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Life's A Pitch

For immediate release: the arts are marketable

Archives for April 2009

Naked emperors

April 29, 2009 by Amanda Ameer

Steve Reich 2009 Pulitzer (from Ronen) and John Zorn 2006 MacArthur Genius Grant mentions on The Colbert Report:The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30cWho's Not Honoring Me Now? - Emmyscolbertnation.comColbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical HumorFirst 100 Days The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30cWho's Not Honoring Me Now? - The MacArthur Foundationcolbertnation.comColbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical HumorFirst 100 Days A few weeks back, I saw a young pianist perform an original composition of his, in addition to some standard … [Read more...]

[create your own pun on Teachout/teachings here]

April 28, 2009 by Amanda Ameer

On Monday, much more famous ArtsJournal blogger Terry Teachout posted a fantastic list of ways to get him to review your plays on his blog About Last Night. I love this, because it rewards his regular blog readers; they now have a distinct advantage over press people/playwrights who only read his Wall Street Journal column. As I've mentioned before on this blog, I think it's extremely important for publicists to do as much research on journalists as we expect them to do on our clients, or, if an artist/company is pitching themselves, on their … [Read more...]

Talk to me about promoting Pilates

April 27, 2009 by Amanda Ameer

On mostly Fridays, but sometimes Mondays, I'll post an interview with someone who knows a lot more than yours truly about specific marketing and publicity topics. This week, my Pilates instructor Jeanette Palmer on keeping students coming back to her classes, on why yoga gets all the good press, and on teaching and marketing to different ability levels. The problem with doing this interview is, of course, that she now knows what I'm thinking about when I'm supposed to be "deepening" my "C-curve".  Ballet-trained at the Boston Conservatory … [Read more...]

Important marketing question:

April 22, 2009 by Amanda Ameer

Why isn't there a Starbucks by 71 Thomas Street, where Manhattanites have to report for jury duty? There's not a coffee shop for three whole blocks! Business opportunity alert. I went to Bouley Bakery, and then scampered back with a quickness so as to not lose my plug-seat. I can case a joint for outlets in under a minute, and people were eyeing my prize all morning.They have wireless at jury duty, turns out. Although who knows what they're scanning for if you use it. To be safe, I packed my own modem.Yes, I realize this has nothing to do with … [Read more...]

By extension

April 21, 2009 by Amanda Ameer

Maybe one day when I grow up I'll get to move to a Big City. I'm tired of this tiny island, where a girl can't even go to a simple Zumba class without running into someone who works at Carnegie Hall. As previously mentioned, I am Not Good at Zumba. No one needs to see me bump/grinding in a futile attempt to get skinny, so you can only imagine my internal oh-brother eye-roll when I spied someone from Carnegie in class on Sunday. (Maybe he won't remember having met me last summer...) oh yes, he does, "You're Amanda, right?" Fan-zumba-tastic. … [Read more...]

Nude pictures

April 20, 2009 by Amanda Ameer

Sometimes the lack of mainstream press coverage for classical music gets me down. But then I see things like this, and realize work could always be worse. From Defamer:Have you heard the one about the Disney Channel star in a nude-photo scandal? No, not that one. Or that one. But rather Adrienne Bailon, the co-star of Disney's series Cheetah Girls and, before last weekend, among the network's last remaining female talent not to have half-naked pictures of herself circulating online. Good thing she has a friend in the crisis-publicity racket, … [Read more...]

Fun and games

April 20, 2009 by Amanda Ameer

I can take exactly no credit for this idea (it's all Michael!), but we're running an mp3 scavenger hunt to promote the New York City performance of Michael Gordon's work 'Trance' on Wednesday, April 22nd at (le) poisson rouge. Start at Sequenza21, where you'll find a free download of Trance 1 and a clue for the blog that's hosting Trance 2. Then continue on to collect Trance 2, Trance 3, Trance 4, Trance Drone, Trance 5 (Part 1) and Trance 5 (Part 2). When you have a list of seven blogs, e mail me. The first three people e mail me a list of the … [Read more...]

For the trees have no tongues

April 20, 2009 by Amanda Ameer

Read Molly Sheridan's coverage of The Metropolitan Opera's season brochure and....eeeeeekkk...order forms (!) here. She writes:Now, I bet opera fans were drooling all over this same package, so I don't mean to knock the concept. And it must have cost a small fortune to produce and mail, so I hope they all immediately put in extensive season orders. But it was way more than I, a one-time single ticket buyer, knew what to do with. I'm more a teaser video and "Buy nosebleed seats for this Friday's show NOW for only $25!" kind of girl, … [Read more...]

Just when you think you’ve heard it all

April 17, 2009 by Amanda Ameer

...the New York Post reminds you you haven't. Brought to my attention by the Musical America weekly newsletter, composer Nathan Currier ((who?)) is suing the Brooklyn Philharmonic because they cut his piece and Allan Kozinn (consequently?) gave it a terrible review in the New York Times. This, apparently, had a "bad effect" on Currier "both psychologically and in a very direct, nuts-and-bolts way." It had a bad effect on Kozinn as well, who wondered during the performance if he had died and gone to hell, and reported feeling "liberated" when … [Read more...]

Did Cinderella even want to marry a prince?

April 17, 2009 by Amanda Ameer

I see my auto-posting didn't work out so well, but you got to look at Chase Brock's smiling face all week. There are worse things. More interviews in the coming weeks. I've spent the morning while I should be catching up on e mails, or at the very least unpacking, reading the YouTube Symphony fall-out. What the what?? Greg Sandow calls it an "orgy of self-congratulation" here; Anastasia Tsioulcas suggests that the project should have been about the journey and not the destination here; and Anne Midgette quotes YouTube marketing manager Ed … [Read more...]

Talk to me about running a dance company

April 14, 2009 by Amanda Ameer

In my absence, I'm going to post a couple bonus interviews this week. Here's choreographer and Artistic Director Chase Brock of The Chase Brock Experience on (not really) being from the theater world, the importance of having a brand beyond the stage, and critics crossing genres. Chase Brock is a 25-year old choreographer working in the areas of dance, theater, opera, television, film and music.  Recently called "prolific" in The New Yorker, he is Artistic Director of The Chase Brock Experience, the New York City-based contemporary dance … [Read more...]

How could it be in spring-time?

April 13, 2009 by Amanda Ameer

No pitchin' this week, as I am out of our fair country. I have, however, (pre)prepared some lovely interviews to be automatically posted, so please keep stopping by. I should be able to approve comments every day, though perhaps not at the precise moment you submit them.  … [Read more...]

Talk to me about life on YouTube

April 10, 2009 by Amanda Ameer

When the planets align, it's a Friday and I have my act together, I interview someone far more knowledgeable than I am about specific marketing and publicity topics. Today we have Ben Chan, who I e-met when he interviewed Hilary via video Skype about the YouTube Symphony. In the spirit of Ben's extremely successful and time-consuming hobby, he has answered my questions on YouTube. Ben Chan is a founder of ChamberHymns.com, a website dedicated to online instructional videos for violin, as well as the Music Chairman of WoogiWorld.com, a virtual … [Read more...]

You’ll never look at music the same way again

April 9, 2009 by Amanda Ameer

The Site Formerly Known as YouTube, now called "Google's YouTube", and the Universal Music Group (now and forever) are launching a joint music video site called "Vevo":Google's YouTube and Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company, said on Thursday they will launch a premium music video website as they bid to increase revenue from YouTube's huge usage. The new advertiser-supported site, featuring professional videos, will be called Vevo and is expected to launch in coming months, the companies said. The deal is a boost for … [Read more...]

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Amanda Ameer

is a publicist who started First Chair Promotion in July 2007. She currently represents Hilary Hahn, Gabriel Kahane, David Lang, Michael Gordon, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Sondra Radvanovsky, Julia Wolfe, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Lawrence Brownlee. She thanks Chris Owyoung at One Louder Photo for taking the above photo very quickly and painlessly. Read More…

Life’s A Pitch

Why don't we apply the successful marketing and publicity campaigns we see in our everyday lives to the performing arts? Great ideas are right there, ripe for the emulating. And who's responsible for the wide-reaching problems in ticket sales and … [Read More...]

Archives

@Amandaameer

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Interviews

Talk to me about marketing Shakespeare

Oh gosh: let's see if I even remember how do to do this. Back in the day, when I didn't have clients playing everything Ravel wrote for the piano etc., I did interviews with Industry Professionals. … [Read More...]

Talk to me about Music Marathon

Remember when I was really awesome and posting interviews every week? Well, I'm less awesome now, but here's an interview with Billy Robin of Northwestern University. He started Music Marathon on … [Read More...]

Talk to me about BBC Music Magazine

As often as possible, on Fridays I will post interviews with colleagues from the field who are far more knowledgeable than I am on various marketing and publicity topics. In honor (-our) of all … [Read More...]

Talk to me about Metropolis Ensemble

In the immortal works of Todd Rundgren, "Iiii don't-want-to-work, I just wanna write-on-this-blog-all day." That's not entirely true: I love my job, but it does make things I also like to do--coming … [Read More...]

Life’s a Twitch, Part 3 (The Journalists)

Though many, many more music journalists are on Twitter, these are the people I noticed interacting with the publicists I interviewed the most. Oodles of thanks to  @nightafternight: Steve Smith, … [Read More...]

Talk to me about ‘Opera News’

As often as possible, on Fridays I will post interviews with colleagues from the field who are far more knowledgeable than I am on various marketing and publicity topics. This week, we have F. Paul … [Read More...]

Talk to me about not music blogging

At the ends of weeks, I post interviews with people who know a lot more about aspects of the proverbial business than I do. Two weeks ago, theater blogger Jaime Green told us she would blog … [Read More...]

Talk to me about theater blogging

Happy Friday! It's not raining and I actually have an interview to post!  This week we have Jaime Green, Literary Associate at MCC Theater in Manhattan and blogger of 5 years. Below she discusses … [Read More...]

Glenn Petry, 21C Media Group

Because 1. no one wants to read about The Life and Times of Amanda Ameer every day and 2. because there are many, many people out there who know more about publicity and marketing than I do, every … [Read More...]

Talk to me about Dilettante

Sometimes it's hard being Amanda. For example, when I think of lots of cool people to interview for (le) blog, and they say yes, and then I don't have time to write the questions? Yes, at times like … [Read More...]

A Virtual Panel

A Conversation

Jan 18-22, 2010: I hosted a virtual panel on when and how artists, managers, journalists, presenters and publicists single out musicians for being "special" in their promotion and career-building efforts. Participants included musician, pianist … [Read More...]

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