Learning to listen: audience, listening and experience in the classical music concert hall

Learning to listen: audience, listening and experience in the classical music concert hall

Learning to listen: audience, listening and experience in the classical music concert hall is a phenomenological research study exploring the perceptions and experiences of listening and being an audience in the classical music concert hall. The research explores the ways that audience members are participatory and the competencies they employ as listeners.

Using a qualitative phenomenological approach, the research was conducted within the context of a community orchestra in rural Australia and reports the experiences of twelve research participants including audience members, orchestra members and arts organisers of the orchestra. The data generated by semi structured interview was analysed using a combination of methods including thematic analysis and interpretative phenomenological analysis to achieve a rich and complex understanding of the nature of listening and being an audience in the classical music concert hall.

The findings articulate the diversity of listening practices and experiences presenting a fresh understanding of the classical music audience as an active community of practice vital to the process of musicking. These findings advocate the importance of supporting community arts organisations by demonstrating the need to reframe arts development as an issue of education and can be used to draw creative models for pedagogical and organisational practice within the arts.