A PERFORMATIVE IMAGE DEVELOPMENT IN MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: THE STAGE STRATEGY OF HENRY LAU

The article examines the principles of a performative image development in modern musical performance using the stage strategy of multi-instrumentalist and performer Henry Lau as an example.The author views Lau as the creator of a visual-auditory event where the artist's image becomes the semantic centre of the stage action, given the setting of performing thinking change, the loss of strict genre determination, and the growth of expressive means.In this sense, the performative image acts as a meaning-forming core developed in the process of complex interplay of sound, gesture, scenography, and spectator perception.The scientific novelty of the study lies in the introduction of a categorical apparatus related to the concept of a performative image into the analytical field of musicology as well as in a detailed analysis of Henry Lau's performing practice based on an audiovisual analysis of the cover version of the composition "Believer" (Imagine Dragons).The selected material allows us to trace how the interplay of acoustic, plastic, and facial-gestural expressiveness forms a new type of performing statement that goes beyond the traditional piano discourse.The work is aimed at developing a theoretical base, reflecting the specificity of syncretic performance forms and actualising the significance of performative thinking in scientific discourse.