Camerata Asolo - The International Academy for Music in Performance
“Performance traditions, handed down by great performers and teachers through example, form our only link to the origins and development of great music. This information, which is not and cannot be contained within the written musical score, is as precious and vital to us today as a fresco on an ancient building. It is equally fragile. We lose it at our peril.”
What? An International Forum and Festival for Concert Artists
The aim of Camerata Asolo (CA) is to establish a centre of excellence in the form of a creative environment where today’s great concert artists can work, independently or in collaboration, to document, apply and develop essential performance practices and traditions currently at serious risk of disappearing and pass them on to young performers of exceptional talent. An audio visual documentation, captured using specially developed technology, will form the first digital archive and networked knowledge tool of its kind and will be made accessible to music students, professional musicians, musicologists and music lovers worldwide.
Why? To Conserve Great Performing Traditions for the Future
Camerata Asolo is the result of the collective conviction and experience of some of the greatest exponents of classical music performance of the 20th century. Their musical understanding grew out of an age of entirely different human and creative proportions. Our fast changing world is placing the creative and spiritual ideals of the past under unreasonable pressure. Many of these artists have recognised the urgent need to conserve fundamental musical principles to guarantee the future of a cultural heritage under threat. New technology can capture, manage and diffuse this knowledge without distorting its purity.
Where? The Renaissance Hill Town of Asolo, Italy
Camerata Asolo is situated in the beautiful Italian Renaissance town of Asolo, north-west of Venice. Established by Norbert Brainin, founder of the legendary Amadeus Quartet, it is supported by the Norbert Brainin Foundation based in the United Kingdom.
Camerata Asolo has two approaches:
The creation of a pure musical community conceived by musicians for musicians, employing new technology that will capture, unobtrusively, the creative process audio visually, the first artistic knowledge asset tool of its kind. This tool can be sourced by a limitless number of musicians worldwide without geographical or economic constraints.
How? Through Teaching, Studying, Performing
a) Teaching - Performing artists who should be teaching the most interesting talent are not able to dedicate the necessary time due to career pressures. With an Academy, Camerata Asolo will create the ideal conditions for these same artists to devote the right amount and quality of time to their teaching.
b) Creativity – Camerata Asolo will offer major concert artists a musical home in the shape of a Forum where they can together realise performance projects free from market forces that hinder their creative goals.
c) Cultural Heritage – Performance and interpretative traditions in classical music represent a vital cultural heritage. No comprehensive record of this musical inheritance exists today.This will be resolved by creating an archive that sources its content from the Academy and Forum activities.
The Archive
The Archive will contain closely indexed audio visual information on all aspects of the interpretative and instrumental art: discussions, interviews, lessons, master classes, rehearsals and performances generated within Camerata Asolo. It will be designed to benefit music students, professional musicians and musicologists worldwide. Its aim is to make this material available in the kind of specific categories essential for advanced study.
We consider that, until now, the main weakness of online teaching in music has been the lack of analysis of material. Showing entire master classes, without categorisation or detail, is of limited value. The same is true of recordings, historic and otherwise, which by necessity are achieved through a complex series of technical processes which filter the true experience. The advanced technology we plan to use will remove such filters and lay bare the original process as never before.
Technology: A Networked Knowledge Tool
A pioneering ‘Studio Asolo’, using superior state-of-the-art technology, will record and make available the Archive to students, professional musicians, musicologists or other interested parties at all levels, through subscription.
Camerata Asolo is determined to apply the principle of `real sound’ so as to produce Archive material, fully cross-referenced and catalogued, that is a precise audio representation of the musician's art.
A production centre is under development to allow Camerata Asolo to establish a standard of audio visual data of the highest quality.
The recording studio and production centre will be sited in the historic church of San Gottardo in Asolo and will include a replay environment, editing facilities and digital data storage capacity.
Why is this project important?
Cultural heritage - the first documentation and definition of performance traditions and practices in Classical Music captured, managed and presented through use of new technology for the benefit of a large and easily identifiable market.
Teaching methods - major concert artists who are prepared to pass on knowledge within a unique creative community specifically dedicated to safeguarding classical music performance.
New direction - Camerata Asolo is a major new departure that will help generate new audience and interest in classical music.
Music/technology - a well-balanced marriage of new technology with an arts orientated project.
Conclusion
Camerata Asolo will:
- Nurture and conserve a vital cultural heritage.
- Initiate an innovative method for sharing and disseminating this heritage.
- Generate and, through advanced technology, record, exceptional artistic material with the support of top performers and teachers.
- Offer an inspiring location in the Italian hill-town of Asolo.
