Bringing the Symphonic Experience to Rural Communities
Photography courtesy of the la Caixa Foundation.
Symphony: a journey into the heart of music
Symphony: a journey into the heart of music, a virtual orchestral experience featuring young artists from the Gustavo Dudamel Foundation, will launch on September 15, 2020, at the CosmoCaixa Museum in Barcelona, Spain.
This new virtual encounter was developed by the “la Caixa” Foundation in collaboration with Artistic Director Igor Cortadellas, and Gustavo, side-by-side with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, will bring this virtual symphonic experience to hundreds of rural towns and communities throughout Spain and Portugal during a ten-year international tour.
At the heart of this virtual reality (VR) experience are orchestral performances of works by Beethoven, Bernstein, and Mahler. Recorded by the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Gustavo, and featuring the 2019 Dudamel Foundation Artists, these performances originated in the Gustavo Dudamel Foundation global leadership project at the Peralada Festival in Spain in August 2019.
Symphony employs virtual reality (VR) technology to bring the symphonic experience to rural communities.
The tour will allow audiences of all ages across Spain, young and old alike, in small towns and and in rural communities, to intimately experience the beauty and joy of, reinforcing the belief that classical music is not restricted to urban centers. Gustavo recalled, “When we sat down with my friends at the la Caixa Foundation to dream about what we wanted to accomplish with this project, it was clear from the start that we shared three core beliefs: that music can transcend our differences, encourage individual empowerment, and promote social integration. This project is a perfect embodiment of those shared values, a mobile exhibition that will offer tens of thousands of people access to symphonic music.”
Elisa Durán, Deputy General Director of the ”la Caixa” Foundation, shared her aspiration,“With this extraordinary and captivating experience, we want to contribute to sharing classical music and make it available to the wider public, in a journey without precedent to the heart of the human soul.”
Photography still courtesy of the la Caixa Foundation and Igor Studios.
An experiment of science and emotion
Symphony takes place in two mobile pop-up units, each covering one-hundred square meters. In the first, a panoramic film (projection) invites the audience on a soundscape journey to celebrate the beauty of everyday sound. The film chronicles the daily experiences of three 2019 Dudamel Foundation Artists from different parts of the world — Daniel Egwurube (USA), Manuela Díaz Henao (Colombia), Rut Mateu (Spain). As the artists live out their daily experiences, the viewer comes to understand how each is connected with the sounds and music of their environment and learn how with the help of human ingenuity, ambient sounds can be turned into music and connect diverse cultures.
In the second unit, audience members put on special VR glasses and find themselves seated in Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu. From the stage, Gustavo welcomes the spectators who are then surrounded by a full symphony orchestra, in absolute silence, awaiting the downbeat of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.
What follows is a heightened emotional listening experience through the aid of advanced science and VR technology. By moving the camera 360º within the orchestra, each spectator hears and feels music in new and surprising ways. As the musicians play, images and sounds deconstruct the orchestra to offer insight into how, from the simplicity of a piece of wood or metal, a universe as sophisticated and beautiful as that of a symphony orchestra can be created.
For more information regarding tour scheduling and technology used in mobile exhibitions, please visit symphony.fundacionlacaixa.org.
Twitter: @FundlaCaixa
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Photography still courtesy of the la Caixa Foundation and Igor Studios.
Accessibility and COVID-19 Safety
Symphony: a journey into the heart of music is an educational, cultural, and recreational project aimed at all audiences over the age of eight. It does not involve physical movement by audience members, but due to the nature of the VR technology, it is not recommended for people with epilepsy, vertigo, or who are prone to dizziness.
Appropriate health measures, specifically focused around COVID-19, are being taken to make this experience safe. Cleaning has been intensified, and a photocatalytic disinfection (UV) system has been installed in both units to free the space of contaminants and pathogens in ambient air and on all the surfaces of treated spaces.
