Seeing Music

Fawn Fritzen, “Aurora Workshops Blog”, December 1, 2017

“Going to the symphony is largely an auditory experience. But what if you could visually experience the music, too? Well, now you can. Musicologist Dr. Hannah Chan-Hartley has developed a series of “Visual Listening Guides” that map out the music with icons, colour, and graphical representations of important musical themes.”

Music To My Eyes

Chloe Silver, “Chloe Silver Blog”, June 5, 2017

“Perhaps my favourite part of the show was following along to the ingenious listening Guide. […] I feel like this one small piece of design (only a couple of pages in a medium-thick program) really shaped my experience of the performance in a poignant way, and allowed me to connect even more with the music.”   

Innovation in access 1: The Visual Listening Guide by Hannah Chan-Hartley

Stefan Rosu, “The Orchestra Innovation Blog”, March 30, 2017

An update to this article is available HERE.

WQXR’s 12 Significant Classical Music Events in 2016 No. 11: Visual Listening Guides

Michael Rosin, WQXR, December 12, 2016

“The Toronto-based musicologist and editor, Hannah Chan-Hartley, has caused quite a stir with her innovative “listening guides” for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s printed programs.”

Map Quest: Using Listening Maps in Program Books

Sarah Marczynski, ArtsHacker, October 7, 2016

“Orchestral music can be long and the progression of the movement can be difficult to track if you’re trying to do it in your mind.  Having a visual guide enhances the experience and allows for engaged listening.”

The dance between data and art

Audrée Lapierre, DesignEdge Canada, September 7, 2016

“I’ve been reading a lot recently about data finding its way into the arts realm, and while I’m certainly interested in the ways in which artists use data as a raw material, I’m even more interested to see how arts organizations are using information design in ways that speak to their audiences and offer in-roads to the work itself. I saw a great example of this recently, Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s listening guides.”

A copy of this article is available upon request.

How to read music when you don’t read music: innovative and striking ‘listening guides’ for classical audiences

Rosalind Arnell, Classic FM, August 2, 2016

“Fancy reading a musical score even when you’re not a trained musician? Want to leave all those clefs, staves and ledger lines at home? The Toronto Symphony is giving their audience new ways to understand and engage with the music with a very different type of concert programme. And we’re big fans.”

A copy of this article is available upon request.