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Greg Sandow on the future of classical music

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Archives for May 2005

More about Caramoor

May 27, 2005 by Greg Sandow

A reader -- Tom Lowderbaugh -- e-mailed to support what I'd said about the Caramoor press release. His marvelous e-mail put it all better than I knew how to. Here, with his permission, is what he wrote: Your comments on the Caramoor release are entirely on target. Why - in God's name - would any reporter or editor reading that release want to learn more? Or feel a need to read more? This release contains exactly the kind of useless language that George Orwell condemned more than half a century ago. (Granted, Orwell was examining political … [Read more...]

Take a friend

May 26, 2005 by Greg Sandow

Drew McManus has, all this month, been running things from a delightful assortment of people about taking a friend to an orchestra. This is in his blog, of course. I should have mentioned it, but May has been a crazy month for me, and I've barely done my own blog at all. But I'm back now, and I want to give Drew a plug. Besides, my own contribution is now up, so I'm remembering to plug it, as well. (I'm amazed at how often I forget to mention things I've written, or things I'm doing.) I'm afraid my thoughts for Drew were about why people … [Read more...]

Why a press release matters

May 26, 2005 by Greg Sandow

So I just made all this fuss (below) about a press release for Caramoor. Someone may very well say, “Well, sure, the press release might not be very good, but does that really matter? How many people read it? The public doesn’t see it!” And of course that’s right. The public doesn’t see the empty press material that so many classical music institutions send out. But the same kind of language also shows up in season brochures and advertising, which the public does see. So it’s good to root it out wherever it is. Besides, one very crucial … [Read more...]

Here we go again

May 25, 2005 by Greg Sandow

I've commented here from time to time on bad press releases, but here's one that makes me lose my patience. It arrived as an e-mail today: Hello, Caramoor International Music Festival’s 60th anniversary season begins on June 25th at 7 p.m. with Ode to Joy,  a joyous musical celebration featuring Beethoven’s immortal Ninth Symphony in the Venetian Theater. Artistic Advisor and Principal Conductor Peter Oundjian leads the all-Beethoven program featuring the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and The Collegiate Chorale, with Janice Chandler-Eteme, … [Read more...]

Creeping back to the blog…

May 17, 2005 by Greg Sandow

Life has been rich, full, and exhausting. I've neglected the blog, for which I apologize (and also for not being able, yet, to answer some of the terrific e-mail I've been getting). But a lot of good things have been happening. My students at Juilliard have done some astounding stuff, which I want to share here -- presentations about works in their repertoire, aimed at people who don't go to classical concerts, and plans for concerts to appeal to this new audience. My students just blew me away with their ideas, and their feelings. If the … [Read more...]

Greg Sandow

Though I've been known for many years as a critic, most of my work these days involves the future of classical music -- defining classical music's problems, and finding solutions for them. Read More…

About The Blog

This started as a blog about the future of classical music, my specialty for many years. And largely the blog is still about that. But of course it gets involved with other things I do — composing music, and teaching at Juilliard (two courses, here … [Read More...]

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How to write a press release

As a footnote to my posts on classical music publicists, and how they could do better, here's a post I did in 2005 -- wow, 11 years ago! --  about how to make press releases better. My examples may seem fanciful, but on the other hand, they're almost … [Read More...]

The future of classical music

Here's a quick outline of what I think the future of classical music will be. Watch the blog for frequent updates! I Classical music is in trouble, and there are well-known reasons why. We have an aging audience, falling ticket sales, and — in part … [Read More...]

Timeline of the crisis

Here — to end my posts on the dates of the classical music crisis  — is a detailed crisis timeline. The information in it comes from many sources, including published reports, blog comments by people who saw the crisis develop in their professional … [Read More...]

Before the crisis

Yes, the classical music crisis, which some don't believe in, and others think has been going on forever. This is the third post in a series. In the first, I asked, innocently enough, how long the classical music crisis (which is so widely talked … [Read More...]

Four keys to the future

Here, as promised, are the key things we need to do, if we're going to give classical music a future. When I wrote this, I was thinking of people who present classical performances. But I think it applies to all of us — for instance, to people who … [Read More...]

Age of the audience

Conventional wisdom: the classical music audience has always been the age it is now. Here's evidence that it used to be much younger. … [Read More...]

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