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. The reasons were two-fold: first, I'm a curious soul, and second, I'm sure you all get tired of me. The interviews are all archived on a right side column. Scroll down a bit and they're there. So here is Andrew Shuttleworth, Marketing Communications Manager at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. I was curious about his Shakespeare … [Read more...]

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 campus last year and is gearing up for another successful 26 (!) hours on April 30th. If you're not in the Chicago area, you can watch the entire concert live on their website. Billy Robin is a senior at Northwestern University studying musicology and saxophone performance.  Born in Chappaqua, NY, he spends time in both Chicago and New York City, … [Read more...]

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 the gray days we've been having in New York, this week we have an interview with a Proper British Person! Here's BBC Music Magazine editor Oliver Condy on not bringing computers to the beach, Tweeting about the World Cup (...not), and how American journalists need to toughen up. Oliver Condy has been the editor of BBC Music Magazine for over five … [Read more...]

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 up with interview questions for this blog, to throw out an example--more of a challenge. But I'm going to be better! It's my Valentine's Day Resolution. So, Team Life's a Pitch, here we have the return of the Friday interviews, where I ask the Tough Questions of colleagues who are far more knowledgeable than I am on various marketing and publicity … [Read more...]

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, New York Times, Time Out New York;  @anastasiat: Anastasia Tsioulcas, Gramophone, Variety; @gsandow: Greg Sandow, Wall Street Journal, ArtsJournal; and @sethcolterwalls: Seth Colter Walls, Newsweek for their answers. These interviews were conducted via Telex machine. Just kidding. ___________________How long have you been using Twitter? … [Read more...]

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 Driscoll, Editor-in-Chief of Opera News, on bewitching divas, the good, the bad, and the ugly of opera blogging, and the basics of how to pitch a glossy magazine.F. Paul Driscoll has been Editor in Chief of OPERA NEWS since 2003.  He began contributing to the magazine in 1990 and joined the editorial staff as managing editor in 1998.  He … [Read more...]

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 professionally if given the opportunity. This week, we have Jerry Yeti, who blogged at Yeti Don't Dance for just about three years before (sort of) giving it up, possibly for good. On November 8, 2007, you posted that you would not 1. become a blogger blogging about not blogging and 2. that your blog, Yeti Don't Dance, was not dead. There are six posts after … [Read more...]

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 why she started blogging, while she'll keep blogging, and whether or not There Will Be/Should Be Blood in the theater blogosphere. Err..."theatrosphere". Additionally, this marks the first mention of lolcats on this blog. Jaime Green is a freelance theatre producer and dramaturg, as well as Literary Associate at MCC Theater.  She is Artistic … [Read more...]

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 week I try and post an interview with someone else in the field. Usually, I do this on Fridays, but that clearly didn't happen last week. Or the week before.  But TODAY we have a continuation of the critically-acclaimed (for realz - a few critics e mailed and said they liked it) Life's a Pitch feature Better Know a Publicist. See the Interviews … [Read more...]

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 that it's hard. But at long last, this week we have Juliana Farha and Chris Gruits from the recently re-launched classical music networking hub Dilettante. Juliana Farha is the Founder and Managing Director of Dilettante Music, the online classical music hub based in London, England. She worked at CBC Radio and as a magazine editor in Toronto before … [Read more...]

Publicist Log, Day 4: Today we have Rebecca Davis, who I have known 4eva, 4eva-eva. Rebecca was Director of Publicity at Universal Music Classical when I was Publicity Manager at IMG Artists, and then we worked on Hilary's Schoenberg/Sibelius exploits together, and then I covered for her at Universal when she was on maternity leave last fall. She's since started her own firm, and here's what she has to say for herself:Rebecca Davis is a publicity, promotions and marketing consultant with over ten years of experience working with musicians on … [Read more...]

It's Publicists Gone Wild this week on Life's a Pitch. Each day, we'll have answers to the same eleven questions from different New York City publicists. Today, we have Steven Swartz, who hails from the publishing (and apparently ukulele) world(s)! Steven and I met...actually, when did we meet?...but our paths cross early and often at cool-kid "new music" events throughout the city.Steven Swartz never set out to be a publicist.  He studied music and philosophy at Swarthmore College and earned a PhD in composition from University at Buffalo … [Read more...]

This week on Life's a Pitch, the royal "we" is talking to NYC-based classical music publicists. Everyone gets the same questions, and presumably no one has seen anyone else's answers! Here's Jennifer Wada, with whom I had the pleasure of working on the Hilary Hahn/Josh Ritter concert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art last spring.Jennifer Wada is a New York-based public relations consultant in the performing arts whose clients include the Metropolitan Museum Concerts series, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the George London Foundation for Singers, … [Read more...]

Since I'm going to try to keep my trap (fingers?) shut all week, I'll just say two quick things now: One. Last night at the bar Union Pool in Williamsburg, I received the best response yet to my response to the question, "So what do you do?"  "So what do you do?" "I am a classical music publicist." "That sounds difficult." (The usual response is, "Oh. Cool. What does that mean?") This guy went on to ask what media opportunities there are for classical musicians, and of the outlets that do exist, how many of those translate to concert … [Read more...]

And now for something completely different. I got into an argument with a web designer once about whether a site should be in orange or green tones. He liked the orange, but the client liked the green. He then went behind my back and talked the client into the orange which made me furious because 1. the green was better and 2. this wasn't art for art's sake; the client was paying him and me to promote their product (in this case, themselves), not to win this designer awards or get him a spot in a gallery.  (Are there physical galleries of … [Read more...]

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...]

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...]

Every week, I attempt to post an interview with a lass or lad far more knowledgeable than myself on specific marketing and publicity subjects. This week, Violinist.com editor Laurie Niles - whose interviews I'm convinced propelled both Hilary Hahn and Anne-Sophie Mutter's last albums to debut at number one on the Billboard classical chart - on blogging before there were blogs, playing hall monitor, and being a journalist slash teacher slash performer. Laurie Niles is the editor and owner of Violinist.com, an online  community that she and … [Read more...]