Also from the Public Radio Program Directors Conference, Todd Mundt of Louisville Public Media shares his notes from a keynote address by Bruce Theriault. Theriault is senior v.p. for radio at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. His comments aren’t directly about classical radio, but they do apply to all of public radio, classical included.
Big Picture
What Hurts Classical Radio Most
I don’t mean to take away from Mike’s post yesterday, but this is just in on the blogs:
Obama: “It’s a shame” art, music being cut back in schools.
There’s a video clip with it. Some of us who’ve been in the biz for a long time think the reason classical radio is on the decline is that we’ve now had a generation of students who got little or no music in school growing up. Wow. A possible president who thinks art and music are important for a well-rounded education. Can we even dream about such a thing?
Can classical stations take cues from Wordless Music?
Critics, bloggers and other media have lavished praise on Wordless Music, a concert series based primarily in New York that mines the considerable overlap among the realms of indie, experimental, classical and new music. This series popped up again in my radar because it staged its first concert in San Francisco last week. On the evening’s program was “Popcorn Superhet Receiver,” a work by Jonny Greenwood, lead guitarist for Radiohead. Also featured were pieces by Arvo Part and John Adams, among others.
These concerts, which began in New York last year, are not just attracting critical praise, but eager audiences as well. Many have sold out. Impresario Ronen Givony told Gramophone that often “more than 90 percent” of the audience shows up for the rock, but after the performances they pepper him with questions about the classical works, wanting to know and hear more. And many of these concertgoers are on the younger end of the spectrum.
Classical Music in The Egg
I should have mentioned this earlier in the month, but I got caught up in the crummy news about KHFM in Albuquerque (see post from Aug. 14th). Check out this amazing classical music venue in Beijing called The Egg: From the website www.chinamusicradar.com, there’s a little blurb about Live Music at the Beijing Olympics If it’s classical music you’re after, look no further then The Egg (affectionately known as the National Centre for the Performing Arts). They have eleven confirmed events including notable foreign acts such as the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and … Continue Reading