Concert Lab
The Leuphana Concert Lab is a transdisciplinary project in collaboration with academic and practical partners. It aims to use the medium of classical music to encourage students from all faculties to reflect on socially relevant topics and to bring these into the region: music can make something audible and tangible that can otherwise only be grasped intellectually.
On a didactic level, artistic expression is combined with the approaches of other disciplines and current social "grand challenges" are addressed co-creatively between musicians, students and teachers from all faculties.
In the area of teaching, new didactic formats will be desigend and tested from winter semester 23/24. The aim is to develop several modules, implement them in the complementary studies and bundle them into a permanent offering, e.g. as a certificate. In collaboration with young artists, students engage with current discourses, exploring how artistic means can effectively convey them.
In research, the project develops interdisciplinary approaches to classical music in the field of current social issues with members of various faculties. Through the collaboration of participants from all faculties, new structures are to be created within the university and expanded into a lively community with artists and practice partners.
Test concert in summer semester 2023
"Concerts can mean much more than performance/perfection. They can tell us something, they can make us think and exchange ideas. Thank you!" (Audience feedback)
As part of a cultural studies seminar, a test concert was held in the summer semester of 2023 - supported by GVL's cultural policy grants: Around 20 students were brought together with the young pianist Josefa Schmidt and given carte blanche. The task was to select a relevant topic and co-creatively conceptualise a concert on it. Under the title "Overload - (k)ein klassisches Klavierkonzert", the ideas were presented at the end of the semester in a protected setting in front of around 100 guests in the auditorium: The focus was on the topic of overload, which is relevant and tangible for all social groups regardless of age or status, and how individuals deal with overload and fears about the future. The theme was addressed in various concert parameters - from the choice of music and room design to interventions from other art forms (poetry, voice overs, improvisation dance) and participatory elements (including reflection questions that guided the audience through the concert and a gallery walk with their own thoughts). First-time visitors from the students' circle of acquaintances and selected stakeholders from the region and the university were invited to the concert. The different groups of visitors were brought together in small group discussions moderated by the students and then asked to complete an evaluation form.