Going to concerts is an exciting experience for many music lovers. While access to public places and information is a basic right, the reality is it takes everyone to make this access possible. In recent years, music organisations have tried to open up their concert series' to audiences with disability.
Arts Access Australia CEO Matthew Hall summarises what audiences with disability should expect.
"In an ideal situation, audiences with disability can expect that the concert venue, including signage and information is accessible and most organisations are now accepting the Companion Card," he says. Companion Card is a national program that enables people with disability to get a second ticket for a carer or companion free of charge. Hall also says audiences with disability would look for audio described, Auslan interpreted or relaxed performances within a program or schedule of events.
We've compiled just some of the activities happening in Australia's concert halls over the pass few years to make classical music more accessible.
Audio descriptions in concert
In October, I attended Australian Chamber Orchestra's (ACO) River live in concert with audio description. It was delivered by freelance describer Emma Bedford from an assigned area in the auditorium and transmitted via an earpiece. While other members of the audience enjoyed an immersive experience of sounds, voiceover narration and visuals, as a blind audience member I had Bedford's poetic descriptions to fill the gaps.
Bedford has been freelancing as an audio describer for 13 years. She has worked with the ACO for a number of years including on their award-winning Mountain project. Bedford explains: "My description for the ACO is particular in that the music is a character, so whereas in crafting other description I leave space for the dialogue, for River, I leave space for the soundscape to grow and surround the participant."
Bedford says the key to describing live performance lies in choosing the right moment.
"It is more helpful if the describer can speak before the change, so the listener can appreciate what is about to occur and enjoy the experience just like sighted participants."
Bedford describes her rather straightforward, yet extensive preparations: "I receive a copy of the recording in advance, in as high quality as possible, with program notes and a script if it exists. I ask the producer to assist with pronunciations of creatives and performers. I watch the recording over and over, noting changes in the visual offering (lighting changes, a mood change) and important or stand-out moments in the score, for example when a piece delicately begins or crescendos."
Although it is not possible to describe every visual detail, Bedford enjoys the editorial process of choreographing her words into phrases as short and descriptive as possible. "I am very conscious of not talking too much, after all, it is the music we have come to hear. Take as an example the archival photography included in River, where the content is informative but displayed rapidly, and I was unable to include every photo in the live description.
"In this instance it is important to give a general sense, without rushing through to fit too much in."
A powerful example for me was the formation of rain which Bedford described, followed by the pizzicato from the string section which I most associated with the depiction of rain.
Besides the audio description in concerts, ACO has also implemented other initiatives over the years. From 2014-2019, ACO ran a participatory workshop program called ACO Move which gave young adults with disability opportunities to participated in music, movement and composition activities. The program was paused due to COVID-19.
In 2022 ACO started to offer a series of Relaxed performances with accompanying visual story materials crafted to help neurodiverse audience members know exactly what is going to happen. Relaxed performance series also feature in other orchestras' and music organisations' concert offerings.
Relaxed and Family series
The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (ASO) has offered the Relaxed and Family concert series from 2021. Spearheaded by ASO musician Emma Perkins, whose child required additional support to attend live performances, the series has expanded to embrace diverse disability access including visual props and Auslan interpreters.
According to the ASO: "The concerts were built in partnership with Can:Do 4 Kids. Each new project gets reviewed before a Relaxed performance is created with Can:Do, the presenter, the conductor, artistic and production teams."
Kate Rayner from Can:Do explains: "Children with sensory needs can find standard concerts challenging and require a more relaxed environment where it is ok if a child approaches the conductor, claps loudly with enthusiasm during a movement or needs to leave the concert space to a break-out area where they can re-set."
Parents have welcomed these new opportunities as it opens up options for family outings. "These concerts have been designed with both the child's enjoyment and their caregiver in mind," Rayner says. ASO's Relaxed concerts have an open door, a breakout room, sensory toys, inclusive games, and warnings when some sections might become overwhelming. After the concert, audiences have the opportunity to meet the musicians and view or touch their instruments.
Although the series is primarily aimed at neurodiverse children and their families, ASO says is still an open concert.
"The Relaxed concerts are open to all ages so neurodiverse adults are more than welcome to attend. We market these concerts to all of our patrons."
Auslan Shadow-Interpreted opera
Auslan interpreted performances in operas have gained ground since the mid 2000s. But when it comes to this multi-sensory art form, Deaf audiences still experienced a lot of barriers.
To bridge the gap between Deaf and hearing audiences, Opera Australia pioneered Auslan Shadow-Interpreted opera in collaboration with Deaf Children Australia in 2009.
Musician and Arts consultant specialising in diversity, access and inclusion Morwenna Collett explains how shadow interpretation differs from more traditional formats like what you might have seen during COVID-19 press conferences. "In a shadow interpretation, the Auslan interpreters follow the characters around the stage and become part of the performance.
"So they're embedded as characters within the show instead of being on one side of the stage."
The program has formed part of Opera Australia's schools programs and has received positive feedback from Deaf opera-goers.
"In 2004 I saw a performance where the interpreters were placed to the side of the stage. Then more recently interpreters 'shadowed' the performers … I could easily see the whole performance rather than trying to deal with interpreters too far to one side, as well as lighting issues … It just made so much sense to have the interpretation close to the action."
According to Opera Australia, they hope to offer many more accessible concerts in the future. Besides Auslan Shadow-Interpreted operas, Opera Australia also offers real-time surtitles and closed caption for some of their shows, as well as audio description and Relaxed performances. However, they haven't as yet explored the opportunities of working with Deaf artists as part of the Auslan Shadow-Interpreted opera, in contrast to initiatives happening overseas.
Australian soprano Miriam Gordon Stewart, who is now based in Virginia, US, is pushing the boundaries of Shadow-Interpreted opera. Gordon Stewart's company, Victory Hall Opera, held a workshop in 2020 which brought together three Deaf artists and three opera singers to stage scenes from Dialogue of the Carmelites by Francis Poulenc. The Deaf actors used American Sign Language (ASL) – the prevalent sign language in North America. The project was part of Breaking The Sound Barrier, spearheaded by Gordon Stewart and University of Virginia music professor Brenda Patterson in collaboration with ASL interpreter Alek Lev.
Although each role in the opera was double-cast, with both a Deaf actor and an opera singer intertwining in simultaneous singing and signing, the singers also acted as "spirit guides." Victory Hall Opera will continue the collaboration in 2023 with a production of Orpheus and Erica, based on Gluck's opera with a hybrid cast of opera singers and Deaf actors.
In another production, the Los Angeles Philharmonic in collaboration with Deaf West Theater staged Beethoven's Fidelio earlier this year in what the New York Times called "The dance of the double cast." The project was particularly poignant for LA Philharmonic's music director Gustavo Dudamel and artistic director of the Deaf West Theater DJ Kurs. Beethoven progressively lost his hearing in the last decade of his life. Through his only opera, Dudamel and Kurs wanted to portray the interplay between "the two worlds of Beethoven."
Consultation and authentic casting
Arts Access Australia Matthew Hall observes: "Although now the Arts industry has high levels of awareness and knowledge around the importance of access for audiences, there is still a great deal of work to be done to support artists and arts workers with disability."
However, some companies are shifting the expectations. When West Australian Opera put on a production of Tchaikovsky's last opera Iolanta, the story of a young, blind medieval princess, they undertook a thorough consultation with the local blind organisation and cast a blind actor as part of the show.
Together with a focus group of eight people from the blind and low vision community of Perth, the production team transformed the story by adding reflective monologues of Queen Iolanta, recited by blind actor Grace King, which added depth to the original work.
Unlike the young princess who doesn't get very much stage time, Queen Iolanta talks directly to the audience as a 30-year-old woman.
Opera director Katt Osborne said although they haven't been able to cast a blind opera singer for this role, they hoped to do so in the future.
WA Opera Artistic Director Chris van Tuinen says engaging with the blind community through Iolanta was "a great learning experience for the company and gives us a lot of confidence to go forward and explore parts of the repertoire through those different lenses."
Authentic casting has been a long-term commitment of WA Opera under the leadership of van Tuinen. "We try and cast as authentically as possible, where there's issues of cultural appropriation," van Tuinen says. Although there is no disability-focused production slated for 2023, the organisation is continuing their focus for diverse, authentic casting especially in Koolbardi wer Wardong, which will be sung in Noongar with English surtitles by a full First Nations cast.
"One of the reasons the opera audience is so interesting is because they keep coming back to this art form," van Tuinen says on opera-goers' receptions on the direction he's taking. "They come back with the expectation that they'll be surprised and delighted and experience something new."
Live Broadcasts and streaming
There are many reasons people don't attend live concerts and festivals. Physical barriers, lack of public transport and ticket prices often lock out people with disability.
During the pandemic, streaming digital concert services opened up access to concert halls around Australia. But the service existed before the pandemic made it ubiquitous.
In 2019 I agreed to review a concert, misread the time and missed the train. I couldn't make it to the Sydney Opera House where eight international choirs concluded the inaugural international choral festival. However, I discovered in time it was being live broadcast by ABC Classic so I was still able to listen, with Vanessa Hughes's presentation which brought the choirs to life.
There was a choir from Riga in Latvia who wore white, floor-length dresses and sang Latvian folk songs, and another from Inner Mongolia who, wearing blues, whites and yellows, sang the powerful words: "The gods will come and save the earth."
It was an exemplary form of audio description which was accessible on a free-to-air basis. Instead of being locked out of the concert, it was almost better than being in the hall where I could have missed the feast of visual elements.
What happens next?
Arts Access Australia CEO Matthew Hall says the benefit of making concerts accessible is clear:
"More people means more audience."
However, musicians and Arts consultant Morwenna Collett cautions that there needs to be more audience development plans in place to promote accessible events. "Just offering Auslan interpreters or audio descriptions, for example, is not enough to get people to come along.
"You need to engage with the disability communities and actively welcome them in."
Collett says Australia needs to catch up to other countries, especially the US and UK. "I'd say to music organisations, you don't need to figure out audio description, Auslan interpreted and relaxed performance all in one go, but you need to start from somewhere." Connecting with communities of people with disability, educating staff, and making a disability action plan are some of the steps Collett recommends organisations can take.
Meanwhile, some are pushing further. US-based Gordon Stewart says their intention is "to move beyond the idea of doubling hearing and Deaf performers playing the same role and explore ways that hearing and Deaf performers could be full participants in the story-telling."
Hall shares that Arts Access Australia is in the process of creating an Australian code of conduct for access in the arts, a voluntary standard based on nine principles which can guide the community interactions for all aspects of the Arts. He has been pleased that there is greater awareness of audience access needs, especially surrounding the access costs of consultation and facilitators such as Auslan interpreters, audio describers and for ASO, an on-site clinical therapist during their Relaxed performances.
Collett adds that there is now a stronger expectation from funding bodies such as Australia Council for the Arts which puts equity and diversity front and centre.