The Serendip festival
In their second year, students on the improvisation/jazz performance course and the jazz/pop/rock music education course set about planning and running their own festival. In 2017 the event will take place at Kulturhuset and Victoria as well as in the academy’s own venues. The festival mostly comprises a number of short sets. Most of the performers are students with some additional professional guest artists.
Concerts as stage events
The NMH aims to turn its students into good musicians. They play for each other and for their teachers, and they get feedback on their performances. But how are their performances perceived by outsiders who are not necessarily familiar with the genre? How do the students come across as artists when they are on stage? To find out more, we have put together a group comprising two NMH teachers and two external members. Singer/actor Ståle Ytterli and choreographer Nina Harte teach stage techniques at the NMH. Kenneth M. Lewis is a musician, technician and producer. He has coached a number of Norwegian pop artists on their staging, and he teaches stage techniques at Westerdals/Oslo Act. Ketil Hvindenbråten is an events organiser with years of experience from the Slottsfjell festival in Halden.
What are we doing?
Concert observation and documentation
The project group will be attending the Serendip festival together with project manager Morten Halle. The concerts will be video-recorded.
Group discussion
After the festival, the group will meet to discuss how they experienced the different concerts as stage events: How was the stage production? How did the musicians interact with each other and with the audience? Are there perspectives on stage technique within the group that could benefit the students?
Seminar with the students
The project group will hold a seminar with the students to discuss their festival experiences. We will be using the video recordings to reflect on how the musical performances came across as stage events. What should the students continue to work on? How can the NMH and other higher music education institutions approach the subject in the future?
