Embodying Expression, Gender, Charisma–Breaking Boundaries

In Embodying Expression, Gender, Charisma - Breaking Boundaries of Classical Instrumental Practices, violinist, composer and researcher Prof. Dr. Barbara Lüneburg, sociologist Dr. Kai Ginkel and violinist Diamanda La Berge Dramm investigate how the body of instrumentalists is an essential factor for musical expression, gender perception and charisma. The body is the medium through which instrumentalists realise sound, musical ideas and emotions. Their body is both the emotion and the carrier of sound and musical idea. Performers use - consciously or unconsciously - gestures and facial expressions as well as the staging of the body as a means of expression, communication and interaction with the audience. Through their physicality, they give the audience an insight into their individual, but also into their staged and culturally shaped personality and are perceived and interpreted by the audience through the body as much as through their musical language. The team understands the physicality of performers not only through musical expression, but also as technique and habit inscribed in their bodies through training, years of practice, cultural associations, lived values and individual personality. Emotions and thought processes are generated and represented in gestures, and bodily and artistic expression are interwoven with social messages, meanings and values. Body language thus plays directly into the value system shared with the audience and constructs not only the musical experience but also charisma. The team`s research takes Western classical instrumental practice as a starting point, incorporates performances from classical to contemporary music, and translates findings into new artworks for violin and multimedia, installations, exhibitions and performance formats. The inclusion of three generations of artists and/or researchers in the project, the interdisciplinarity, the opening of the discourse to guest artists, researchers and audiences, and our investigative work in workshops with students will allow for a diversity of perspectives on our theme. This integrative approach is a key element for insight and change. Project website: www.embodying-expression.net