Ciaran Frame brings a bold new vision to the Edinburgh Fringe with Concerts of the Future, a groundbreaking VR music experience at Summerhall. Blending technology with classical performance, the show invites audiences to become part of a live orchestral world.
As co-creator and composer, Frame is rethinking who gets to participate in classical music, breaking down traditional barriers and putting audiences centre stage alongside the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
Concerts of the Future runs at Summerhall (Lobby) from 6–30 August 2026 (excluding 10, 17 and 24), with performances between 15:00 and 19:30. Tickets are available here.
You’re the co-creator and composer of Concerts of the Future at Summerhall, what can you tell us about the show?
Concerts of the Future isn’t a show you watch, it’s a show you do.
Instead of taking a seat in the audience, you step onto the stage and perform alongside the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. You put on a VR headset and the full orchestra appears around you in 3D, and you play Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, one of the most propulsive pieces of classical music you’ll ever hear.
It’s intimate and runs throughout the day, so you book a timeslot and, for about twenty minutes, you get to feel what it’s like to perform on stage with a world-class orchestra.
What inspired you to reimagine the traditional concert hall experience through VR and technology?
We were inspired by a simple question: what if anyone could perform on stage?
Concert halls have always had invisible barriers between the people on stage and the people in their seats. This includes the accessibility of the venues, the feeling of being an outsider and the assumption that music is something only trained people get to play.
We wanted to flip that script completely and take someone out of the audience and bring them to centre stage as the main event.
How does the collaboration with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra shape the audience’s experience?
The collaboration is so important because it feels so real.
This isn’t a simulation, it’s the real players of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and it feels like you’re sitting amongst them. We recorded the MSO at Monash University using 360 3D imaging, point cloud scanning and motion capture, more than sixteen terabytes of data in the end, so when you put the headset on, the players are right there around you.
The show removes barriers to musical performance, why was accessibility such an important focus for you?
So many people grow up believing music is something other people do, or something they left behind after playing the piano when they were young.
There’s this invisible notion across our industry that you need years of lessons, the right background, permission and even particular physical abilities to play music.
We wanted to build something where none of that applies. With Concerts of the Future, there’s no musical experience required and, crucially, you can’t make a wrong note or play at the wrong time.
Can you tell us more about the technology, including AirSticks and immersive VR, and how it transforms audience participation?
The technology behind the work is substantial, but the best thing about it is that it’s invisible. You never feel like you’re operating a machine.
The AirSticks are wireless gestural instruments we developed at SensiLab, Monash University. There are no keys and no strings, you just move, and that movement becomes your unique contribution to the piece.
We’ve created five ‘future instruments’ for the experience: Lumivox, Gravitone, Velaphon, Aetherharp and Cellaris. A short questionnaire at the start assigns you one, each with its own personality and sound.
The VR technology is also pretty incredible. Most people forget they’re in a room at a festival because it feels like they’re really on stage.
What would you say to anyone thinking of booking to see Concerts of the Future?
Come and play.
You don’t need to read music, you don’t need to have ever touched an instrument, and you genuinely can’t play a wrong note. Step out of the audience and onto the stage.
