By Jan Farrar-Royce
When my ensembles play at a concert, I want to hear a band parent say they enjoyed listening to the orchestra’s performance! I think that when we are choosing pieces for our presentations, we should consider not only the educational aspect of the program but the entertaining aspect as well.
Familiar pieces, especially those with lyrics, allow every listener to become invested in the performance. If you decide on a familiar piece for a concert, you might even include the lyrics on an insert in the printed program. Maybe members of your audience will want you to play that piece a second time so that they can sing along!
You can also monitor your students’ research of pieces and composers to create program notes for the printed program or, better still, have different students speak to the audience before each piece. Talking to the audience puts a friendly and accessible face on your performance, and you may discover that one of the players from the back of a section may be a wonderful researcher and/or speaker!
Another way to encourage your audience members to be active listeners is to tell them an interesting musical or historical fact about each piece or something the musicians learned by playing this piece. John Feierabend of The Hartt School calls this approach to performing an “informance.” Pointing out something in the music that the audience might listen for can be a lot of fun. Plus, it is good education for everyone, great PR for your string program, and a more fun approach to performing!
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