Life's A Pitch

Recently credited with ending gang violence in LA, Gustavo Dudamel has achieved something even more impressive: on Monday, he will appear on the best television show of all time, Sesame Street. For those of you who don't remember, Sesame Street is on PBS. The Los Angeles Times reports: In the segment, Dudamel and Elmo demonstrate the word "stupendous" by conducting a sheep playing a violin, an octopus playing the drums and a chorus of opera-singing penguins. Would that the sheep was a Hilary Hahn sheep. Or a Hilary Hahn alpaca. Nico … [Read more...]

I was at the bar Splash in Chelsea a month or so ago for "Musical Mondays" with my friend Mark, and an incredibly talented woman performed. It's tough out there, I thought, if someone this fantastic isn't a huge star. Or maybe I was just a few vodka sodas in and so thrilled to hear someone sing 'The Trolley Song" that I couldn't tell if she was good or bad? Regardless, it got me thinking about doing one's own publicity. A few years ago, I wrote a blog post about why you should hire a publicist. To sum it up: you hire a publicist because … [Read more...]

Cole Haan, a high-end label that sells men's socks for $18, is now providing footware for Urban Explorers (i.e. people who live in a city?) like myself. My friend Megan sent me this, which appears to be a suede Cole Haan boot meant for...concerts at the Bowery Ballroom? The sketch is clearly of Bowery Ballroom, whether they got permission or not: OK first? They spelled "Guarantees" wrong. "That also looks cool"? If you have to point out that it's cool, it's probably not? "Rock a comfy boot"? Rock, get it? For a ROCK show. And … [Read more...]

I keep talking about launching a secret Twitter feed called "Dumb Artist Tweets", which I guess I can't do now that I've told you all. But really, there is some Truly Terribly Tweeting out there. As blogged about here, I think publicists/managers/"social media experts" ((shudder)) Tweeting as artists is a waste of everyone's time. The entire point of social media is that you have this immediate, unfiltered, access to the artists, and if they "don't have time" or "aren't into that stuff", then they should interact with their fans in other … [Read more...]

The heavens have smiled on us today, friends. Oh, happy Thursday! "Have you seen this picture of Helene in the Tonhalle Dusseldorf brochure?" my friend Andy e mailed this morning. And no, no I had not. I'm not sure if she's supposed to be some kind of romance novel Little Red Riding Hood, ...or perhaps Poison Ivy? Das rotkäppchen, Helene's title, translates to The Wolf, so I guess she is, in fact, supposed to be Little Red Riding Hood because of her wolf conservation efforts? Although wolves are demonized in Little Red … [Read more...]

It's my blog and I can self-promote if I want to, self-promote if I want to, se-lf prah-mote-if-I-want-to. I've been working with Housing Works Bookstore Cafe on a new series for classical musicians and authors called "Safe Space". Musicians will play about a half hour of music, authors will read original material for 15-20 minutes, and then there will be a discussion About Art. There are always Hip Young Things hanging around Housing Works, so we figured why not try putting the classical music there, getting smart artists to talk to one … [Read more...]

Back in May 2009, I blogged about my fellow ArtsJournal blogger Culture Grrl's campaign to be paid by readers for her blog. That post is here. If you don't feel like delving into Vintage Amanda, and who could blame you, the long and the short of it is that Culture Grrl asked her readers to pay her directly for the reporting on her blog. If the money didn't come in, she would blog less frequently. From an entry on March 31, 2009: I have juicy, nourishing morsels to serve up from this 75-minute brainstorming session, but I was disheartened to … [Read more...]

I will be tooling around the city with Jean-Yves doing press for the NY Philharmonic gala and the film score he's the soloist on, but if you're home and bored and in avoid-the-family mode, allow me to direct your attention to two of my artists' competitions. The first is David Lang's piano competition. David has posted the sheet music to one of his pieces, "wed", for free download on his publisher's site. Pianists are meant to learn the music and film themselves playing the piece. They then post videos of themselves playing the work on … [Read more...]

I just got back from Coney Island, where I thought I was going to have an Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-esque winter beachwalk, but ended up just eating cheese fries at the Nathan's and loaning a drug dealer my phone. Aliza and I got on the F train at 57th and 6th. As part of Make Music NY's first winter installment, cellists (and, we learned, violinists, too) were performing the prelude from Bach's Cello Suite no. 1. The idea, as I understood it, was that F train riders would hear the same repeated melody every time the subway doors … [Read more...]

Via Reddit, via Gawker, via Anastasia Tsioulcas's Twitter feed, we have an amazing post-internet-date-rant. The webbie date took place--WHERE ELSE--at the New York Philharmonic. Out. Standing. ——— Message From: Date: Sun, 4 Dec 2011 14:19:39 -0500 Subject: Hi Lauren Hi Lauren, I'm disappointed in you. I'm disappointed that I haven't gotten a response to my voicemail and text messages. FYI, I suggest that you keep in mind that emails sound more impersonal, harsher, and are easier to misinterpret than in-person or phone … [Read more...]

Via Cory Arcangel's Twitter feed: … [Read more...]

No sooner had I internet-whined about my alma mater not publicizing the Dartmouth Aires's journey to fame and fortune on NBC's The Sing-Off, do we receive this note from college president (!) Jim Yong Kim: November 22, 2011 To the Dartmouth community, Last night, the Dartmouth Aires advanced to the finals of NBC's a cappella show The Sing-Off. Members of the Aires, like all Dartmouth students, excel in many ways. They are scholars, athletes, contributors to communities outside Dartmouth, and exceptional musicians. They have excelled in … [Read more...]

My ex-boyfriend recently alerted me to the fact that my beloved Dartmouth Aires have been on The Sing-Off on NBC this season. Who knows where the incessant Dartmouth alumni alerts were about that, but I'M SURE GLAD THE NEW SPORTS CENTER IS ALMOST DONE, Alumni Relations Office. I used to cut through the gym to get home in the cold senior year, so I guess it did me some good. The Dartmouth Aires, though! I had this crazy host for my prospective student weekend at Dartmouth who made me go to every a cappella concert offered--and they were … [Read more...]

Michael Kaiser wants those crazy kids to turn their loud rock 'n roll music down! You with your "chat rooms" and your hippy hippy shake shake and your mobile telephones. He wrote a blog post on the Huffington Post about how social media and bloggers are ruining arts criticism. Before we go on, kindly take a moment to absorb the irony of  someone writing for the Huffington Post commenting on the demise of traditional media outlets. I've covered these topics before, and I don't want to be That Blogger who just writes the same post over and … [Read more...]

About a month ago, The New Yorker ran a fascinating profile of Taylor Swift. After noting that in the past five years, Taylor Swift has sold more albums than any other musician (a cool 20 million),  the writer points to the not-so-secret of Swift's success: "Swift's ability to hold her audience's interest reflects, in part, a keen understanding of what fuels fan obsession in the first place: a desire for intimacy between singer and listener." The piece goes on to describe how Swift's mother handpicks superfans from the audience of her … [Read more...]

New York City's classical music station WQXR got a nice New York Times hit last week in the advertising section. Yay for classical music getting featured in another part of the paper! Stuart Elliott from the Times reports that WQXR created a poster in the style of Shepard Fairey--of Obama campaign/possible image theft fame--to promote what they are calling "Beethoven Awareness Month." The concept is based not on Fairey's Obama poster, but rather on the Andre the Giant Has a Posse thing-thing/OBEY Giant posters: I personally feel … [Read more...]

Update on the World Series Orchestral Battle of Destiny, which ends tonight. I was at Siegfried last night, but could have actually watched the end of that crazy game, even after a 5.5 hour opera, if I didn't go to the after-party. The New York Times randomly reports on the Dallas Symphony, and Alex Ross checks in with St. Louis: As Red Sox fans, we here at The Rest Is Noise take no position on the current World Series, which finds the St. Louis Cardinals doing battle with the Texas Rangers. Applying purely aesthetic criteria, however, we … [Read more...]