Greg Sandow on the future of classical music
Many thanks to ArtsJournal founder, guru, and all around
good guy Doug McLennan for the spiffy new look of this blog. Doug does
prodigious work, and has prodigious ideas as well. I don’t know when I’ve had a
more stimulating or more helpful colleague. As I’ve said before! But it bears
repeating many times. Doug deserves massive funding for everything he does, so
he can be repaid in more than gratitude.
This was the first in what turned out to be a long series of posts, in which I and many readers highlighted people, groups, and institutions making new departures in classical music, doing things in new ways. This wasn't even close to a complete … [Read More...]
“To be a musician in the service of music is not a job; it is a way of life.” –Isaac Stern, violinist (The Musician’s Way, p. 299) The music education community is swirling with talk about how best to prepare university-level students … [Read More...]
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...]
[From Greg: A followup to Erica's guest post yesterday, about the performance of Winterreise she did in a small town. Here she tells us what she said before the performance, to introduce the piece to an audience that doesn't know classical music. … [Read More...]
Conventional wisdom: the classical music audience has always been the age it is now. Here's evidence that it used to be much younger. How young the audience was in 1937: Results of an audience study, showing a median age around 30 (from … [Read More...]
While we're still talking about CD covers, I thought I'd add a few likes of my own. Starting with this one, which I've loved ever since the recording came out on LP in 1962: Of course it's Siegfried, from the Georg Solti Ring. And there … [Read More...]
[Lara Downes was the first of our guest bloggers here, and she began with a post about classical CD covers she likes. And about how she came up with the cover for her own latest album. Her list -- along with mine, and others that I hope will come … [Read More...]
I've spent some time compiling a list of videos I think especially stand out from the very bland standard classical music videos (no easy task to find these!). Most bigger budget classical music videos are basically just documentations of … [Read More...]
an ArtsJournal blog
Recent Comments
Brian Hughes on The Monday post
Greg- Several months ago I posted on my blog a sort of "contest" for best performances of my favorite aria, Nessun...Ariel on The Friday post
It would be of interest if Mr. Barnhill would define his interpretation "wonderful take " concerning the Rite...richard on The Friday post
" It’s a new era, and there’s no reason a digital organ can’t sound fabulous. I can imagine that many...KDjupdal on A quiet thought
Here is an article summing up the debate: http://www.klassekampen.no/61549/article/item/null/-klassisk-musikk-i-krise (in norwegian, but you can use google translate) What was your impression of the...Eric Barnhill on The Friday post
If I may post re last Friday's Friday post, readers may be interested in this wonderful take on the Rite...