With the recent passing of Luciano Pavarotti and Marcel Marceau, much has been written about them separately, their art, their contributions to humanity and their extraordinary gifts. They were really one and the same….
Aud.Connect
Challenge = Opportunity part 2: Loading the Basses!!!
Though nothing to do with the title I am thrilled to welcome to our mad corner of the Internet Jason Heath someone who I don’t know personally but who’s other blog I knew well and enjoyed regularly, I now feel like a total “rookie” on this site! OK enough with the sport analogies, this is a real sports story. The St Louis Cardinals AA baseball team, The Springfield Cardinals moved here and into a brand new ballpark, Hammons Field three seasons ago, . They play 70 Games a year, the average attendance is 7000 a game, and they have 4000 season ticket holders “striking” (couldn’t resist) fear into the hearts of the local arts groups. Let’s play Ball!
Challenge = Opportunity part 1: No More Pulp!
This week I want to focus on the idea that challenges can become an opportunities if we don’t let ourselves be defeated. An orchestra or any arts group for that matter faces so many obstacles to becoming relevant to their community. One would think that when the local paper suddenly cuts the arts section, that it would be easy to cry “that’s it, we’re done”. Here, the paper did this recently, but instead of commiserating we are celebrating!
Save the Wails…..
We think we have it bad when it comes to support and attendance. Compared to us there is another art form that quite frankly is under siege, existing in a sea of indifference after helping to build our American cultural identity. The city where it was still thriving is struggling too, through no fault of it’s own, and we lament our situation?
When even the Brits are ahead of you…. Conductor Smack Down!
There has been much brouhaha concerning concert attire lately. Now, for the record, I love my Tails. They are made by my good and dear friend tailor John here in Minneapolis. John is a self-described stereotypical Italian Jewish tailor who knows much more music than I do and is one of the happiest people I know. He loves his job and I love working with him. When I put on the Tails he made for me it’s like I slip into another world of fancy dress and high society. Or in the … Continue Reading
Chasing our Tails…Conductor Smack Down!
The first in a series of Conductor Smack Downs! The topic what we wear, and what the audience wears has popped up yet again. We so often don’t have an answer to our audience woes, so why do we turn to fashion to solve our problems? If we are building a house and we are looking at a hole in the ground where it will eventually be, the window treatments should be the furthest thing from our minds…. Holly’s Partial Observer article mentions the audience expectations in regards to dress. I am … Continue Reading
What if Classical Music actually functioned as a business?
I am struck by a dichotomy this morning. Like many “classical” musicians of my generation I have a really strong interest in Rock, Jazz, World music, just about anything that strikes my fancy. You could call me part of the iPod generation that way. So I also study the business of the Other Side of Music. In today’s NYTimes is this very interesting article on 360 deals for rising bands. Suddenly my brain drifts into a fantasy —–
What every musician needs…….
Musicians live in a world of fantasy, aural color, imagination, and all to frequently self-delusion. But I am fond of reminding people that what we do on a daily basis certainly beats working for a living. That’s not to say it isn’t hard work, but it is to say that we frequently get much more joy out of what we do than do most people. But every musician wants to go beyond the daily performance. We want to be known for all time, for posterity, and be known beyond our little home audience, be that some small town in Wyoming or downtown, New York City. So, what do we need? We need a place to make our dreams come true.