Abstract
Musicians experience a sensation of social connectedness or musical togetherness with a co-performer when performing in ensembles. Previous studies have focused on self-reported peaks in social connectedness (i.e., the optimal experiences of ensemble performances), often described as magical moments occurring when things ‘click’. However, how togetherness is experienced from the perspective of musicians and audiences lacks a full investigation. This talk reports about two recent investigations carried out as part of the FWF Togetherness project at mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (PI: Laura Bishop), which aim to shed more light on the perception of togetherness in classical ensemble performances. One study centers on how audiences judge the amount of togetherness between musicians during duo performances. The other study investigates ensemble musicians' self-reported experiences of togetherness. Combining motion capture and audio analysis techniques with semi-structured interviews, this research contributes to the study of interactions in ensembles, by revealing the broad spectrum of togetherness experiences perceived during musical ensemble performances.
Background
Sara D'Amario is currently a postdoctoral researcher at RITMO, University of Oslo,
working on the SynchInConcert project funded by the Marie Sk?odowska-Curie individual fellowship.
She holds a Ph.D. in Music Technology from the University of York, an MA in Music Psychology from the University of Sheffield, and degrees in Musicology as well as Piano Performance from the Conservatory of Music of Milan (Italy). Her research interests center on the cognitive, behavioral, and physiological components of music performance science.