Nothing Ventured… Kicking the Habit, Part III

Those who have been long-term readers of this blog will know that I am a relentless critic of the classical music business and how it has evolved over the past 4 decades.  I believe there is a lot of blame to go around for our ills and I don’t think anyone is immune from that blame. Situations like Indianapolis, Atlanta, SPCO, and Minnesota would not be possible if our field was healthy and respected throughout society.  But it’s easy to throw darts at something without really committing to change.  Now, it is time to put money where my mouth is – and I need your help to do it.

*Please note – This is a personal blog entry.  This is about what I am trying to do to change the classical music business.  There is no way I’m the only one trying to do something new to enliven our business.  If you have an exciting venture that you would like to share please contact me.  I’ll be happy to provide you with some free advertising.*

 

Four years ago my wife and I were trying to decide between moving and remodelling.  We live in a 3-bedroom 1911 house with 2 growing boys and not enough space for a pair of gigging  musicians.  Trying to think our way out of this conundrum our choices came down to 1) move; or 2) do something dynamic.  Unfortunately, we like our neighbors, which made the idea of moving less than palatable.  The dynamic choice became the only one.

We tore down our old garage, put in a new one, and on top of that garage we built a studio specifically designed to record chamber music.  In order to ensure maximum efficiency we worked with award winning architect Jeremiah Battles and master acoustician David Braslau.  This is the result.  As far as we know there is no other room like it in this hemisphere, possibly the world.  In the immortal words of David Byrne: “My God, what have I done?!”

Needless to say, having this beautiful room less than 10 meters outside your back door makes going to work in the morning a very pleasant experience, even in the middle of a Minnesota winter.  For four years we have enjoyed our studio, but when we built it the idea was to do something else than just have it function as a musical man cave.  It has taken these four years to figure out what that is.

This year we started H•E•A•R Projects, an artist led co-operative recording venture formed to discover new ways to produce, market, and promote chamber music through innovative use of recordings, media and networking.  We want to turn this room into a one-stop shop for soloists and chamber ensembles to create dynamic audio/visual recordings suitable for commercial release, and then provide PR and marketing support for those recordings. Specifically, we really want to be able to support our local friends and colleagues and help their recording dreams come true.

Recording is expensive, and recording well is really expensive. H•E•A•R Projects is set-up as a nonprofit organization so that we can solicit funds and underwrite these recording projects, thus making the whole idea more affordable for musicians.  Our engineer has won 4 grammy awards, the PR/Marketing guy has 20 years experience in the business, and because musicians are at the helm we want to be sensitive to the needs of those who record with us.  The goal is to Help Empower Artist Recordings.

Now, I am willing to bet that there are enough musicians and lovers of classical music out there in the internets who would like to be involved in helping to support a new artistic/fiscal model, a co-operative model which eschews the bloated bureaucracy and constituentcy pitfalls that are severely hampering so many orchestras today.  We are a highly focused entity – we help the artist, and whatever the artist puts into their project they get back manifold.

H•E•A•R Projects has a gala concert on December 21, 2012 which will be broadcast live over Classical MPR – the Baktun 14 concert.  This is our coming-out party.Since according to the Mayan calendar the 21st of December is the end of time the centerpiece of the concert will be….. yes, you guessed it….. the Quartet for the End of Time.  But every end is a beginning, and we shall also feature a world premiere for woodwind trio by Minnesota composer Stephen Paulus, as well as a brand new arrangement of excerpts from Fred Sturm’s Terra Madre.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCEvOOUaqSE&w=560&h=315]

I’ve spent most of the last year working on H•E•A•R Projects and trying to get it organized and ready to launch.  Anyone who has started a non-profit knows that it takes a tremendous amount of time and energy.  It also requires money.  I am launching a USA Projects  endeavor to raise money for this concert/broadcast.  This is just like a fancy kickstarter but all donations are tax deductible!  I need to raise $5,500 in order to get funder through USA Projects.  This may seem like a lot of money but if everyone out there donated just $10 I would fund my project by the end of the day.  Please help me raise this money so that I can make a difference!

There is a relentless stream of bad news coming from classical music, especially here in the Twin Cities.  I want H•E•A•R Projects to be the good news.  I promise that all the money we raise will go into helping make career enhancing recordings for our colleagues.  I also promise that H•E•A•R Projects will be run in a truly transparent manner.  Everyone who contributes to H•E•A•R Projects will be an important part of the entire creative process.

People, I need your help.  Help me help others.  If we get in the habit of doing this, helping each other in this business, then down the road we all will be in a much better place.  I’m putting my money where my mouth is.  Will you, please?