Classical Music, liveness and digital technologies

Performances of classical composition music have seen a decline in their audiences for some years. Does the classical concert ritual scare people off? This notion has spurred off a development of design concepts directed at rethinking concert rituals in order to create new audience experiences. This article uses the suggestion of Philip Auslander to rethink the relationship between the mediatized and live format in order to use digital technologies to enrich and develop the live performance as a starting position. On the background of an ongoing EU funded interregional project, a series of interrelated design experiments are presented which all share the ambition of integration digital technologies in life performances of classical music. A particular focus is put on the ongoing development of a design concept where interactive audio and visual experiences in an underground metro station shall interrelate with activities and live performances in the nearby concert house.