In 2019, the chamber music groups that 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. Billed as Chamber 2.0: Chamber in the Front, Party in the Back, this second performance really leaned into the playful and irreverent and the Innovation Studio brainstormed wild ideas for different ways to engage audiences in chamber music.
Letting go of feasibility and embracing the phrase “yes, and…”, the ideas got really wild, including: “goats everywhere,” “sitting in a pool with piranhas,” and “Beyoncé.” The Innovation Studio got the musicians in on the brainstorming, and leveraged the flexible layout and technological capabilities of the black box theatre to bring these wild ideas to life in new ways – including one where we helped make a string quartet's performance feel like a Destiny’s Child concert.
What if we set all instruments on fire? What if a chamber music concert felt like a Destiny Child's concert?
Audiences controlling the musicians through color and potions!