InsideOut Digital: a new way of streaming?

How to make yet another digitally streamed concert stand out from the pack. It's the question on many artists' and musical organisations' minds these days, and for one New York orchestra the answer has been found in an ‘experiential’ project it had launched in live form, pre-Covid.

The orchestra is the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, founded in 1999 by its director David Bernard, and the initiative is InsideOut Digital. ‘I've always been obsessed with the challenges of classical music,' Bernard tells me via Zoom. ‘Prior to the pandemic I'd been wondering how it could be that audiences for classical are declining, when an orchestra offers 90 musicians onstage making art for you in real time. Why would people prefer to stay home and listen on their phones, or not listen at all? Then it dawned on me that classical music hasn't kept pace with the audience experience – whereas people do go to Broadway where things are intimate, to escape rooms, to immersive theatre, and all because they're looking for more than just delivery of sound.'

He continues, ‘I then thought what a different experience it is, compared to sitting 50 metres away from an orchestra in the audience, to instead be sat actually within the orchestra, facing the conductor and feeling the electricity between the musicians. So that's what we did. We spread out the orchestra and put the audience between them. We also stopped for discussion between movements or pieces, with me highlighting aspects of the music, and asking how the audience felt about this or that passage.' Titled InsideOut concerts, these interactive events were held at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music's Cary Hall – a large, column-free rehearsal space with electronic acoustical enhancement, making it possible to hear not just your local sound but also that of the room – and their pre-Covid performances included Holst's The Planets with 200 audience members sat among 100 musicians. ‘It was fantastic,' exclaims Bernard. ‘We had people who had never attended a classical orchestral concert before and thought they never would, who were then hooked because of the experience.'

Fast forward to Covid, and initially New York's strict social distancing measures meant that all large ensemble music-making had to stop. However last September, when finally it became possible for an orchestra to be able to gather together for a streamed concert without a live audience, Bernard realised that InsideOut could also be the answer to his new problem of how to offer something different to a viewing public that was now both spoilt for choice with digitally streamed performances, and craving experiences even more than ever.

‘I thought it so important to come up with something more than just video streams, because with streams you're competing not just against those that are happening now, but also the century of performances available on YouTube, because ultimately it's all video even if it's happening live,' he states. ‘And even when things get back to normal, orchestras are going to need a way to truly make a case for live events in a way that's more than just sound delivery.' Meanwhile he had also been noticing over lockdown that his synagogue had been streaming digital services with a chat function to enable members to interact with it, and that this back and forth communication had made you feel far more connected, and less as though you were just watching television.

So InsideOut Digital was born: exactly the same format as for the live events, but with the live audience replaced by just two people sitting among the musicians – ‘audience avatars’ – who likewise use a chat function to receive and relay viewers' comments and questions to Bernard and the orchestra, with six cameras capturing everything in high quality picture and audio. The first official performance in November, Beethoven's Bombshell, aimed to bring back the shock factor of Beethoven's Eroica by interspersing its movements with those of Mozart's 39th Symphony, accompanied by all the usual surrounding discussion.

‘It's been fantastic,' enthuses Bernard. ‘We truly eliminate the fourth wall digitally. People were saying they were in tears, because they miss live music so much and connecting in this way gave them as much a sense of being in the room with us as it was possible to have. After the Eroica second movement, many people were recalling the assassination of JF Kennedy because it was played at his funeral, and it's an amazing thing as an audience member to see and hear your comment brought into the room and interacted with. That's something you just don't get, usually.'

As for the viewing figures, for an online, paid, ticketed performance they're impressive: 130 tickets sold for the first event, 150 for the second, not just the orchestra's usual followers but also apparently discoverers, and viewers hailing from as far afield as Moscow and Paris. Which leads us to a point worth noting regardless of whether you agree in general with Bernard's views on where classical music is getting it wrong on presentation – because clearly he's getting something very right with where he's placing and advertising his performances. ‘We chose to broadcast via Facebook Live,' he explains. ‘A lot of streaming platforms aren't very good at the interactive component, but Facebook is, and it had also just introduced paid Facebook Live events with a paywall.' He continues, ‘The other reason is that Facebook advertising is excellent at helping arts organisations target and market events towards different regions and interests. It's a very powerful tool.'

As for the future, InsideOut Digital's next event is Prodigious Prodigies, prodigy-themed works to include Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto with its soloist part split between two ‘prodigies’ from the local music school. Looking further ahead, the plan for when limited audiences are allowed back into concert halls is to mount a hybrid event offering both live and digital tickets. It should also be added that, when it becomes feasible, the orchestra plans to recommence its traditional-format concerts too. ‘But the amazing thing over this Covid time,' concludes Bernard, ‘has been being able to continue InsideOut in a digital way.'

For more information on the orchestra's upcoming concert click here: https://fb.me/e/23kJW1srH