HARPS at the “Doctors in Performance” festival-conference in Finland

Violinist, assistant professor of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, leader of the project “Performer’s Polyfunctionality in Musical, Cultural and Social Processes”, Dr. Rūta Lipinaitytė has presented a paper at the first international festival-conference on musical performance and artistic research “Doctors in Performance”, which took place on September 4–5, 2014, at the University of the Arts Helsinki, Sibelius Academy. The festival-conference was organized by the DocMus Doctoral school of the Sibelius Academy. Another representative of LMTA, HARPS co-ordinator and Head of Postgraduate Studies Lina Navickaitė-Martinelli has been invited by the organizers to follow the event as a member of the Artistic Research working group of the AEC Polifonia network.

Artistic research performers at both doctoral and post-doctoral levels were invited to take part in the conference. Instead of exclusively introducing paper presentations, the festival-conference featured also the research-related music performed by the participants. Recitals, lecture-concerts and research papers were presented at the halls of the new Helsinki Music Centre. The keynote presenters of “Doctors in Performance” were the pianist, professor of the Juilliard school in New York Matti Raekallio, and the musicologist, viola da gamba player Lawrence Dreyfus (Oxford University, Magdalen College).

Rūta Lipinaitytė’s paper “The Orchestra Concertmaster as a Polyfunctional Figure” aimed at revealing some distinctive features of a special role that falls on the first violinist in the orchestra – the concertmaster. In order to discuss the characteristics of this profession, two cases from orchestral practices were analysed: an orchestra led by a conductor and an orchestra without the conductor’s leadership. An analysis was conducted of how the concertmaster’s activity combines in itself the functions of the leader, an accompanist, a soloist, a pedagogue, or an orchestra representative. In sum, a great diversity of musical roles alongside a variety of other duties falling on a concertmaster supports the multifunctional nature of this profession. This conclusion was based in the paper on both responses from concertmasters, orchestra members and conductors to a special questionnaire as well as on the author’s personal experience as a member and one of the concertmasters of the Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra.

Prepared as part of the cultural development project “A Performer’s Polyfunctionality in Musical, Cultural and Social Processes” funded by the Lithuanian Research Council (Contract No MIP-095/2013).