Contemporary musical virtuosities

This chapter presents an overview of some of the diverse notions of virtuosity present in contemporary western art music practices that redevelop historic concepts and acknowledge the diversity of contributions to western art music. Here, we bring together current terms that aim to account for and embrace the evolving practices, practitioners, and presentation models within twenty-first-century music-making contexts, which have laid a foundation for the explorations of virtuosity offered by musicians and scholars in this volume. This includes examples such as ‘interdisciplinary virtuosity’, ʼnon-sonic virtuosity’, ‘social virtuosity’, and ‘everyday virtuosity’. These, and other notions articulated across Eurological concert music, experimental music, performance art, sound art, and digital sonic practices, demonstrate how broadly virtuosity can be engaged. This chapter commences with a summary of the existing literature, followed by an introduction to the exciting ideas and diverse perspectives presented in this edited collection of academic essays, artist reflections, interviews, letters, and one manifesto.