CONCERTS OF THE FUTURE to Make Edinburgh Fringe Debut With VR Orchestra Experience
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra experience features Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 at the intimate SensiLab-developed VR showcase.
Reimagining the classical concert experience, Concerts of the Future asks: what if anyone could perform in a concert hall? This unique show is a cutting-edge participatory VR music experience that gives audiences of all musical capabilities the chance to perform alongside the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra through technology, music and movement. An Edinburgh first, Concerts of the Future allows you to join a real world-class orchestra and play a Beethoven symphony.
Concert halls and orchestral experiences are filled with barriers from feelings of being an outsider to the assumption that music is something only 'experts' get to play. Concerts of the Future turns that narrative on its head, bringing people into the full experience and allowing an opportunity for anyone to 'walk into' a concert hall and perform iconic symphonies.
Each 20-minute performance will see an intimate audience of five who become fully immersed within a full orchestra using VR headset, spatial audio and 3D imaging. Budding musicians are assigned a unique fictional instrument from a future orchestra to use, each with its own personality and sound. Through custom-built wireless gestural controllers called AirSticks - developed at SensiLab - audiences swap out keys, strings and valves for gesture and movement to play Beethoven's iconic 'Symphony No. 7' with a full-scale orchestra.
Composer, researcher and co-creator Ciaran Frame comments, We're really excited to show how anyone in Edinburgh can be a musician! Concert halls have always had this invisible wall between the people on stage and the people in the seats, and we want to dissolve it completely. Working with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and using technology developed at SensiLab, we have built an experience where anyone, regardless of musical background, can sit amongst a world-class orchestra and play.
After being an integral part of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, every participant receives a video showing them centre stage and capturing the one-of-a-kind orchestral experience.
Developed at SensiLab, Monash University, Concerts of The Future by The Sonicrats and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is part of the House of Oz Edinburgh 2026 season which also includes Ten Thousand Hours by Gravity & Other Myths; BIRDS by Alex Hines and Sarah Stafford; How Not To Make It In America by Emily Steel; FUCCBOIS: LIVE IN CONCERT by Bridie Connell; Glass Child by The Farm; Daddy by Joel Bray Dance; and The Listies: 110% Ready by The Listies. The 30-minute immersive musical experience will take place at Summerhall from August 6 to August 31.
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