Groupmuse 249th-time host

Remember the Massive Listening Experiment of 2017? Hosted in Brooklyn, it was a pilot 400-person musical immersion where as a musician-audience organism we explored different ways of listening to and engaging with classical music.

Well, in short, the experiment was a success (it's science). So now we're coming back with the next iteration of this experiment at an even grander scale! Groupmuse and Choreographies for Survival are reuniting this September to present the Riverside Listening Experiment. Only this time, we’re hosted by the titanic Riverside Church in their gothic and enchanted Assembly Hall. And we are thrilled to be joined once again by the 18-member Shattered Glass ensemble, who will be leading us through this collective journey.

Newbies be warned: This is no typical concert. This experiment will give you the chance to explore all the different ways we listen, both personally and together as an audience. You’ll be given tools to try new things and listen actively, energetically, with your body, with your eyes... Audience and musicians alike will be offered a choreography of sorts to guide you through different listening modes - some might be unfamiliar and uncomfortable, some new and liberating, and still others familiar and intuitive.

The experiment will unfold alongside and in relation to the music and the musicians, who are themselves listening and observing the audience in new ways. Everyone will join together to create one massive collective experiment with body, mind, and sound.

This will be an experiment in expressive listening; i.e., there will be optional movement. Come prepared to transform and expand your notion of how to listen to this beautiful, transcendent music!

P.S.: Share a video of yourself responding to one of our listening experiment prompts on Facebook or Instagram and you could score 2 free tickets to the Riverside Listening Experiment!