An invitation to an experimental concert: What do people actually experience during a concert? Why does music stir, inspire, and move us?

The internationally renowned chamber music ensemble Epitaph – violinists Baiba Skride and Gergana Gergova, violists Micha Afkham and Amihai Grosz as well as cellist Alban Gerhardt – and the distinguished up-and-coming Yubal Ensemble will perform string quintets by Ludwig van Beethoven, Brett Dean, and Johannes Brahms on a total of nine evenings at Radialsystem this spring. The musical program remains unchanged each evening; however, from one concert to the next, the same compositions are presented and dramatically altered in various ways – for example, through moderation, lighting design, audience participation, or a supplementary immersive level via video installations or acoustic amplification.

In the large-scale research project “Experimental Concert Research”, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, researchers and musicians are getting to the bottom of the concert experience for the first time. Concertgoers are given insights into this unusual research project and will be able to explore their experience of the concert as test subjects. Using a specially designed combination of methods, they are both wired and interviewed – thereby being actively and passively involved in investigating their concert experience.

For the past four years, a European research team has been developing experimental psychological and sociological measurement instruments that are now being used extensively. Following a “sneak preview” in September 2020 and opening concerts in the Pierre Boulez Saal in mid-April 2022, the almost ten-day concert series, sponsored by the Aventis Foundation, will take place in Radialsystem.

For further information visit www.experimental-concert-research.org