanted to debunk the idea of spatial separation between the audience and the performers. I believe the spatial separation can be created either visually, in terms of costume and lighting, or spatially, in terms of physical space where the artist and audience access through different doors, creating a social separation from the beginning, that affects the process of the entire performance. For this purpose, the actor and I intentionally waited in the lobby along with the audience. We wanted to have time to possibly start a conversation with an unknown member of the audience, to pretend we were just spectators. We were also dressed using everyday clothing such as the one a student or migrant would use This is another of Machon’s characteristics: “you have been placed in a context where the performance already begun” (54).

When the main doors opened, each audience member received a booklet with the lyrics of a Mexican folk piece named “La Llorona”, with an inscription that read “And you can sing too”. They didn’t know at this moment that we were going to have a procession where they were going to be asked to sing the piece along with Salvador.

Salvador and I entered the stage along with the audience and stayed with them until the beginning of the show. This was a way to humanize ourselves and erase or at least soften any boundaries between us, to begin breaking the idea that an artist is a type of superior human being. But also, it was done as part of the aesthetics of the performance. Since the concert was about migrants, I wanted to show from the beginning that we (the performers) were also migrants. At this moment of the performance, I expected most of the audience would feel lost or uncertain of what was going to happen next, but at the same time alert to their surroundings and peers who they may have not known at the moment. This resembled the type of feelings the migrants experience throughout the journey that I wanted the audience to experience.

The first thing the audience encountered was an image of a woman with a shirt saying: birthplace: earth, Race: Human, Politics: Freedom, Religion: Love. The reason for choosing this image5 as the visual welcome to the concert was to catch the audience members’ attention and create a sense of mystery about what was going to happen. The premise for the audience was that they were going to see a concert that provided a sort of immersive experience, but they were not aware of the level and type of immersion and interaction they were going to be exposed to.

Once the audience entered the stage, they were welcomed by a space with no seats. By removing them, the audience would first, have to decide where to place themselves, decide if they wanted to be sitting, laying on the floor, standing, or walking around. After the performance, some attendees pointed out to me that they were surprised there were no seats, so they didn’t know what to do in the beginning. “I even came to the show with a nice dress and high heels thinking I was just going to sit and listen to some music.” This is another of Machon’s immersive theater characteristics: “you have little or no idea what you are about to experience” (54). The uncertainty that the audience felt at that moment, was intentionally created because this is one of the feelings a migrant who must flee from home feels. Feeling lost and not sure what to do play an important role in this part of the story, to make sure we feel like migrants from the very start. This is again another of Machon’s characteristics: “you are excited and a bit scared” (54), “you are physically surrounded of another world” (55).

We expected that the audience would remain together instinctively, despite the fact there were no chairs. Because of this, we had planted audience members who were asked to take different locations in the stage and move around, to show others they were also able to do it. By doing this, I assumed some members were going to be more adventurous and move to other places throughout the performance once realizing this was allowed too. As a result, I saw some members sitting and standing at times, and taking different positions during the progression of the concert.

To vividly represent migration in this small performance space, I based the concept on the idea of a cycle. A migrant departs his/her place and begins a journey where experiences and emotions are collected, and new relationships and connections are created in the path before arriving at the final destination. However, the migrant doesn’t really change his or her essence. It rather continues being the same human with desires and aspirations but is now carrying all these experiences. The way I chose to represent this process throughout the performance was to have every piece and poem performed in a different area of the stage to represent this journey, but intentionally the first and last piece, or poem, were performed in the same initial spot, to represent the end of the cycle. This was also represented more symbolically in the music. The first piece of the concert began with an open note E, and the last one ended with the same note. While the audience may not have been aware of this feature, these were artistic decisions to keep the symbolism and message in the performance. Most likely only a trained musician would have been able to identify it. In my personal point of view, this added a new and different layer of the multimodal experience. Normally this is thought of in terms of spatial distribution, where many things are happening at the same time, so you choose where to focus, but by adding this new element we can also talk about playing with the sonic layer of the performance, requiring attention to detail by the audience. In the same way that a trained musician goes to a concert and enjoy the harmonies, dynamics, tempos, and interpretation, this addition added to this layer of enjoyment, intended for this type of audience. This means you could either focus on the projections, the actor, or the music and its inner construction to understand this symbolism.

As lights were dimmed, a spotlight came on, pointing at the middle of the stage, where there was a book lying in the floor. It is no secret that the lights enhance the experience of a performance. It can provide different moods, emotions, specify focal points and also guide the audience through the performance. It was important to plan and rehearse in order to synchronize every change of light, and meticulously choose colours and the intensities of them to achieve the desired purpose. For this, we defined a certain set of lights and colour for the beginning and end of the performance, so instead of having a host or audio recording announcing that the show is about to begin or has ended, we wanted to show this through the lights and let the audience infer these cues.

This was the cue for Salvador to begin his performance. He walked to the spotlight, grabbed the book and began reading a text I wrote that goes like this:

This is my story, but it could be your story. I have a name, but for many, I am just an object, a number, a discomfort, a menace, a soulless man, a weird animal that looks like a human, an animal with no rights, an animal with no feelings, an animal without a family. I am a possession of others. I am just a good or merchandise to be traded, and some feel they have power over me to do with me whatever they want.

All of those who think like that about me, forget that I am a man. A man with a name. A man with a heart, feelings, dreams and desires. A man with a family. A man who wants to be loved and accepted by others. Yes, I am an animal, an animal called human… like you and me.

But, what did I do to deserve be treated like this? That’s the same question I asked myself everyday…. I am just a human like you, who has dreams and goals, but who unfortunately was born in the wrong place of the world, and found myself forced to leave, and leave behind everything I love, my friends, family, daughter, son, wife, pets and food, to try to get a better life. I am just trying to recover some of what has been taken away or what I’ve never had. I just want to recover my humanity.

By having this text as the “official” beginning of the performance, I expected to start cultivating the concept and aesthetic of the performance in the audience, about migrants, empathy and humanization. Another concept I had in mind while writing the text was Karen Shimakawa’s concept of National Abjection (2002). This refers to the process by which Asian Americans are excluded from the American imaginary and become impossible to integrate within the American culture. They end up living in a liminal space where they don’t belong either to their culture or to (white) American culture.

By having the audience and performers in close proximity to each other, I wanted to play with Edward T. Hall’s idea of social distance. While usually having people too close to each other is perceived as a crowded space (Paris and Hill, 12), when properly designed, the concert would create the sense of community and belonging. This also allowed us to easier feel the audience’s energy and reactions that helped shape my guitar playing and Salvador’s speech intention and speed.

The first piece I played was Introduction and Vivace by the Russian composer Nikita Koshkin. This is a two-part piece as the title suggest which was written for a guitar competition, therefore it doesn’t have a specific message or meaning, rather is a sort of exploration and mix of genres and techniques by the composer. However, the character of the movements matched perfectly the image we wanted to depict at the beginning of the performance. The piece begins with a suspense like mood, followed by rapid scales and repetitive figures. In the same way, the animation that accompanied this piece evoked that image of suspense, followed by illustrations of someone trying to flee from a war conflict. The second part of the piece is march style, full of rapid scales, loud chords and with a climax building towards the end. This matched with the video that illustrated the characters fleeing from the war, in the middle of bombs along with other survivors.

While my playing was happening, an animation was being projected onto the screens. The animation was in fact based on a real story, of a relative of Eman Al-Zubeidi. While her relative’s story took place many years ago while fleeing from Palestine, we basically migrated the story to the present historical context, using symbols and images that reflected our time. Having a real story animated, helped contribute to the idea of the context and humanization throughout the performance, that was important to keep all the time to convey the message. But it also helped achieve a sense of liveness. By liveness, I mean the idea of feeling and being present. I wanted to get the audience to feel as if they were inside the story, by having everything happen around them so that they could interact in any way they wanted.

Throughout my playing, Salvador started looking for random people of the audience to talk to. He asked them questions like, where were they from, how long they have been in town, what do they miss most from their home, and how they felt about the performance. At the same time, he was writing some of this information down in the book. The idea behind this was to start planting the idea in the audience that they are migrants too, by having them say where they come from, explaining why they left, and realizing what they miss the most. These are common questions migrants share while travelling to their destination, to find support and empathize with others. This was a constant all through the concert. Every time I was playing the guitar accompanied with animation, Salvador would be choosing random people and asking these types of questions to write in his notebook. He would also take the time to ask them if they could help by reading part of a poem, which would happen later in the performance. Intentionally, we tried to split the poem between people from different races and nationalities, so when the moment of reading arrived, we would have different accents resonating on the stage. This was intended to exemplify and demonstrate how we migrate, and that even in this small space we find people from all over the world, pursuing their dreams and desires just as any other migrant in this world.

In between each piece Salvador recited a poem. All of these poems were either written by migrants or discuss the dehumanization aspect of it. Each one of them had different moods and they were all selected according to the climactic intention that I wanted to show at different moments during the performance, but that at the same time reflected the mood of the next piece.

The third piece of the concert was conceived as a duet, between me and the actor. Along with my playing, Salvador recited the poem “A song” by Ernesto and Vicente (Central Americans) which is written as a questioning to God on why he allows so many sufferings for the migrants. There was no projection for this piece, rather, lights were used interactively to depict the poem being performed. In this piece, the actor starts sitting on the floor and praying next to candles and a rosary. He grabbed the rosary and started writing a poem in his book, while I was playing behind him. The idea was to represent as if the music I was playing was coming out of his head. This piece, Usher’s Waltz by Nikita Koshkin, is based on Edgar Allan Poe’s tale of The Fall of the House of Usher.

In the next phase of the concert Salvador invited the audience to join us:

Every day, thousands of people around the world have to leave their houses. They are displaced. Some by their own will, but others because they have no choice. When I see these pictures (pointing at the pictures hanging around the stage) I see hundreds of interrupted or incomplete dreams. I only see good people trying to improve their lives and make at least their world better. For them, I want to pay respect right now and invite you to pay tribute with me, to all those who couldn’t finish their journey or are doing it right now. Because today they are, but tomorrow anyone of us could be. Please, feel free to sing with me in this ceremony.

The audience followed Salvador and me while we sang in front the pictures of migrants that were hung around the stage. This was a reenactment of “the stations of the cross”. I chose fragments of the Mexican piece “La Llorona” (the weeping woman), to sing to every picture. Also, people were free to sing along with the actor, as each one was handed a copy of the lyrics at the beginning of the concert. Each of the pictures was matched with the verses of the song that most related to it to add to the character and emotions represented in them. Each piece was illuminated with a spotlight as we sang to them, unveiling each of them one by one.

The song was performed in this order and with the following images:

“La Llorona” – Folk Mexican Song

Ay de mí, Llorona, Llorona
Llorona, llévame al río
Ay de mí, Llorona, Llorona
Llorona, llévame al río

Tápame con tu rebozo, Llorona
Porque me muero de frío
Tápame con tu rebozo, Llorona
Porque me muero de frío

Todos me dicen el negro, Llorona
Negro, pero cariñoso
Todos me dicen el negro, Llorona
Negro, pero cariñoso

Yo soy como el chile verde Llorona
Picante, pero sabroso
Yo soy como el chile verde Llorona
Picante, pero sabroso

Dicen que no tengo duelo, Llorona
Porque no me ven llorar.
Dicen que no tengo duelo, Llorona
Porque no me ven llorar.

Hay muertos que no hacen ruido, Llorona.
Y es más grande su penar.
Hay muertos que no hacen ruido, Llorona
Y es más grande su penar.

No sé qué tienen las flores, Llorona
Las flores del campo santo
No sé qué tienen las flores, Llorona
Las flores del campo santo

Que cuando las mueve el viento, Llorona
Parecen que están llorando
Que cuando las mueve el viento, Llorona
Parecen que están llorando

Yo te soñaba dormida, Llorona
Dormida te estabas quieta
Yo te soñaba dormida, Llorona
Dormida te estabas quieta

Pero en llegando el olvido, Llorona
Soñé que estabas despierta
Pero en llegando el olvido, Llorona
Soñé que estabas despierta

After finishing the procession, Salvador asked people to look for a partner who you didn’t previously know and share your own personal migrant story. This was one of the most beautiful and touching parts of the performance, to see everyone in the stage interact and talk with unknown people. Seeing their faces smiling was powerful as you could see how the room was fill with a positive and caring energy.

My own experience during the performance made me realize the value of using the space in different ways. I felt more connected with the audience in comparison when playing in a traditional setting. In terms of emotions, immersion and interaction proof to be a good and effective tool to engage the audience and enhance their experience and also good in creating empathy during the performance. I must acknowledge that the empathy created during the performance was a fabricated empathy, to fulfil the goal of the performance, which is something that Boal and Brecht discuss and criticize on because we can create a fictitious world full of contradictions that may not be loyal to the reality. While I see their point, I can say by the experience of this performance, that while this empathy was fabricated, it really ends up being a “real experience” for some of the attendees who felt more engaged with the topic and wishing to do something.

In general, most of the audience acknowledge that they enjoyed more this performance in comparison with a traditional classical music concert, but it is also worth mentioning that many of the participants recognized this was their first time attending a classical music performance. In my opinion, immersion and interaction respond to the needs of the 21st century of innovating our work as performers and make it more accessible to our audiences who have not been educated to appreciate the music as the canon would presume. Rather, instead of blaming the education system for not giving the necessary tools to our audiences to enjoy and appreciate the music as intended and cross our arms, we need to find new ways of bringing the art to them using a language we can all understand.

References

Alston, Adam. 2016. Beyond Immersive Theatre: Aesthetics, Politics and Productive Participation. Adam Alston. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

Boal, Augusto. 1985. Theatre of the Oppressed. Augusto Boal; Translated by Charles A. & Maria-Odilia Leal McBride. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1985.

Dobson, Melissa. 2010. “Between Stalls, Stage and Score: An Investigation of Audience Experience and Enjoyment in Classical Music Performance.” PhD Dissertation, University of Sheffield, UK, 2010. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/77023505.pdf

Grau, Oliver. 2003. Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion. Oliver Grau; Translated by Gloria Custance. Leonardo. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2003.

Hill, Leslie, and Helen Paris. 2014. Performing Proximity: Curious Intimacies. Leslie Hill and Helen Paris. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Kolb, Bonita M. “Classical Music Concerts Can Be Fun: The Success of BBC Proms.” International Journal of Arts Management 1, no. 1 (1998): 16-23.

Machon, Josephine. 2013. Immersive Theatres: Intimacy and Immediacy in Contemporary Performance. Josephine Machon. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Pine, B. Joseph, and James H. Gilmore. 2011. The Experience Economy. Updated Ed. B. Joseph Pine II, James H. Gilmore. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Review Press, 2011.

Price, Sarah M. 2017. “Risk and Reward in Classical Music Concert Attendance: Investigating the Engagement of ‘Art’ and ‘Entertainment’ Audiences with a Regional Symphony Orchestra in the UK.” PhD Dissertation, University of Sheffield, UK, 2017. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/16628/

Rancière, Jacques. 2009. The Emancipated Spectator. Jacques Ranciere. London: Verso, 2009.

Schechner, Richard. 1973. Environmental Theater. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1973.

Shimakawa, Karen. 2002. National Abjection: The Asian American Body on Stage. Durham: Duke University Press, 2002

Images

Frank Muller, 2016. Accessed Feb 4, 2019.

Julien Harneis, 2008. “Kibati villagers”. Accessed Feb 4, 2019.

Mstyslav Chernov, 2015. Accessed Feb 4, 2019.

Roi Roshi, 2009, “There are no illegal children.”

Stephen Melkisethian, 2017. “May Day Immigrants and Workers March DC 2.” Accessed Feb 4, 2019.

Tomas Castelazo, 2006. “Migrante.” Accessed Feb 4, 2019.

Trevor Schwellnus, 2004. “Bogota desplazados”.

Online Video Links

If you’d like to watch the performance discussed in this thesis, it is available on YouTube through the following links:

“US” 2D version

“US” 360 version

Biography of Elvis Bendana Rivas

Elvis is a PhD student in Performance Studies at Louisiana State University. His research interests include the study of pop and folk Latin American music and their role during revolutions and social movements and how adding immersion and interaction, along with technology, into classical music concerts can enhance the audience experience. Elvis holds baccalaureate degrees in Graphic Design, Classical Guitar, and Orchestral Conducting and MA in Performance Studies. He is currently assistant conductor of the Civic Orchestra of Baton Rouge.