Industry day on music for young audiences

This sector day will be held in Dutch and English

Inspiratie, valkuilen en co-creatie

Do you work for an organisation that produces music for young audiences? Or do you yourself create work for young audiences? We invite you to Ghent on 2 June for an industry event featuring lunch, a keynote speech by Brian Irvine and interactive sessions in the afternoon.

In some music genres, there is already a strong and established tradition of creating music for and with young audiences. But for other genres, this practice is still very much in its infancy. At the same time, it remains essential – even for experienced musicians and creators – to tailor their work to an audience that is constantly changing, growing and evolving.

13:00 - 13:30 Keynote by Brian Irvine (EN)
There is nothing finer, more exhilarating, more relentlessly exciting than putting on your musical space suit, leaping headlong into the Indiana Jones hyper ship and exploring the deeper infinity of the odd shaped legoland we call music. Finding stories, making shapes, expressing desires, swimming in the great magnificent sea of surreality...Come on in, the water’s lovely! 

13:30 - 15:00 How to create learning materials for a young audience (NL)
How do you develop a practice aimed at children and young people? At present, there are no specific training programmes or schools that focus on creating for young audiences. What role do conservatoires, production companies, performance venues and support organisations play in developing expertise? What role might they take on in the future? 

In this session, we will discuss training, support and lifelong learning: how creators, organisations and institutions can together form an ecosystem in which artistic practices for young audiences can grow and deepen.

13:30 - 15:00 Participation and artistic experimentation (ENG)
How can we give children and young people the opportunity to explore, imagine and experience their world in a creative way?

We will discuss co-creative and participatory approaches that actively involve young audiences in the creation of music and musical performances. We will explore how creators can develop new forms for and with children and young people, focusing on practices in which participation becomes the driving force for artistic innovation, and in which engaging with a young audience opens up new perspectives within the creative process.

15:30 - 17:00 Young audiences: connecting with different worlds (EN)
Working with children and young people means working with different age groups, but also working within a variety of contexts: cultural backgrounds, familiarity with the arts, and differences between school and family audiences.

How do you create work that can appeal to that diversity without losing your own artistic identity? In this session, we will not start from barriers, but from inspiring practices. We will explore the universality and non-verbal nature of music, multilingual audiences and the opportunities for international exchange.

15:30 - 17:00 Creating work for young audiences: the artistic and educational vision (NL)

What motivates creators to produce work for young audiences? Music for children and young people is often associated with a sense of ‘missionary zeal’: introducing them to a rich musical heritage, or to the vast diversity that the world of music has to offer. This is undoubtedly valuable, but it need not begin or end there. 

In this workshop, we explore how a performance for young audiences can be enriching in various ways and on multiple levels. How do you make the context of a performance clear to both general and school audiences, and how do you deal with expectations such as lesson packs or educational materials — without losing sight of the artistic core?  

11:00 EXTRA ‘Collective Composition’ workshop by Brian Irvine (ENG)
In addition to the sector day programme, we are organising an extra workshop in the morning from 11am to 12pm. In a smaller setting, we will explore methods Brian Irvine uses for collective composition.

Presented by Kunstenpunt, Ha Concerts, Muziekcentrum De Bijloke, Zonzo Compagnie & Musica