From the 26th to the 28th of February, we attended the Music Austria conference at the Mozarteum in Salzburg focused on “Musikvermittlung” (a German-language word that is roughly equivalent with music outreach). We presented at the “Marktplatz” and were thrilled to connect with fantastic music and music outreach professionals not only from Austria but from around Europe. We live tweeted the last day of the conference as well.

Taking part in interesting workshops and listening to fascinating talks gave us fresh insight into participatory art and culture. Interestingly, several of the workshops incorporated participatory elements. We found this not only encouraging but also inspiring. It is gratifying to see that the trends of participation and collaboration can be so creatively used when speaking of music outreach.
Particularly fascinating was the workshop on soundpainting, a musical sign language. Soundpainter and dancer Ceren Oran ran a participatory workshop where conference attendees were invited to sing the sounds prompted with the soundpainting signs she demonstrated onstage.

One of the codified signs.

Explaining concepts.

Practical demonstration.

Another instance of a participatory elements in a conference structure was Rainer O. Brinkmann’s seminar on scenic interpretation. Mr. Brinkmann had the conference attendees sing a selection from Wozzeck and act out a dialogue in order to practically illustrate his lecture on the five stages of interpretation.

We are looking forward to experimenting with the concepts we learned and experienced in the context of the What if? project in the coming weeks.

All photos © Clio Montrey.