The First and Founding Manifesto of the 1781 Collective

“It is time to bring about the change that we wish to see. The 1781 Collective is an organisation dedicated to the support and development of new ideas that create positive change within the classical music industry.”

Signed officially may 26, 2021 by the founding members of the 1781 collective.

 
 

 AN INTROSPECTIVE MANIFESTO

An exploration into Introspective Experience Design and the evolution from multisensory and immersive experience.

Publicly launched on July 2nd, 2019 in collaboration with Tech Open Air conference, Berlin.

 
 

Essays

A call for innovation, and to seize the opportunity in the midst of the shit-storm.

There has never been a better time to be a freelance musician.

Ordinarily, we’re lumped into a categorisation of those who haven’t made it in the traditional system, or those who are aspiring to join an elite institution. We’re the mavericks that didn’t quite meet the standard of the bigger orchestras, managements, venues — or we’re the recent students who are in the awkward pubescent period as we wait to exit the chrysalis of uncertainty, emerging as beautiful, employable butterflies. In the hierarchy that is the traditional classical music industry, we are firmly at the bottom, ostensibly trying to work our way up (at least, according to this in the higher echelons above us)….

Full text available at this link (opens a new tab to Medium).

Classical music is elitist.

Classical music puts up barriers to new audiences.

Classical music is inaccessible and unwelcoming.

A fair chunk of us in classical music performance have heard, acknowledged, and pondered the above statements which are uttered often enough to help us understand why a large majority of the population generally doesn’t want anything to do with us.

Our answer? Make it more elitist, build bigger barriers, and make it even more unwelcoming.

Full text available at this link (opens a new tab to The Cross-Eyed Pianist)

1781 Collective: The First Steps.

PUBLISHED: MAY 8TH, 2019

In the past few months we have been working on two threads simultaneously: Firstly, developing a community of like-minded creators and organisations; secondly, developing performance concepts that can act as an example for those wishing to think of new delivery methods in concert, including elements of something we’ve termed ‘Introspective Experience’. Below will detail a little further, and we wholeheartedly welcome your contributions, comments, and criticisms.

Full text available at this link (opens a new tab to Medium).