Live Performance Review

Paper details

Live Performance Review Instructions
Purpose: Concert reviews are intended to help you synthesize what you learn in class with what you experience in a live concert performance.
Ground Rules: Any live, professional performance presenting compositions by composers represented in the texts/CDs is valid. Please make sure that this is a classical concert. If you have a question as to the validity of the concert you wish to review, please have it approved by the instructor before you attend.
Basics: Begin with the Who, What, Where, When information like What the concert was, Where and When the concert occured, and Who were the performers. Was there a conductor or guest soloist, etc. Then move on to the music. Start with a short background on each composer represented. (If there are many composers, chose three or four of the most prominent composers on the program.) Using vocabulary presented in your listening and reading assignments, describe each piece of music and your reaction to it. Consider how each of the composers relates to his/her own historical period. If you have never been to a classical concert, compare the concert to your expectations of it. If you have previously attended classical concerts, compare this concert to your previous concert experiences.
Format: Your review must be typed, double-spaced, and contain one-inch margins. It should be about 1000 words in length or about three to four pages. Enclose a sample program of the concert you are reviewing. (You can scan it and send it as a pdf, or take a digital photo of the program and send it as a jpg file.)
Sources: Be sure to include information found in a variety of sources in your paper. Also the following sources may be helpful references for writing your concert review:
• Course materials and recordings
• Grove’s Dictionary of Music (20 volumes, don’t get bogged down in all the information presented)
• Encyclopedias
• Program notes
• Pre-concert lectures (many concerts Feature speakers discussing the music to be performed in the concert)
• Composer biographies and sound recordings