It’s been an extended break from posting with 20 performances in the last month, now on Christmas Day looking back at articles from the last few weeks, I came across yet another bright spark who has hit upon what ails Classical Music….it needs a reinvention! Yawn….Here we go again…..
Rants&Raves
More ASS in clASSical: The secret to enlightenment….BEER!
How could we have missed it, the answer to what ails Classical Music is in fact…..ale! If all else fails then isn’t alcohol always the answer….hmmm. This according to Louise Jury the “chief arts correspondent” for the London Evening Standard, which I remember as the paper (when I was a student in London) I never needed to buy simply because no one commuting home (it is sold outside tube stations) would ever keep it, so I always had my choice of copies to read! Again here we go with the inane and the ridiculous and the worst of it is that it is not an original idea, and it has already failed before….
Would the “River Run Through It” without an Orchestra?
What is really frustrating about the angst in our industry is the lack of creativity in the arguments we make for why an Orchestra is important. I put a heavy focus on why an Orchestra is important to its own community which is a firm belief that I have, but it seems that there might be a global crisis in confidence with the answer bandied about the most often being the dreaded “shrinkage” (what would we do without Seinfeld) that needs to occur. So for those commenting negatively about the Detroit Symphony, let me ask you this: What would Star Wars be like if the soundtrack only had a Synthesizer playing?…..
Here we go chasing our tails from Detroit to Duluth…..
There is always a hyperventilating that takes place when the so called “model” is challenged and why is it that Orchestras live in the extreme? When there are problems everything an orchestra does has to change, and when there are not, let’s spend spend spend, and ignore any impending problems. I cannot over emphasize enough that spending whenever we do it is never the answer, we would be all well served re-reading the Knight Foundation Magic of Music report (linked below). What is the answer?….
Quick Takes: How about thinking INSIDE the box? and request time!
A completely overused statement “thinking outside the box” needs to be reworked and soon. I used to love using it, but now I feel it is a cop out statement as if to say we are going to try something new and different and if it doesn’t work, well at least we tried! Also my new Audience Connections class has begun (16 students!) and like I do every year I am asking for requests of arts related topics and current events for us to discuss in class, and I will post the audio! Bottom left is the Audience Connection tab if you want to listen to podcasts and read related articles…now to the box….
It needs to be about CONTEXT not URTEXT!!!!
At Cliburn last year I kept hearing “it has to be about the music”. I’m sorry MUSIC IS NOT ABOUT MUSIC, it’s about everything else! We spend so much time focusing on trying to get people to fall in love with music and with what we do. This will only happen when we do the opposite first i.e It’s time for us to be into them! Trying to tap into their pulse still puts us on the outside looking in, the goal should be to become part of their bloodstream…..
A colleague joins the fight against Putting the ASS in clASSical!
Just a quick post this week about possibly the most insanely ridiculous idea to attract the very young to music I have ever read about! Take random noises, mix it in with a debunked theory and add screaming children….presto MUSIC IS SAVED! A blogger hit this one out of the park, we need to to start calling out these ridiculous programs….
How To Make Sure We Don’t Have An Audience in 20 years – Part The First
For the past 20 years or so there has been a constant stream of critics bemoaning the fact that there won’t be any audiences in 20 years for classical music. Here we are 20 years later and there are at least some people coming to hear us perform. But despite all the warning signs about our business there is still a whole swathe of folks in our business who seem intent on driving away as many people as possible. Thanks for your help.