Inside the Quartet

On 16 March, the Finnish Kamus Quartet will give what promises to be a great chamber concert of works by Finnish composers Kaija Anneli Saariaho and the great master of Romanticism Jean Sibelius, but both the day before and on the day of the concert, you can get a taste of what it is like to play music on stage, and it is guaranteed to be a unique experience. An installation entitled Concert Experience in Virtual Reality offers exactly what its title promises: the chance to become a performer through a VR headset. What would it be like to play in a string quartet? How do the four leading musicians of the Kamus Quartet communicate with each other in milliseconds while they play? With glances? Whispers? Bow waving? Or perhaps the connection between the musicians is telepathic? Experienceit for yourself!

Originally entitled Inside the Quartet, the installation allows the audience to experience the music from the perspective of one of the Kamus Quartet's chosen players. The experience, which can be viewed through a VR headset, features the first two movements of Jean Sibelius' Voces Intimae, performed by Kamus at the composer's home in Ainola, where the work was filmed in the summer of 2020. The technical realisation of the work was carried out by an interdisciplinary team from Aalto University.

The work will be presented to the public as an installation of four VR headsets, modelled on a string quartet line-up. Each headset will run the experience separately, making it accessible to 1-4 people at a time.