With the pandemic having brought all concerts to a grinding and indefinite stop, performers have longed for live audiences and the interact...
With the pandemic having brought all concerts to a grinding and indefinite stop, performers have longed for live audiences and the interaction with listeners that goes into the making of the most memorable concerts. Truly, the greatest and most magical of performances are often spurred by avid listeners.
But audiences too are as diverse as the music and the performers. Between the section of uninitiated listeners at Hindustani music concerts who are drawn inexorably to the beauty of the music or to the performers’ charisma on the one hand, and musicians in the audience who may evaluate the performers capabilities by the minute on the other, lies a broad spectrum of concertgoers who engage with the music at different levels.
For instance, one could come across those who have had some amount of musical training during their formative years but have had virtually no active association with music since then. Listening to a performance could rekindle memories of their early training and of aspirations to pursue music seriously. They may choose to reveal this to the performers after the concert and also inform them that their inability to continue with music was because of other commitments. Those who are inspired by the very...
