Marty Ronish

Marty Ronish is an independent producer of classical music radio programs. She currently produces the Chicago Symphony Orchestra broadcasts that air 52 weeks a year on more than 400 stations and online at www.cso.org. She also produces a radio series called "America's Music Festivals," which presents live music from some of the country's most dynamic festivals. She is a former Fulbright scholar and co-author of a catalogue of Handel's autograph manuscripts.

A Real Concert in a Virtual World: Second Life

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If I’m the blogger, you must be the bloggee. This morning I got to be both blogger and bloggee, by visiting Second Life, a 3-D virtual world/social networking site. A whole bunch of real people represented by their avatars went into the virtual Fraser performance studio at WGBH to listen to pianist Jeremy Denk play live.

The concert went out over the radio and the on-air feed was streaming on the web, as usual. But in addition, WGBH set up a computer simulation of their new performance studio. I signed up for Second Life a couple days in advance (it’s free) so I could practice. They walk you through it step by step.

Practicing was a hoot. I was in stitches most of the time. I got my avatar to walk up to the Steinway, but when I tried to get her to sit down on the piano bench, she would sit on the ground next to it or behind it; she even sat on the keyboard, but I couldn’t get her to sit on the bench!

When virtual Marty got in a car and started driving, some cute guy came along and hopped in the car with her. That never happens in real life.

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More From Boston

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In a disturbing follow-up to Mike’s post on Friday about WGBH’s grand experiment in the virtual world, comes this post from Alex Beam at boston.com: Home / Lifestyle Alex Beam Temple of Doom? If people are going to take the trouble to leak us internal memos, we are going to take the trouble to print them. In an all-points bulletin issued last week, WGBH president Jon Abbott warned that the World’s Greatest Broadcast House may end its current fiscal year in deficit, and declared an immediate freeze on hiring. A friend of … Continue Reading

No Drama

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The Democratic primary has been a terrific display of Performance Art — improv theater at its best. Journalists reveling in their juicy onstage parts have created their own political fringe festival, at the expense of more important stories, like wars and natural disasters. Everybody loves the drama of two powerful onstage protagonists, with their rival gangs. It’s a real life West Side Story. In the biz, we’ve always said that controversy is great for radio. It’s what makes talk radio more popular than music radio. And the lack of conflict – “drama,” … Continue Reading

Some Mother’s Day Thoughts

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Authormarty72x72 Mother’s Day is not just a Hallmark holiday. As a mother, I can tell you it’s about wanting your kids to be safe — not fighting in Iraq, for instance. You want them to be educated, and happy, and kind to others. Honest and fair in their dealings. You want to protect them from liars and charlatans. You want them to have discernment and not fall for the crap that passes as popular culture.

And you want them to appreciate the the transformative nature of great music, something that is easy for our generation but a lot harder for young people in today’s cultural climate.

In an article in the Wall Street Journal Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, was quoted as saying

The decline of arts education in the U.S. and the paucity of international cultural exchanges will take decades to repair.

You can see a copy of the article here.

I confess to a little bit of hero worship of Dana Gioia. Here is a man who grew up as an immigrant in L.A., the first one in his family to go to college. He didn’t fit the usual demographic of a cultural consumer, but he defied the stereotypes and developed a mad passion for the arts.

In his speech at the Stanford University commencement last June, Gioia pointed out that we’ve become passive consumers of culture instead of active participants. And he blames it partly on a decline in arts education:

At 56, I am just old enough to remember a time when every public high school in this country had a music program with choir and band, usually a jazz band, too, sometimes even orchestra. And every high school offered a drama program, sometimes with dance instruction. And there were writing opportunities in the school paper and literary magazine, as well as studio art training. I am sorry to say that these programs are no longer widely available to the new generation of Americans….The purpose of arts education is not to produce more artists, though that is a byproduct. The real purpose of arts education is to create complete human beings capable of leading successful and productive lives in a free society.

The whole speech is worth reading. Click here for a copy.

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