This post is written by Dr. Michael Pinchbeck.

I am a writer, director and theatre-maker concerned with staging scores and finding ways to transpose musical composition into dramaturgical strategy in performance. A question that drove my recent work on The Ravel Trilogy (Bolero, Concerto, Solo) was: how do we ‘biograph-ize’ a piece of music? Each performance is inspired by a piece of Maurice Ravel’s music, and aims to perform its tempo, mood and atmosphere by mirroring its structure and content. Put simply, the script follows the score; the musical dynamics are stage directions.

At the same time, the work considers the (auto)-biographical context behind the making of the music, how Ravel wrote it, who he wrote it for, and who played it or performed to it. This methodological approach has led to a particular hybrid of verbatim theatre, ‘composed theatre’ (Rebstock and Roesner) and ‘orchestral theatre’ (Curtin) and seeks to engage both audiences of classical music and theatre-goers in what might be termed an ‘immersive concert’. Working with orchestras, concert pianists and a classically-trained violinist has also enabled us to explore the virtuosic technicality and formal aesthetics of classical music, whilst at the same time inviting the audience to sit in the orchestra or hold the instruments.

The provocation I am arriving at here is this. As Arts Council England shifts its agenda from excellence to relevance, and emphasis is on organisations to seek new audiences and new modes of engagement (e.g., immersive experiences, concerts-in-the-round, Proms on catch-up, or the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra accompanying Rod Stewart at the Brit Awards) then: How do we ensure that classical music remains relevant and resonant with new generations? How do we breakdown potential barriers to accessing both the form and its historical representation? How might ‘biographizing’ music and/or its composers be a strategy to do so?

Dr. Michael Pinchbeck is Reader in Theatre at Manchester Metropolitan University. He is also a theatre-maker.