Ann Arbor audiences can join Philharmonia Orchestra of London onstage via virtual reality

This story is part of a series about arts and culture in Washtenaw County. It is made possible by the Ann Arbor Art Center, the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, Destination Ann Arbor, Larry and Lucie Nisson, and the University Musical Society.

When the Philharmonia Orchestra of London visits Ann Arbor next week, it’ll not only offer audiences the chance to enjoy a performance by a renowned symphony orchestra, but also the chance to join that orchestra — at least virtually.

According to Cayenne Harris, vice president of learning and engagement for the University Musical Society (UMS), which is hosting the Philharmonia, the orchestra has adopted an “immersive” virtual reality (VR) experience “that allows people to feel what it’s like to be seated in the middle of the orchestra.”

After donning a headset equipped with standard VR technology, users find themselves (virtually) on-stage, in the midst of the Philharmonia’s woodwind section, say, as they perform one of a few different selections. No prior experience with VR is required.

The first opportunity to try out the technology will be provided on Tuesday, Oct. 21, with a drop-in period from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at Cahoots, 206 E. Huron St. in downtown Ann Arbor. The family-friendly event is free, and while parents or guardians are recommended to guide children younger than 10, those 10 and up may embark on a solo experience.

The Philharmonia will perform at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 24 at Hill Auditorium, 825 N. University Ave, in Ann Arbor. Prior to the start of that performance, VR headsets will again be available to audience members in the venue’s lower lobby. An additional pop-up VR experience will be offered from noon-2 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 24 in the Britton Recital Hall in Moore Building, 1100 Baits Dr., in Ann Arbor.

Harris says the technology allows users to experience what it’s like to sit onstage before an audience, but also — and perhaps more importantly — to be “immersed” in the sounds of an orchestra.

That’s an altogether different experience from what audience members might be used to, Harris points out. Typically, when you buy a ticket to see an orchestra perform, you experience something relatively straightforward: “You’re out in the audience, and that sound is coming at you,” Harris says.

On a sonic level, onstage musicians are generally hearing something rather different. And while some of us grew up learning to play the violin or trombone in school, Harris adds, “relatively few people have that opportunity” to perform “in one of the world’s great ensembles.”

The Philharmonia’s VR experience provides users with “a window” into a musician’s onstage point of view, “and to see what that looks like, hear what that sounds like, and experience orchestral music in a new way,” Harris says.

Harris’ hope is that the technology might encourage “people who maybe aren’t regular orchestra-goers” to try out something new. But she says even UMS regulars who are “passionate about Western classical music” are likely to find “something new and something special” to savor.

Harris says many in the performing arts community are currently considering how to use recent technological advancements like VR and artificial intelligence to improve audiences’ experiences with the arts.

“How do we connect this experience to modern-day life?” she asks. “… How do we use the tools that are available to us now to make this even more meaningful, even more accessible, to the general public?”

In her view, the Philharmonia’s “exciting and interesting” VR experience is the latest iteration of that attempt to modernize. She says it’s also just one of the ways that the Philharmonia, one of several London-based symphony orchestras, has “set themselves apart by being a leader in the realm of digital work.”

Still, Harris says, the VR experience is not intended to be “an alternative to the live experience.” She says audiences should think of it instead as “an interesting accompaniment” to the main attraction, a way to “draw people closer to the live experience.”