TAKING MUSIC OUT OF THE CONCERT HALL

During the first two years of our work with NOI fellows, we didn’t just take the music out of the concert hall, we took it all the way out of the building. Fellows were invited to perform in NOI[SE], a performance hosted by the Innovation Studio at a local bar and concert venue called Milkboy Arthouse.

In 2019, the chamber music groups who were performing in the Chamber Music Showcase were invited to perform in Chamber 2.0 – a second performance happening right after the Showcase, but across the hall in the Kogod “black box” Theatre (the room this exhibit is in right now!). Although this space is a theater, it was so different from the traditional concert venue that the lighting and projection capabilities of the space were far greater than that of the concert hall, allowing the Studio team to explore new ways of storytelling through visual aid. 

The 2022 iteration of Chamber 2.0 was once again immediately following the traditional Chamber Music Showcase in the Gildenhorn Theatre, so a location within the Clarice was a must. Since this year’s Chamber 2.0 was particularly interested in exploring storytelling through projection design, a space with advanced projection capabilities was ideal – bring us to the Dance Theater. A space typically intended for dance performance, we heard from the fellows that the acoustics were “challenging” which initially frustrated the musicians but ultimately led them to focus on other parts of their performance instead.