In 2023, the lectorate introduces a series of three evenings of thematic dialogue under the name Playing music and other serious matters.

Though we regularly use the word 'play' in connection to music, our association is not related to the playing of a child or an animal or to playing a ball game. Even less would ‘diverting lightness’ - the roots of play - be the first characterization that comes to mind. Playing a concert is a serious matter where your reputation, status and market value are at stake. During each of the three evenings, two invited speakers will engage in a thematic dialogue, approaching the overarching theme from three different perspectives.

23 February
Conventions and Convictions
Lies Colman - Yannis Kyriakides

The role of the audience as an essential part of artistic performance has been morphing along with the changes in society. In the act of performance, playing with expectations of the public always has been a constructive element to evoke participation or engagement in the spectators. These days audiences are often mobilized into a more interactive and self-conscious position, literally or metaphorically. With this goal in mind, conventions on both sides - the performer as well as the audience - become part of the playing material. Convictions are thus turned upside down to be replaced by new insights or discoveries that might lead to new conventions.

Lies Colman and Yannis Kyriakides, in their work as artists and artistic researchers, have created artistic processes that consciously place artist as well as audience in a socially situated interaction, more specifically by integrating other artistic fields in musical performance. In this way, both the artist and the audience are challenged to commit themselves by taking an (inter)active role and thus contribute to the final appearance and experience of the work of art.