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This is a list of resources on in-situ music. I use this term to describe music conceived to be performed outside the regular concert spaces in dialogue or interaction with a park, street, forest and its inhabitants, passers-by, animals, plants, the wind, etc. I list composers, improvisers, ensembles (and hopefully in the future also festivals and background texts).

This webpage started as part of a research project (2016-2019) at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp. This page is regularly updated. If something is missing, please let me know (info at hansroels dot be).

The following musicians and composers have been involved in in-situ music performances for several years, not just for one composition. The date mentioned after their names refers to their active 'in-situ' period.

In situ musicians (older generation):

• Llorenç Barber (1988 – now) has made tens of 'city concerts', in which bells, bell towers, and local performers are spread over a city and make the whole city sound as one instrument.
• Alvin Curran (1970s – now): His Maritime Rites are a cycle of works for harbours or lakes with performers in boats. Since decades Curran has been writing music for places outside the concert hall, often involving large groups of amateur or local performers.
• Harry De Wit (1980s – 90s): created large site-specific performances, such as Concert pour Centrale Electrique for the power plant of Rouen (F) or Song for the pigeons. Later on in his career he created music and built experimental music instruments for theatre productions.
• David Dunn (1970s – 80s) has made several performances which interact with natural environments. Often these performances are prescriptions to realize a recording.
• Nicolas Frize (1970s – now): by living and working together with people in schools, hospitals, factories during a residency Frize creates music performances at those locations.
• Alvin Lucier (1960s – 70s): Amercan experimental composer working with acoustical phenomena.
• Jose Maceda (1970s) wrote two large, innovative performances (Ugnayan, Udlot-Udlot) inspired by South-East Asian culture.
• Pauline Oliveros (1968 – 2016): Listening is a central activity in Oliveros' compositions, not only to yourself and the other performers but also to the environment. Since the Sonic Meditations (1974) she has made compositions for a wide variety of performance environments.
• Michel Risse (1970s – now) has created many installations and performances for public locations, often for parades or walks, in collaboration with the ensemble Decor Sonore of which he is the artistic director.
• Jon Rose (1980s – now) is well known for his performances on fences in Australia and other countries. He has also created many other in-situ performances (for example, based on sports) next to his improvisation and violin activities.
• Pierre Sauvageot (1980s – now): French composer creating performances with sound installations and large ensembles for public locations, streets and parades.
• Raymond Murray Schafer (1978 – 2021): This internationally acclaimed composer has written many 'environmental' compositions for locations in nature, among them his opera cycle Patria.
• Godfried-Willem Raes (1980s – now) has made musical street performances and parades, often with self-built, automated instruments (Singing Bicycle Symphony, Orgelmars, the street opera Rooie Niki).
• Michel Redolfi produces electronic underwater music: listeners have to swim in a pool or lake to hear the music, produced by underwater speakers. His opera Crysallis (1992) also featured an underwater percussion player and singer in a mini submarine.
• Trevor Wishart (1968 – 1978) Although Wishart is widely known for his electronic (tape) compositions, he started his career by writing and organizing site-specific music performances, in which social and ecological concerns and locations were mixed.

In situ musicians since 1990s:

• John Luther Adams (2000s – now) has made many ecologically inspired compositions, mostly for concert halls and museum spaces. Inuksuit (2009) is a percussion piece, conceived for outdoor locations. Another percussion work, Strange and Sacred Noise, is also often performed in nature.
• Peter Ablinger (1990s – now): The performance site is an important, structural element in several compositions of Ablinger, for example in the Orte / Places series of works or the City and Landscape Operas. His works investigate the changed production and perception of sound outside the usual 'artistic' setting and context.
• Lisa Bielawa (2000s – now) has written two large-scale works (with many amateur performers) and Chance Encounter for a 'transient public space'.
• Robert Blatt (2010s) writes poetic, conceptual compositions for a wide variety of locations
• Stephen Chase (2010s): This English composer has written “walking music” (Out-of-doors Suite) in which listening, walking and performing music are intertwined with each other.
• Carolyn Chen (2000s – now): Performances for freezers in supermarkets and guqin (chinese zither) improvisations for different social spaces.
• Erik Griswold (2000s – now) has created several site-specific musical performances with acoustic instruments, responding to the natural environment.
• David Helbich (2000s – now) his works are a mixture of listening, (multisensorial) experiencing, acting and performing sounds and sound environments (Scores for the body, building and soul, Shouting piece, etc.)
• Kathy Kennedy (1990s – now): The 'sonic choreographies' of this Canadian composer are site-specific works and sound-walks, often involving singers and choirs.
• Sjoerd Leijten (2010s) is working in between sound art (soundscapes, sound installations) and (in-situ) live performances, often turning electro-magnetic waves in the environment into music sources.
• Pasi Lyytikäinen (2010s) has made a series of street operas in which daily reality and music performance become inseparable.
• Tomoko Momiyama (2000 – now) develops site-specific works as part of longer residencies and collaborations with local communities, mainly in Japan, Indonesia and India.
• Stephen Montague (1990s – now) has made several large-scale compositions for specific locations such as castles, breweries or car parks.
• Makoto Nomura: (2000s – now) his work is hard to categorize (installations, events, concerts, improvisations). He has also created music performances for specific places (for example, in a swimming pool) often with amateur musicians or local people.
• Robert Morris (2000s – now) has composed several works with large spatialised ensembles for outdoor parks and gardens.
• Daniel Ott (2000s – now) has composed a large oeuvre of open air and landscape compositions for harbour, river, mountain and other locations in Germany and Switzerland.
• Sytze Pruiksma (2008 – now): this composer and percussionist from The Netherlands makes site-specific performances, inspired by places, animals and plants. Nature also plays an important role in the music for films and theatre that he has made.
• Kirsten Reese (2000s – now): next to sound installations, walks and soundscapes Reese has also made site-specific performances, the last one Creatures and Signals for an abandoned zoo.
• Hans Roels (2010s) produces living, multisensorial music performances for ecological and social locations.
• Knut Olaf Sunde (2000s – now) creates performances for natural locations, abandoned electricity power plants, etc. with a special interest in the link between ideas and concepts on the one hand and specific times and places on the other 
• Merlijn Twaalfhoven (1999 – now) has already made a long list of performances, often with large ensembles and amateur performers (a.o. compositions for the Turkish-Cypriotic border and Palestina)
• Bart van Dongen (2008 – now) has created many performances for specific locations or situations, one of them is the music theatre piece Fanfari Bombari about two rivaling marching bands (performed with local music groups)
• Manfred Werder (1998 – now) often focusses on listening, sounding and the performance environment. A large part of his compositions have been performed outdoors by himself or other musicians.

One-off compositions for locations outside the concert hall:

• Symphony of factory sirens (1922) by Arseny Avraamov: the mother of all city concerts, involving boats, factories and military weapons to celebrate the Russian revolution
• Sternklang (1971) by Karlheinz Stockhausen, music for a park with five groups of performers and one percussionist centrally located.
• Eine Brise (1996) by Mauricio Kagel, composition for 111 cyclists on streets with little traffic.

Ensembles performing music outside the concert hall:

• Collectief Publiek Geluid: since 2017 an ensemble from Belgium with performers, composers and sound artists
• Décor Sonore: productions combining streets arts, sound installations and performances
• Landscape Quartet: creating and performing site-specific music projects in natural places
  
• Megaphone Ensemble: occupying public spaces with the sound of megaphones
• Team Sports / Outdoor Sports: improvisation trio
• TOPOS KOLEKTIV: improvisation group from the Czech Republic making site-specific eclectic performances
• Urban Sax: an ensemble founded in 1973 by the French composer Gilbert Artman with a large number of saxophones. Their multimedia performances with music, dance and light are often spectacular and adapted to the particular architectural or natural surroundings.
• Waterlanders: multidisciplinary group of artists (visual arts, music, dance, etc.) making site-specific productions in the Netherlands, often with a substantial musical input.

Background texts and information on music performances outside the concert hall:

(coming soon)