Contact me

Hi again.

The Heilbrun book is here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=SWGhvkoI-i0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=james+heilbrun&ei=bg0eSMf-MoecjgHQpdSGBg&sig=LKxcQlbCTsVNk5MhZpk8clmnjbc#PPA153,M1

Now that I've read it, I see it much more as a defense of Baumol than as a critique of him. And, as I've found out, that's how Flangan sees it, too. The book states both sides of whatever argument there is, which maybe explains why people on both sides can cite it in their defense. But in the end, I think it comes down on Baumol's side.

Hi Greg,

I've been an avid reader of the book-in-progress for ages.Forgive the unsolicited approach but if you can spare a few minutes, I think you'll approve and it would be great if you could give us a mention.

We'd like to introduce you to www.bachtrack.com. We started the site in the UK in January, and we're launching it in the US this week.

The object is simple: to give classical music and opera fans the best possible way to find out what's playing. We keep around 5,000 events listed, including most of the best events from the top orchestras and opera houses. Currently, around 1,300 of these are in the US, with the rest mainly split between the UK and Europe.

The site is easy, flexible and fun: please try it! you can browse by composer, work, performer or orchestra, venue, city, type of work, date or any combination of these; you can even see league tables of what's being performed most often.

Our starting point was this: we're convinced that there's a very large number of people who enjoy classical music but don't go to concerts: frequently, potential concert-goers simply don't know what's being played, and many wonderful events play to half-full halls because their promoters don't know how to tell audiences about them.

If you're trying to find your favorite symphony or what concerts are on within an hour's drive from your home, standard search engines simply aren't useful. Imagine yourself looking for your favorite work, performer or concert near your home, and try Googling “Shostakovich Symphony 5 concert”: the results page is a sorry mess. You won't do much better with “Shostakovich Symphony 5 Live”, “Classical concerts Boston”, “Bellini Norma” or countless similar searches.

We've put huge amounts of effort into making the concert finder easy, fast, and accurate. We did a major update over the summer, and we've had many plaudits from music professionals. We released the US version of the site this week, with events from major US orchestras and opera houses (Chicago, New York, Cleveland, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia and others). Listings on the site are free, and Bachtrack is beginning to attract US concert promoters of all types to input listings. The site also features a special section to attract kids into classical music with listings of concerts and events for kids and teens.

As well as finding concerts, site visitors can see venues on a map, find recommended CDs of many of the works, “Listen” buttons to play clips from even more, and biographies and pictures of an increasing number of the performers.

Please do try the site by clicking on www.bachtrack.com. If you like what you see, please link to us and/or tell everyone about us; if you don't like anything, please tell us! And, of course, we'd love to speak to you anyway: we're passionate about what we do and always keen to exchange views.

Best regards and happy listening

David and Alison Karlin

Hi Greg
could you please contact me via my email address?
Thanks
Kimberly

Regarding Christoph Eschenbach and seeing that your wife probably knows him to some degree, maybe she can get him on the horn and find out what's up with EMI's seeming refusal to not release on CD (for the first time) the three remaining Beethoven sonatas he recorded for the company. Have you heard Eschenbach's "Moonlight"? The opening movement has got to be the slowest ever recorded, and I find it absolutely jaw-dropping. It's unbelievable that this sonata has never been released on CD (the other two in the can are Op 13 and Op 26).

Yes, I've contacted EMI many times to no avail. Yes, I've contacted ArkivMusic to see if they may want to issue these three sonatas, but they have a policy of only reissuing CDs that have already seen a previous release on CD. And, yes, I sent an e-mail to Eschenbach via his website. That, apparently, went nowhere (if he even saw it).

So do you have any pull in this area? Is there anyone you can contact at EMI? Really, these three sonatas have got to be released on CD -- and you've got to hear Eschenbach's "Moonlight". I have no doubt it divides people: some will find it mesmerizing and riveting (me) and others will find it preposterously slow and glacial. Once you hear it (if you ever get a chance to), I'll be curious to find out where you stand.

Dear Mr. Sandow,

Thanks for your excellent articles on the Plain Dealer - Rosenberg mess.
Here below is a letter we sent to the Plain Dealer, along with the petition attached. If you feel it's appropriate to publicize our action in your blog, please feel free!

Thanks for your help.

Free Press
Free Criticism
Free Rosenberg!

FreePressCleveland@live.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: freepresscleveland@live.com
To: tegger@plaind.com; sgoldberg@plaind.com
CC: drosenbe@plaind.com
Subject: Reinstate Don Rosenberg
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2008 23:05:02 -0400

Dear Mr. Egger and Ms. Goldberg,

Attached please find a petition calling for the reinstatement of Don Rosenberg. So far, this petition has only been posted on the Baltimore Sun website, so very few people in Cleveland know about it. Nevertheless, of the people who happened to see the Baltimore blog posting about the petition, 27 have contacted us and indicated their wish to be signators. (Hard copies of the emails from signators have been attached to the hard copy of the letter which was delivered to your mailroom today.) This letter was sent into the PD letters website 2 days ago, but at that point there were 23 names - 4 more have come in since then.

We have not yet sent the petition to the various news media that have been publicizing this act of censorship - the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian in London, the L.A. Times, Cleveland Scene, NPR's "All Things Considered," WKSU, etc. If we do that, presumably many more signatures will come in.

From the musicians and concertgoers of -

FREE PRESS CLEVELAND

Free Press
Free Criticism
Free Rosenberg!

FreePressCleveland@live.com

FREE PRESS CLEVELAND is an informal group of musicians and concertgoers, brought together out of shock and deep concern about the state of arts coverage at the Plain Dealer. So far, this group has not incorporated or made any effort to recruit members. This email account was set up for the protection of group members who are professional musicians who might face retaliation if they speak out openly. While some group members have discussed a boycott of the PD and its advertisers, that step has not yet been taken.

DANIEL ABRAMS' Opera For Piano concert on Oct. 15, at the Mannes College of Music, will include the American premier of his Musical Portraits from Wagner's 'Ring' (each"Portrait" is based on the musical motif of that character, a particular scene of importance, and/or a verbal statement of consequence).
The program also includes ABRAMS' Chaconne on "Dido's Lament" from Dido And Aeneas , Variations on "Voi Che Sapete" from The Marriage of Figaro, and Variations on "Ein Engel Leonora" from Fidelio. Opera For Piano retains each pieces original style, preserving its complex moods and subtle powers -- as if the composers themselves had written the operas as piano music. They are not transcriptions, but music that Abrams' deeply loves and wished to be able to play on the piano. Abrams considers this series his most important legacy to music and feels that Opera For Piano is adding some glorious music to the performing pianist's repertoire.
DANIEL ABRAMS has been internationally acclaimed as both a pianist and as a composer. He had a double Fulbright in piano & composition (which was renewed for a second year) to the Royal Academy of Music, and performed extensively throughout Europe as an American Cultural Ambassador. His highly heralded New York debut at Town Hall in 1957 brought him major management and years of concertizing. Also, appearances on many TV and radio shows (including The Today Show, the Mike Wallace show, Joe Franklin, Pegeen Fitzgerald, etc.) In 1962, shortly after surviving a plane crash while on a concert tour in S. America, Abrams accepted a teaching position at Goucher College and The Johns Hopkins University. While in Baltimore, he founded and, for sixteen years, conducted The Goucher/Hopkins Community Symphony. He has continued to perform as soloist with orchestras and in recitals, but has restricted his appearances to the area in which he lives. Recently, Martha Argerich heard some of Abrams' music and included it in her Lugano Piano Festival.
Following is an excerpt from The New York Herald Tribune review for the first concert (of his four concert cycle) of the Mozart piano sonatas at the Kaufman Y: "Mr. Abrams, as has been noted before, is born to the piano; he cannot help but make beautiful sounds and he brings to whatever he tackles not only musicianship, technique and interpretative prowess, but a very special kind of intellectual radiance that quite sets him apart. In short, the five sonatas heard contained a veritable galaxy of refinements--indeed, the sort of refinements that seem slowly to be creeping out of contemporary piano playing. We urge you to attend."

More information: www.Daniel-Abrams.com/Opera-For-Piano
www.Daniel-Abrams.com

Concert information: Mannes College of Music, 150 West 85 St (bet. Columbus & Amsterdam)
Wednesday, October 15 8 pm No charge: seating begins at 7:30 pm

Dear Greg,

He’s not Arvo Pärt or John Tavener, and his music is even more gorgeous that you can imagine! He is American composter Richard Toensing, and his new CD is Kontakion on the Nativity of Christ, performed by Cappella Romana, and produced by Grammy winner Steve Barnett (Chanticleer producer). I can guarantee that you’ll not hear anything more beautiful during the Advent and Christmas season.

“Indebted to Slavic traditions, Toensing’s virtuosic Kontakion (choral concerto) for unaccompanied double choir and multiple soloists uses the dramatic words of St. Romanos the Melodist (6th c.) to recount the mystery of Jesus’ birth. Toensing’s more intimate New Orthodox Carols for the Nativity of Christ alternate between exuberant celebration and joyful contemplation as they bridge the gap between Byzantine and American hymnody.”

To hear a few samples, please go to http://www.cappellaromana.org/index.php?page=christmasCD

I’d be delighted to know your thoughts about featuring this CD on one of your blogs during December. If you'd send me your mailing address, I'll mail a copy of this CD to you tomorrow. (Maybe you’ll share it with your wife.)

I look forward to hearing from you soon. Thanks for all that you do for classical music!

Sincerely,
Janet Braccio
Bella Voce Communications
303-499-9031

Thank you so much for your honest and truthful assessments of both the opening night at the Met and the La Gioconda. I only wish that the people that ran these companies realized that the mediocrity they are displaying on the stage is only destroying this once beautiful and glamorous art form.

In fact, my wife and I were at the opening night of La Gioconda as well as left after Act III because it was such as disappointment. We were amazed that we were at the opera but yet the ballet in Act III stopped the show.

Mr. Sandow:

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you and your wife for coming to FSU this past week! What a pleasure it as to hear the two of you speak on the arts and the future of classical music.

I always enjoy reading your blog and I enjoyed talking about opera with you even if it was only for a short time! (I was the guy in Anne Hodges class with the shaved head that wants to become an opera artist manager.)

I hope you enjoyed your time here in Tallahassee and I hope to run into you someday at one of the concerts you described featuring indie rock music!!

Hi Greg,

Here's the end of Anthony Tommasini's review of Yundi Li's solo Carnegie recital:

"He certainly connects with audiences. After a prolonged ovation for the Mussorgsky, like an eager kid, he cupped his hands to his mouth to shout out his encore: 'Chinese folk song.'"

(http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/arts/music/13yund.html?ref=music)

I suppose that by current classical concert standards, that would count as "connecting with the audience"...not to knock Li, just to note how minimal the expectations have become.

http://plaintruthmagazine.blogspot.com/2008/10/sphinx-organization-isnt-racist.html

Sphinx Organization isn't Racist?

Dear Greg,
Sony BMG Masterworks, the combined labels of Sony Classical, BMG Classics and RCA Red Seal own the richest and deepest classical catalog including artist such as Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell and Murray Perahia as well as historic artists such as Leonard Bernstein, Jascha Heifetz and Arthur Rubinstein. We are currently updating our online marketing database to ensure that you are receiving our newest album releases. If you would like to be kept up to date on our upcoming releases, events, and promotions please provide us with the information below for your online marketing and promotions contact.
This includes:
• Your name
• Company (if you are a freelance journalist, please include all the affiliations that you write for)
• Address
• Phone Number
• Email
• Visitors per month (if known)
• URL
• Main focus

Thank you .

For further information please contact:
Dana Saltzman
CMG Online Marketing Manager
550 Madison Avenue
16th Floor
NY, NY 10022
P: 212.833.7538
F: 212.8336061

Dear Greg,

Did you know hundreds of thousands of citizens in Estonia singing ‘illegal’ songs helped bring down the Soviet Union in 1991? It’s amazing but true. A new, critically acclaimed feature documentary, "The Singing Revolution," celebrates this non-violent defiance and reveals how music can change the lives of individuals and nations.

I'm contacting you on behalf of the producers of the film, as we are reaching out to organizations whose members have a special interest in music. We are partnering with such organizations to help spread this incredible story of hope.

On "The Singing Revolution’s" website you can watch the film’s trailer and learn more about this amazing true story: www.singingrevolution.com

The film received exceptional reviews (see one from The New York Times http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/movies/14revo.html) and had a successful theatrical release across the U.S. and Canada; however, many still have not heard of The Singing Revolution. Our grassroots awareness strategy depends on the support of organizations like yours to help spread the word.

Please contact me so I can tell you more about our affiliate program.

Kind Regards,

Nikki Nime
Outreach Coordinator

Dear Greg,

I just read your "how to promote a concert" post, and love your ideas! I am very interested in working with you to implement something like what you suggest, for a concert next fall, in Baltimore. It's slightly different in that I am not interested so much in promoting an ensemble, but rather in promoting the music of a particular composer. The program will be music of composer Phanos Dymiotis, who was killed in a car accident in March 2007. If you are curious about him, feel free to Google him or ask me for more info. I want to leverage this concert to create as much interest in his music as possible, and I think many of the ideas you suggested in your post could be very interesting in this context.

If this interests you, please email me at caitlin.patton (at) gmail.com, and I'll tell you more about it. Thanks so much, and I hope to hear from you!

Best wishes,
Caitlin Patton

Hi Greg: I'm a long time reader of the blog and admirer of your work, and in particular your diagnoses of classical music's current state. I'm writing a story for a major alternative weekly paper about our symphony's programming strategy and would like to include your perspective in a quote or two. Please email me in the next week if possible if you're interested, or even if you aren't, so I can find another source. I appreciate your help.
thanks,
brett

Hi Greg,

I thought you might find this article on the way to de-gray the classical music audience interesting.

Best,
Caroline

Hi, Greg. I was one of your students in your Juilliard class called "Classical Music in an Age of Pop" a few years ago. I just came across your blog and I am enjoying it immensely as you bring up many relevant and important points about the future of classical music. Would you mind contacting me at donnakwong@gmail.com?

Thanks!

Donna

Hi Greg,
I took your class at Eastman last year. In the midst of doing research for a history paper, I discovered that there are often numerous (20+) song settings of popular 19th century poems (I'm a violist, so this is news to me). I just had the idea that it could be interesting to have a concert where all the settings of, say, Eichendorff's Mondnacht are performed. There will be some great ones, so mediocre ones, and maybe even some crappy ones. Seems like a great way to get the audience to listen actively and critically. They will quickly become familiar with the poem, and be listening for how different composers deal with it.
Anyway, just wanted to throw that out there.
All the best,
Leanne

Hi - Just lately venturing down into the comments sections, so not sure what might have been covered in the past on the issue of engaging the audience. Two points:

1) - Here's a link to someone saying that modern music doesn't have what it takes to engage the audience (probably a very dead horse in your discussions). Here's a snip I think you'd agree with:

" music, well composed and properly orchestrated, still has its old power intact, if dormant. Nearly everyone on the planet can hum the “Star Wars” theme, after all."

http://lileks.com/screed/?p=72

2) - I know there have been surveys of audiences dealing with wealth and education. Seems to me you also could use info along the lines of the "frames of mind" type. In the audience, how many are "theory minded" and process the music as professional performers/critics - how many are verbal types spinning reveries along with the music, how many are athletic/physical/dancer types vicariously enjoying the music making.

There are surely numerous ways individuals in the audience connect with the music, and knowing more about that would seem helpful.

Enjoy your blog, thanks for the effort of keeping it up.

Thanks, Lyle. Glad you like the blog.

Good point, about how people in the audience react. I don't think this has been much studied, at least in the terms you propose. There's a lot of demographic information we have, and also general comments, about people finding the music inspiring. We know that, contrary to popular belief, very few people go to classical concerts to see and be seen. The audience really loves the music.

But what do they love about it? How many can follow sonata form? How many love to watch the performers, think that's a crucial part of their enjoyment? How many wish they felt free to move in their seats? How many would like to clap after each movement? (Or even during the music, if they knew that this was common in past centuries, and felt they'd be allowed to do it.)

I'd love to know these things, and wish someone would study them.

Thanks for the reply. Always amazes me when heavy hitters take the time to reply to unknown lurkers.

Just on the off chance you haven't seen it, Pliable over at Overgrown Path did a recent post on "audience".

"The way forward is imaginative and intelligent programming that will turn existing audiences into virtuoso listeners, who then create a virtuous circle as marketing ambassadors spreading the word that classical music is alive, kicking and happening."

http://www.overgrownpath.com/2008/11/what-we-need-are-virtuoso-audiences.html

Another way of putting the point I'm trying to make is that as a music therapist I always make an assessment of the client before moving forward. If somehow you better knew how the audience was processing things, I think you could better engage them. The new brain studies Levitin writes about may be helpful on this over time. Will send along anything I come across that might be helpful.

One more thing before signing off - besides the content, really appreciate the civil tone of your blog, especially in response to less than civil comments. Feeding incivility is never really helpful, and I wish more bloggers realized that.

Greg
Thank you for your thoughtful and insightful writings over 2008.
I cannot think of anyone who is thinking and writing so thoroughly about the music industry and its problems.
There are solutions but they are not - as some suggest here - to make listening to classical music somehow compulsory. Music has to earn the attention it wants though not - as some also suggest - simply by giving the public what it wants. It needs, it seems to me, to make its experience moving and exciting and make that experience accessible to modern audiences.
Best wishes to you and A for 2009.

K

Please note that Daniel Abrams' "Musical Portraits from Wagner's 'Ring'" will be broadcast on "Performance Today" in Jan. 2009 (awaiting exact date). Sonia Sudak

Daniel Abrams (photo: Joy Moore)

If Only the Muse Loved Me as I Love Music

By FRANK BEHRENS
ART TIMES December 2008

I recall, as I suppose can many, the days when all recorded music was on 78 rpm discs and most of my favorite tunes were either hard to find or too expensive to purchase. So most of us sang our favorite songs or hummed our favorite opera arias or melodic themes from concertos and symphonies. How pleasant.

Except for one brick wall: I could not sing and even my humming was in the skeleton key—it fit every piece of music I essayed (and assailed). I began to envy musicians, who could simply sit down at the keyboard and dash off anything from a Bach triple fugue to “Take the A train” with no apparent effort.

I did not even dream of the ideal situation that existed for some people like Daniel Abrams. I had never heard of Mr. Abrams until recently, when a resident of Woodstock, NY and reader of Art Times Journal sent me an e-mail that pointed me towards the gentleman. When I responded, she sent me what amounted to a press kit about this pianist.

A New York Times review of a concert he gave in April 1957 calls him “an uncommonly good technician and it goes on to praise his playing of Brahms’ “Handel” Variations as being “not that of technical slickness but of musical expressiveness.” Having been awarded a two-year Fulbright Grant, he studied in London and gave concerts in at least five other European countries, garnering praise as he went along. As he gained more concert experience, he went on to more praise from critics in Canada and the United States.

Abrams’ association with the Woodstock region alone should earn him an essay in this Journal; but that is not really my purpose. My point is that I now have another kind of person whom I can envy!

When the pianoforte was improved to what we are now used to, composers like Franz Liszt made the great melodies from opera accessible to the public by creating transcriptions of many arias for the keyboard. Naturally, he first played them himself at concerts and was admired for “making the piano sing,” as he put it. The melodies were certainly true to what their original composers set onto paper, but more than just a little of Liszt’s genius found its way into the transcribed versions. Now someone like Abrams can carry that concept one step further. In an age when some of the most obscure operas can be found on at least one recording, he has followed his love for certain works to the point where he writes his own arrangements (not quite the same thing as transcriptions) so that his feelings about the piece as well as the original melodic flow can be transmitted to the audience.

My correspondent kindly sent me a CD, now out of print, that Abrams made in 2000. It is called “Fantasie Variations on Tales of Love” and holds three selections: “Fantasie Variations on Richard Wagner’s ‘Tristan und Isolde’,” “Chaconne on Dido’s Lament from Henry Purcell’s ‘Dido and Aeneas’,” and “Fantasia on Carl Maria von Weber’s ‘Der Freischutz’.”

Now there are many symphonic versions of music from “Tristan,” but they usually follow the score note for note, assigning the vocal lines to certain instruments, and do little to interpret Wagner’s music. Listening to Abrams’ 19-minute rendition of his favorite sections from the long score, I can see where he is coming from. This is music he loves, and he wants to let his listeners know how and why he loves it.

His choosing “Freischutz” is taking something of a chance, because few operagoers have ever seen a production of that groundbreaking work, and recordings of that opera have never sold in the millions. But there is another point. Hearing Abrams’ 14-minute approach to the work has made me want to hear the original again and possibly appreciate it more than I have in the past.

I read in the material sent to me that Abrams is working on a 40-minute piano treatment of the music from Wagner’s Ring operas. In the past, I have heard too many mostly faithful readings of Wagner’s non-vocal sections like “Siegfried’s Funeral March” and “Magic Fire Music.” What I now crave is an interpretation of this music, already so familiar to me in symphonic and operatic form, by someone like Abrams who can make me see it from another point of view.

So until the day my singing in the shower can inspire people to hear with fresh ears “Mefistofele” or “Sir John in Love,” I have to leave it to people like Daniel Abrams to do it in their own inspired and inspiring way.

Note: For Mr. Abrams’ own feelings about his music, please see his website at www.daniel-abrams.com

Art Times HomePage

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.

Hi-I thought you may be interested in this Greg.
We will performing a new multi-sectional, through-composed work entitled, The Machine. The piece is divided into seven overlapping sections, and is highly influenced by the work of Morton Feldman, Gyorgy Ligeti, and Bela Bartok.
The Dream of the Ants
Thursday, February 5, 2009
8pm
Issue Project Room
The (OA) Can Factory
232 3rd Street, 3rd Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11215
The Dream of the Ants
Terrence McManus-classical guitar
Ellery Eskelin-saxophone
Gerry Hemingway-drums

here is a nice link that confuses everything.The computer game that mashes the classics

http://cruiseelroy.net/2009/01/mother-3-musical-allusions/

Love it! To me, this is a perfect example of the diverse musical culture we enjoy these days. And it also shows how delighted people are with music, and how seriously they take it, even while they're having fun with it.

Or, to put it differently -- this is an antidote to all the silliness we get in the classical music world, when people moan that the culture devalues music, and that no one has any kind of attention span.

Dear Colleague,

I am currently updating the online marketing database for Sony Masterworks, to ensure that you are receiving our newest Classical album releases. If you would like to be kept up to date on our upcoming releases, events, and promotions please provide me with information for your online marketing and promotions contact.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Your name
Company (if you are a freelance journalist, please include all the affiliations that you write for)
Email
URL
Phone Number
Address
Genres you cover
Visitors per month (if known)

All the best,
Dana Saltzman
Sony Masterworks
Manager, Digital Marketing
550 Madison Ave, #1671
New York, NY 10022
p:(212) 833 - 7538
f:(212) 833-6061

Hi Greg,

This is Madeleine Roberts with Universal Music Group, and I wanted to send you a quick e-mail to introduce myself.

I recently discovered your blog, and think that one of our newly released artists is right up your alley. Her name is Diane di Stasio and her music includes a unique mixture of pop, rock, classical and world. She would definitely be someone your blog fans would be interested in.

You can check out Diane’s music, videos and artist information at:

http://www.shadowlandmusic.com/dianemedia

If you have a moment, listen to “Nights in White Satin” on the site’s media player. It is the first available single from her upcoming album, “Vox Eterna.”

If you’d like to share Diane and her music with your readers, they can see photos and listen to sneak previews of music from the album on her MySpace page at:

http://www.myspace.com/dianedistasio

I’d love to hear your thoughts once you’ve had a chance to listen to some of Diane’s tracks.

Regards,
Madeleine

Dear Greg,
I would like to know if it's possible to have your personal e-mail or other contact.

I work for Brunswick Arts Group, a press agency that works for clients as the British Museum,the Venice Biennale and many others.
We are considering of including bloggers on press trips and openings/launches and we would like to keep in touch with you.

Thank you very much,

Regards

Nicolas Smirnoff

Nicolas Smirnoff
Executive
BRUNSWICK GROUP LLP
16 Lincoln's Inn Fields
London WC2A 3ED

Telephone +44 207 936 1290
Direct line +44 20 7936 1275
Fax +44 20 7936 1299
nsmirnoff@brunswickgroup.com
www.brunswickgroup.com

Dear Greg,,
I would like to know if it's possible to have your personal e-mail or other contact.

I work for Brunswick Arts Group, a press agency that works for clients as the British Museum,the Venice Biennale and many others.
We are considering of including bloggers on press trips and openings/launches and we would like to keep in touch with you.

Thank you very much,

Regards

Nicolas Smirnoff

Nicolas Smirnoff
Executive
BRUNSWICK GROUP LLP
16 Lincoln's Inn Fields
London WC2A 3ED

Telephone +44 207 936 1290
Direct line +44 20 7936 1275
Fax +44 20 7936 1299
nsmirnoff@brunswickgroup.com
www.brunswickgroup.com

Dear Mr. Sandow. I´m finishing my conducting studies in Bogotá, Colombia, and I´m currently working in my graduate final work. I´m staring to read your book in progress about the future of classical music, and I´m sure I will find many interesting things in it that could support my own work.

Could I send you an email with some inquiries?

Thanks a lot
José Miguel

Hi there,

I just came across your blog and was very impressed! I am writing to you from Distinguished Concerts International New York. We have four concerts coming up in March, which will be performed at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. They include Todd Randall Miller and Marion Russell Dickson (March 14th ), The Music of Eric Whitacre (March 15th), the Grammy Award Winning Phoenix Chorale and Kansas City Chorales at the newly-renovated Alice Tully Hall (March 16th), and The Music of Handel and John Rutter (March 29th). You can find more information about these concerts at http://www.dciny.org/2009concerts.

We wanted to offer you two complimentary tickets to each performance. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to e-mail or call! (212) 707-8566 x303. Also feel free to browse our website, http://www.DCINY.org

It sounds like you have been extremely busy over the past year! I hope you are finding time for some much deserved rest.

Cheers,
Leslie

Greg,

you might want to stop in this weekend as my guest:

http://www.artsreach.com/2009conferences/2009nyconference-home.html

Hi Greg,

Wonderful blog. A pleasure to read. I'd like to extend an invitation to classical guitarist Peter Fletcher's performance at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall on March 27th. Please contact me at pf. guitarist "at" gmail.com if you are interested, and I can provide you with more information!

All best,

Aubrie J.

Hello Greg, it was a pleasure meeting you (briefly, it's true) outside of Le Poisson Rouge last night.
I've been following your blog for sometime, and it's lovely having a face for the insightful, witty commentary.

I look forward to reading your thoughts on the MATA/Knights Orchestra show, and hope to meet you again sometime!
All best,
Emily Motherwell

Greg,

Can I send you a preview of my upcoming solo CD?

Best,

Cornelius

Dear Greg,

I just wanted to let you know about this website which broadcasts live exclusive concerts : http://theVsessions.com
It is a totally new way of watching live music. World class musicians are taking part in this one-of-a-kind project that mixes up repertoires and therefore audiences.
The very first sessions present Philippe Herreweghe, Christian Fennesz and Bl!ndman.

I hope you will enjoy it.

All the best,

McClintic

I've sent this info to Doug already (I'm book/daddy on artsjournal), but thought you might find it interesting, too. The Dallas Symphony's concertmaster Emanuel Borok has an Amati violin, and the DSO commissioned a new concerto from Alexander Raskatov to honor the violin's 400th birthday. (It debuts tonight.) We ran a radio-and-online feature story on him, it and the premiere, along with a video of Borok playing and discussing the Amati in detai.

Longtime reader... I saw this comic today at xkcd and think it does a great job of illustrating the problem we all want to solve:

http://xkcd.com/586/

Just a thought on your latest twitter about the lack of personal interaction in concert. Not only Liszt took questions but also our own Percy Grainger who would sit on the edge of the stage and tell the audience about the music and his approach.Percy was also the most restless performer that ever lived.I was told that he was performing the Grieg Piano Concerto in Sydney in 1949 when, during the orchestral tutti, he jumped off the stage ran to the back of the hall, touched the door and ran back in time to play the next section!!!

ENCOMPASS NEW OPERA THEATRE
PRESENTS
THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
I TRE COMPAGNI (The Three Companions)
Music and Libretto by LOUIS GIOIA
Featuring Shannon DeVine, Noah Stewart & Ulla Westlund
FRIDAY, JUNE 19 @ 8:00 PM & SATURDAY, JUNE 20 @ 8:00 PM
GERALD W. LYNCH THEATRE
John Jay College, 899 Tenth Avenue
TICKETS: SMARTTIX 212 868-4444
FOR INFORMATION:
212 594-7501
ROGER CUNNINGHAM
encompassopera@gmail.com

Encompass New Opera Theatre announced that I TRE COMPAGNI (The Three Companions) a two-act opera written and composed by Louis Gioia; featuring Shannon DeVine, Noah Stewart and Ulla Westlund will open on Friday, June 19th at 8:00 PM and Saturday, June 20 at 8:00 PM at the GERALD W. LYNCH THEATRE at John Jay College, 899 Tenth Avenue (between 58th & 59th St.). Tickets are $65 for Orchestra Seats, $45 for Balcony Seats. There will be $25 Rush Tickets available at 15 minutes.

I TRE COMPAGNI, sung in Italian with English Supertitles, is based on The Pardoner’s Tale from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Composer Louis Gioia states the condition of the world today reflects much of the same feeling of his setting of the Pardoner’s Tale in late 15th Century in Granada, Spain. Cultures are recovering from a religious war, yet greed remains the root of all evil and will ultimately destroy not only the best of friends but nations as well.

Nancy Rhodes, founder of Encompass, will direct, Glen Cortese will conduct the 35 piece orchestra, assisted by Mara Waldman. Choreography by Justin Sherwood; Sets are by Damon Pelletier, Costumes by A. Christina Giannini and Lighting by Izzy Einsidler.

Singing the lead roles of The Three Companions will be Tenor Noel Stewart, Baritone Shannon DeVine, and Soprano Ulla Westlund. A 20 member singing ensemble, including 3 children round out the cast.

ENCOMPASS NEW OPERA THEATRE is dedicated to the creation, development and production of contemporary opera and new music theatre. Encompass has revived American operas by such composers as Virgil Thomson and Marc Blitzstein and developed new operas with such contemporary composers as Bill Banfield, Ricky Ian Gordon and Philip Hagemann.

NANCY RHODES, Artistic Director, founded Encompass New Opera Theatre in 1975 with a production of the Virgil Thomson/Gertrude Stein opera The Mother of Us All which Bonnie Marranca in the Soho Weekly News awarded the Best Production of the Season and Emory Lewis cited as “one of the highlights of the past decade.” Since then Rhodes has directed over 55 fully staged productions of American operas and nurtured over 150 new works.

Louis Gioia’s first opera, UN RACCONTO FIORENTO was premiered by Encompass in the fall of 2000 at Alice Tully Hall. Opera News called the production “…a glorious, impassioned performance of a composition of great beauty and sincere interest.”

~~ 30 ~~

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, CAST PHOTOS, BIOS OF THE COMPANY, DIRECTOR, COMPOSER AND SINGERS, PLEASE CONTACT:
ROGER JEFF CUNNINGHAM
212 594-7501
encompassopera@gmail.com

your blog is full of good ideas. i have decided to implement them. please visit www.mesoseattle.org to see 1 such idea implemented.

i'm writing to you about the Video Game Music post you made in 2004:
http://www.artsjournal.com/sandow/2004/05/videogame_music.html

how can a community orchestra get a hold of the score and parts? who do we contact? are they expensive?

I believe that in order for this art form to survive, we must start to make orchestra more audience friendly and the music more accessible.

Hi,
I have a couple of questions about your blog:

1) Is it OK with you if I spread some link love and link to your blog? I think my visitors would like your blog.

2) I noticed on your blog that you link to other blogs, do you think its possible for you to link to my blog myairshoes.com?

Please let me know what you think. Thanks for your time.

BM

Hi,

My name is Steve Koscica and I own and operate a web site dedicated to the upright bass. While we do sell cellos and cello strings (and cases), our specialty and dedication to the upright bass is unrivaled. We’re one of the biggest bass dealers in the world! Personally, I have been a professional orchestral bassist for more than 25 years.

We offer everything from smaller fractional upright (student) basses, plus basses in every possible price range, all the way up and past the $100k range. We sell our bass strings at the lowest prices in the world as well as just about every possible accessory. On our website, there are tons of informative articles about choosing the right kind of bass strings (can be confusing for a lot of people) and there are other informative articles about the different types and makes of basses.

This summer we’re starting a new monthly newsletter and our subscribers will then be eligible to receive free giveaways. We’re not talking ‘cheapy’ little string winders or little packages of bass rosin, but really substantial gifts like bows, bow cases, string sets (the average set of bass strings are about $160) and we’ll even be giving away full sized, upright basses!! We need to make some noise here and what better way to do it than give away a bass!!! We’ve never heard of anyone else doing this, but we really want people to know more about us and well, giving away a bass (I think) should surely get some attention.

Would you please link us on your blog/web site? I know your bass player readers would really appreciate learning about us and using our web site as a good information resource. We would sincerely appreciate being linked with the 2 keywords, “upright bass”. Which in turn goes to the url site: www.stringemporium.com/basscafe.htm.

Again, I hope that you can find some room to put this simple text link on your site. As are linking partner we would also love to offer any specials on items that you (personally) would like to order. Basses, or anything else that we carry, including cellos, cello cases, violin cases etc…

Thanks again. If you need any assistance or need more information, please email or call.

Sincerely,

Steve Koscica
800-600-2689

Greg, Are you familiar with a marketing gambet up here in Anchorage, Alaska which has a remarkable effect. It's called "The KLEF Opera Tolerators" and it is aimed at people who have never attended an opera or haven;t for quite some time. If you're interested contact the general manager of Anchorage Opera Mr. Torrie Allen for more details.

Hi,

I would like to invite you to the 7th annual NYC Musical Saw Festival, please:

The art form of making music with a carpenter's handsaw has been around for 300 years, but has become almost forgotten since the 1930's. The festival's founder/director Natalia 'Saw Lady' Paruz set up to make sure this unique art form does not disappear.
For the past 7 years Astoria (Queens) became a pilgrimage spot for musical saw players from all over the world. In past years musical saw players from China, Japan, India, Germany, Canada and all over the USA participated.
The festival, which is supported by the Queens Council on the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and the NY State Council on the Arts, includes a concert, an art exhibit and a workshop - all centered around the musical saw, of course.

This year there will be 4 compositions premiered at the festival:
Composer Eyal Bat - a piece for 2 musical saws & piano and a piece for handbell choir and musical saw.
Composer Scott R. Munson - a piece for string quartet and musical saw, and a piece for soprano singer, musical saw and string quartet.

The festival will also feature an attempt to set a new Guinness World Record for the 'Largest Musical Saw Ensemble'. The current record, set in Poland last year, is 27 musical saw players.
Will we set a new record in NYC on July 18th?

When: Saturday, July 18th, 2pm
Where: Trinity Church, 31-18 37 Street (37th street at 31st Ave), Astoria (Queens)
More info: www.MusicalSawFestival.org

Thank you very much,
all the best,

Michelle

Just got around to reading your "Beyond Media" column. And it reminded me of a suggestion I made to the Pennsylvania Ballet (I'm with an ad agency and we were working on their account).

Even though traditional media is losing effectiveness, the fact is that it was never particularly well suited for things like classical music and ballet. Why? Because arts audiences are too dispersed, and don't lend themselves to segmentation and targeting as neatly as most consumer products. (What consumer behavior identifies someone as a Mahler freak?) Whatever media you choose, you end up with a lot of dollars wasted on people who couldn't care less. Dollars that orchestras and dance companies don't have a lot of in the first place.

So I thought: If we can't identify where our likely audience is, why not make it possible for them to identify themselves via online communication--sharing thoughts about music, dance, and other arts? Not only would this provide a database of likely attendees, it could also build a community of devotees who could be encouraged to introduce friends and neighbors to music and dance experiences. (Imagine a classical flashmob.)

For a number of reasons--lack of money and a conservatism inherent in many arts organizations—the idea went nowhere. But I still think the most powerful marketing tool these organizations possess is the passion of people who love music and dance, and their desire to introduce others to the experience. (No one knows better than you which of your friends and neighbors would be most receptive to hearing an orchestra or seeing a ballet for the first time. And no one would be better equipped to make them feel comfortable at the performance.)

Is this a "magic bullet" solution to the problem of dwindling audiences? No. But it could be a start.

Dear Mr. Sandow,

I appreciate your honesty in analyzing the data concerning today's classical music audience. but reading your last post brings up a couple of questions. I have not read through the NEA studies in detail, so please accept my apology for not doing my homework and finding the answers to my questions on my own.

Firstly, are there statistics regarding the percentage of the whole population that attend so-called classical performances? If the percentage has changed over time, then there are other questions that might need to be asked.

And secondly, are there more, fewer or more-or-less the same number of classical music presenting organizations ( or more precisely, classical music performances) compared to the total population. I want to believe that there are more classical music performances than there were 50 years ago, but I have no evidence of this. It just "seems" that every modestly sized community includes some hardy, eternally optimistic folks eager to build that "Your Town USA Philharmonic".

Speaking from the perspective of a professional musician and educator, I do believe that classical music should be readily available to all, but there's this disturbing little voice in my head that keeps asking two questions: is classical music really for everyone? and is the general performance level of classical music doing classical music any good? The "is classical music really for everyone" sounds terribly elitist. I know that. And I also know that exposure and education can and often will change perceptions and responses. But historically folk music (for lack of a better term) has always been the primary musical avenue for most people. It gets confused with the professionalization of folk music (I include all the popular musical genres in this catch-all term, i.e. R&R, R&B, the blues, etc.) because it seems that there is more folk music around. I don't think there is. These musicians are just getting paid to play, instead of playing for the campfire, back porch, etc. But the most popular musical genre is and always has been... well... popular music. And isn't that okay?

Please don't fire bomb my house for suggesting such a heretical idea!

And if every burb and burg has it's own community orchestra, a concept that I whole heartedly endorse, do those performances actually help the cause, as it were? I have heard many performances of Beethoven symphonies or Verdi operas that have left me listless and even bored (and I know and love this music!) . On this point i am emphatically not elitist; I have heard any number of amazingly poor performances in NYC. Bad music making is not just found in the rural communities. You can pay for that anywhere. But my real point is... do we have too many professional arts organizations? Have we, as a society, substituted quantity for quality? And does that affect how classical music is received?

Sorry for the rambling. I would appreciate any thoughts regarding my first two questions.

Thank you,

Phil Farris
Artist-in-Residence
University of Dayton
farrismm1@earthlink.net

Hi greg,

I just came across your blog. I do communications for the premier world music presenter in Canada; Small World Music. I'd love to send you press releases about relevant (classical concerts) we do.
As part of our Festival this year we're presenting Zakir Hussain w/ Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer.

thanks,
Eric

Hello,

I’m happy to announce you the launch of Classissima (in January), a collaborative website dedicated to classical music and opera (in English, French, Spanish, Italian and, coming soon, in German). Its point of view ? Internet must serve diversity of classical music and opera (we are not an classical music actor … but a french management consultant company !).

Take a moment to visit Classissima. You will discover that Classissima’s vocation is to integrate contents, for classic music lovers, giving them access to many resources (news, forums, blogs, websites, videos,…).

We have chosen "Opera Chic" for its quality and regular activity. It is presented in the news section (blogs part) : http://www.classissima.com/eng/news/look/03Blogs/

I hope that you’ll like Classissima. If you think Classissima is a good initiative, feel free to add a simple link from your blog to Classissima. It could help us to gain in visibility … on the huge anglo-saxon web ;-).

Thank you in advance.

Best regards,

Laurent Houmeau

NB : do not hesitate to give me your feedback on Classissima.

Recently the BBC have commissioned Goldie (a uk drum and bass star) to write a 7 minute piece for orchestra. Here he talks about his experience and says a few things about classical music you might find interesting:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/video/2009/jul/16/paul-morley-goldie1

Hi Greg -
From the Top is having a CD release party at Le Poisson Rouge on September 8 to showcase 2 new cds on the Telarc label: the debut album by From the Top alum Caroline Goulding, and From the Top at the Pops. Would love to see you there and talk to you more about what we're doing at From the Top. Feel free to send me an email to get added to our guest list:

http://www.lepoissonrouge.com/events/view/480

Regards, Erin MacCurtain

I was told about your blog by Peter Gregson, and we have been following it with interest since then. We are putting on an event and Peter suggested that it might appeal to you.

The 2009 Wigmore Hall / Kohn Foundation International Song Competition seeks out the great singers of tomorrow. Young, gifted singers and accompanists will perform for a top rostra of judges at one of the most prestigious classical music venues in the world.

This competition stands out from the rest as it deals specifically with song, and not with opera excerpts.

For the first time in over 100 years of concerts at Wigmore Hall you can follow the action as it unfolds - live - online.

Live blog coverage from the 5th September through the whole event
www.plushmusic.tv/blog & www.twitter.com/plushmusic

Live streaming of the final from 1755 on 10th September www.plushmusic.tv/wigmorehall

Do you agree with the jury? Who would you like to see in the final? Join in the discussion with the Plushmusic community, comment on our blog or via Twitter.

Our roaming correspondents will be tweeting and snapping behind the scenes, as well as interviewing the singers, accompanists, judging panel and audience members for the latest insight.

Get involved in the first 360 degree classical competition ever! Use our tweets to base stories on, our interviews to fill out your posts and our embeddable video to start discussions.

See the press release for more details - http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/69382/WHISC_Press_Release.pdf

Thank you and we hope you enjoy the event.

Simon Ings

Editor
Plushmusic

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 11, 2009
Contact: George Berry
(212) 586 1846, ext. 33
gaberry68@hotmail.com

WORLD PREMIERE OF MULTI-GRAMMY-NOMINATED COMPOSER DAVID CHESKY'S CONTROVERSIAL OPERA,

The Pig, The Farmer, and The Artist: An Operatic Satire About Sex, Music, and Art

Opens Friday, October 2 at NYC's Gene Frankel Theatre

All Performances to Begin at 8:00 p.m.

New York, NY—The Pig, The Farmer, and The Artist: An Operatic Satire About Sex, Music, and Art, with music/book/lyrics by multi-Grammy-nominated composer David Chesky, will receive its world premiere performance at the Gene Frankel Theatre (24 Bond Street, in NYC's East Village – the setting for the opera), Friday, October 2, 8:00 p.m. Directed by A. Scott Parry of New York City Opera and conducted by Anthony Aibel, the production will continue October 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, and 17, also at 8:00 p.m.

For more information, please visit David's Website, www.davidchesky.com. The performances feature adult content and no one under 18 years of age will be admitted.

Tickets can be purchased at www.theatermania.com.

About the Repertoire
This opera is a biting satire on our contemporary world. It attacks our present-day spiritual malaise tangentially, making use of 'the pig' allegorically, and, in doing so, mocks and pokes cruel fun at the inverted values of our materialistic society. In the tradition of Gulliver's Travels, the composer has attempted to break through and bring to the edge our world's impoverished state and lay bare society's frantic but ultimately empty pursuits at meaning.

Synopsis
To avoid being slaughtered by a lunatic farmer, Shirley the cow (a former hooker from Amsterdam), and her transvestite husband, Harvey, escape to New York's East Village, where they soon become all the rage of the highbrow art scene. Back on the farm, the Pig gets wind of their fame and follows to seek his artistic fortunes as well. Will the elitist critics accept the Pig's trendy conceptual art? Will the psychotic homesteader arrive in time to reclaim his prized hog? Will swine become the new black? This outrageous Fellini-esque satire superimposes the world of contemporary music onto the modern art scene, scorchingly skewering them both.

About David Chesky, music/books/lyrics
Miami-born David Chesky, a three-time Grammy nominee, is currently composer-in-residence for the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan. David's works span both jazz and classical genres, and have earned him the distinction of being the only jazz composer ever to be nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Contemporary Classical Composition. Also a pianist, David performs with the Grammy-nominated group The Body Acoustic, an ensemble that performs a mixture of Latin jazz and 12-tone contemporary classical works. In addition to working with major classical orchestras, David has performed at the world-famous jazz club The Village Vanguard, as well as the Newport, JVC, and Monterey Jazz Festivals. Besides being a musician and composer, David is also known worldwide as one of the leaders in the advancement of technological research on high resolution recording techniques. .

About A. Scott Parry, director
A. Scott Parry has garnered critical praise for his work in both opera and musical theater throughout the country. He is currently a stage director on staff at New York City Opera, but has continuing associations with many other opera companies across the U.S., including, among others, those of Santa Fe, Dallas, Boston, and Des Moines. He has served on the School of Music faculty at Indiana University in Bloomington, and headed the Musical Theatre Faculty at Mesa Community College in Phoenix, Arizona. Directing highlights have included Il barbiere di Siviglia for Opera Pacific, La cenerentola for Florida Grand Opera, and La traviata for Chautauqua Opera. As a librettist, Scott created an English language adaptation of Beaumarchais' La mère coupable, which is currently being set to music, and, as a composer, he recently presented the New York premiere of his theatre song cycle based on the poems of Dorothy Parker, Oscar Wilde, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.

About Anthony Aibel, conductor
Anthony Aibel is known for excelling in many diverse areas of the arts. He is active as a conductor, composer, violinist, violist, pianist, actor, writer, and editor. Mr. Aibel first conducted David Chesky's music when he was the conductor for the 2006 Grammy-nominated recording Area 31. In 2009, he guest conducted the Los Angeles Youth Orchesta and founded The Piano Orchestra, a group he works with as conductor, composer, and pianist. He is currently in his seventh year as a writer and editor for New York Concert Review, and his article on composer Percy Grainger was published in The New York Times. In 2000, Mr. Aibel was the conductor for the 10,000th concert of the National Symphony Orchestra at The Kennedy Center. Mr. Aibel is the co-founder and, from 2001 through 2006, was the conductor of The Mentoring Orchestra, a group that combined members of the New York Philharmonic with talented young musicians. Mr. Aibel is the only Juilliard graduate to have had three majors in music: conducting, composition, and viola. He made his Carnegie Hall debut at age 21, and his opera conducting debut at age 24 with Carmen at the Aspen Music Festival.

Hello Greg,
I'm a recently retired violinist from the Pittsburgh Symphony. We have talked and corresponded a few times. Congratulations for your ongoing work about the future of classical music -- a topic of intense interest to me. My personal feeling is that the barriers between classical music and the rest of the musical world, which have started to come down, will perhaps completely crumble and a new paradigm will emerge. Some composers who are breaking down the barriers, each in his own way, are Mark O'Connor, Stephen Sondheim, and John Williams. Perhaps some day an overpowering figure will emerge, a genius of the stature of a Beethoven, who will completely redefine the role of music in the 21st Century.

Hi, Roy. I agree. One composer, maybe to the left (so to speak) of Sondheim et al, who's defining new territory would be Steve Reich. Certainly his music speaks to a younger audience. If I had to name one composer who might serve as the Beethoven of today, I might pick him.

Hello Greg,
I'm a recently retired violinist from the Pittsburgh Symphony. We have talked and corresponded a few times. Congratulations for your ongoing work about the future of classical music -- a topic of intense interest to me. My personal feeling is that the barriers between classical music and the rest of the musical world, which have started to come down, will perhaps completely crumble and a new paradigm will emerge. Some composers who are breaking down the barriers, each in his own way, are Mark O'Connor, Stephen Sondheim, and John Williams. Perhaps some day an overpowering figure will emerge, a genius of the stature of a Beethoven, who will completely redefine the role of music in the 21st Century.

Do you have a policy of not publishing certain comments? I've had several that I've posted never end up on the site. My most recent tried to introduce the subject Canon Rock after the mention of the involvement of those who write Fan Fiction as compared to how young people engage with classical music, and I included a link to my own blogging on the subject of Pachelbel's Canon.

I have noticed no comments with external links, in fact. Do you have a policy of rejecting posts with external links? I spend a lot of time writing my comments on your site, editing carefully, and I'd appreciate knowing why you're rejecting them.

Or maybe there's a glitch somewhere and these comments are never getting through to you?

--
David W. Fenton
http://dfenton.com/NoComment/

RE: Technology or Culture?

Hey, Greg,

I thought you might find this interesting as it relates so directly to today's post. I do some pro bono work for the Pasadena Master Chorale (mostly because they let me sing) and we've come up with an interesting communications formula. The convergence of technology and culture is the heart and soul of our marketing mission:

THE PASADENA MASTER CHORALE

A SOCIAL NETWORK APPROACH TO AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT

While established groups wrestle with slow economies, ageing audiences and 20th century traditions, PMC is launching its first season with a healthy dose of optimism, a lack of institutional baggage and some 21st century ideas about our relationship to the world around us.

Below are three fundamental principals that govern how we build our community of friends and what we do for them when they come to our events.

PMC IS THE CENTER OF A DYNAMIC SOCIAL NETWORK
Using social networking as both a model and a practical tool, PMC thrives at the center of a social sphere that includes the people who make up the Chorale, Chorale members’ friends and families, donors & supporters, avid choral music fans, music educators & students, Pasadena area music lovers, local media, and the many friends we have yet to bring into the fold.

PMC SPEAKS WITH MANY VOICES
Unlike traditional arts organizations that speak with one, authoritative, executive voice, PMC speaks to its universe of friends with many voices. Each member is a fully empowered ambassador to his or her network, and the person who connects those networks back to the broader Chorale community. In both singing and community building, our many voices become one.

PMC AND ITS AUDIENCE ARE ONE
For PMC every concert is an opportunity to unite our network of friends in real time and in one space around the sacred act of making and enjoying music. But rather than being a meeting of separate entities, the concert is where choir and audience also become one, which is the very soul of the artistic experience.

In practical terms, these principals mean that, rather than marketing concerts and selling tickets, we endeavor periodically to assemble our tribe. And when the tribe assembles, we take meaningful steps to remove traditional barriers that separate the audience from the art.

Thus, PMC’s primary audience development objective is to reach attendance and revenue goals within a member centered, community-building context.

# # #

Dear Mr. Sandow-
As an enthusiatic reader of your blog and a young fan of classical music interested in pertuating the popularity of the art form by starting a blog of my own, I figured you would be a good person to ask for advice. I obviously do not have that much experience writing about music, but I have attended a good number of concerts and read about classical music to the degree that I feel I can make intelligent comments that will lead to further discussion. My format is to discuss music I have seen in New York and use the example of what I have seen to make larger points about classical music. Any advice you have on the best way to do this or the general experience of being a blogger about music would be wonderful. Thanks so much!
Helen Cronin

Hello Greg,
great Blog, here are some news from Europe. I'm principal second violin in the Orchestra Mozart Bologna and member of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, both conducted by Claudio Abbado and especially in Bologna there are long and passionate discussions about the future of classical music. Great violist Danusha Waskiewicz loved performing the Benjamin Yusupov Viola/Rock/Tango concerto a few weeks ago; the new concert master of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Lorenza Borrani is leading a new orchestra without conductor under the name Spira Mirabilis - check this link for a performance of theirs on an Italian town square, Beethoven 2 by memory... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYBYq5-4IC4
They study one piece at a time and perform only this, with introduction/examples before the performance.

Here's a project of my own, Matteis Project - Baroque ReImagined, it was featured at Lucerne Festival 07 and now we have performances in a Basel jazz club coming up, live streaming at www.birdseye.ch on Nov. 24 and 25 at 20:30h Europe time.
Intro Clip on this long-term project: http://www.vimeo.com/6273131
All best, looking forward to your book,
Etienne

Thanks SO much for the links! I hadn't seen them when I responded to your last comment.

And I'm sorry if you didn't see this comment here immediately. It got flagged automatically as spam, because it had so many links. An annoyance, but there's nothing I can do about it. Except approve the flagged comments the moment I see them.

hi Greg, sorry my last comment on today's post went up 3 times cause I kept getting a internal-server-error message...pls delete the extra ones. sorry for the error. best, Phillip

Not your problem, Philip. Sorry you had to suffer through it. I've been getting these messages all morning long, for a blog post as well as for comments. Very annoying.

Hi Greg - we corresponded long ago about Rach 3 recordings (I'm the guy that has over 160 of them). Anyway, do you find it odd that the NY Phil. is playing an all-Beethoven concert on the exact evening of the 100th anniversary of the first performance of Rach 3 (November 28, 2009?