Amateur music performances as the right to the city

Abstract

Based on my own experiences as an amateur violinist, this research aims to describe and discuss amateur music in the music ecosystem and to advocate "the right to the city" on the ground of amateur music performances. Literature review, digital survey application, field research and participant observation, semi-structured interviews and the information request from the public institutions through official petitions are the methods employed in the thesis. The geographical focus of the study is the province of Istanbul. Digital survey application was carried out at the concerts here. Data on music education activities were obtained from forty local government units and public education centres in Istanbul. While "leisure time" and "performance" studies help to understand amateurship, the complementarity of amateur music in the music ecosystem and the obstacles to amateur music experiences are also evaluated. The amateur is complementary in the music ecosystem as listener and student by encouraging the employment of music performers and educators. The digital surveys conducted at concerts within the scope of the thesis and the data on music education activities obtained from the public institutions support these arguments. Moreover, it should not be neglected that the amateur relationship with music will be favorable for both creative and conservative tendencies, and that amateurs, divorced from material-popular concerns, will be suitable informants for music researchers. The combination, of the proportion of the concert audiences in Istanbul who use the term "amateur" to describe their relationship with music, of the number of people trained in non-professional courses and the number of teachers employed by the relevant public institutions, and finally of the list of cultural centers and concert halls in the city increases the credibility of the study. However, the amateurs face the physical problems such as the access to the venues for performance and the structural problems such as the invention of untalented. In addition, the participant observations and interviews conducted during the field research in Bergen, Norway, provide an understanding of the concept of amateur culture. The explanation of the interaction between the city, classical music and the common/public spaces, and the data provided by the field research in Bergen and Istanbul lead the discussion towards the right to the city. For claiming amateur music performances within the scope of "the right to the city", it is necessary to deepen the framework of the right with the understanding of "active musical participation". The concert culture and the performativity of the stage guide a discussion of active participation. As a result, while the right to the city acquires once more concrete ground for the struggle, the access of the city inhabitants to the common/public venues through amateur music performances will enrich the interactions of person, music and the city.