From Jon Farley in w:st="on">Britain
permission) comes something worth thinking about. Jon says, “I studied music at
school and though I loved the music I found the stuffiness overbearing.” And
then this:
I went to a [classical] concert
last week and the thing that struck me was that nobody talked to the audience
and that’s really weird! I listen to a wide variety of music and it’s only the
classical world that does this. Even a hello, how are you? would
do. I went to a contemporary music concert the next night – completely
different with the organiser/performer/composer
introducing the concert, performers or composers introducing pieces and you
could chat to them in the interval. It made a huge amount of difference. Having
performed myself – mostly as a singer – I find connecting with the audience
vital and I know that’s done mostly through the music but a little talking
never hurt. The concerts were all part of a festival trying to bring a
wide range of music from classical to contemporary to you name
it to a wider and younger audience with some success. Have a look at
href="http://www.fuseleeds.org.uk/" title="http://www.fuseleeds.org.uk/">http://www.fuseleeds.org.uk/
more info.
People don’t always believe me when I say that a younger
audience wants things the existing (older) audience doesn’t ask for. So here’s one
more piece of evidence that they do.
And now please follow that link. You’ll find the website for
a festival in Leeds (in the
that looks just wonderful—and which brings together pop music and new classical
music, mostly of the outside-the-concert-hall variety. I’ve noted the natural
link between those two worlds before, and this is an exceptionally stunning
example. Too bad the festival (according
to Jon) is held only every other year.
Does everybody realize what credibility classical music institutions
would have with that younger audience everybody talks about, if they organized
something like this? Doesn’t matter whether they normally put
on events like this or not. And in fact if they don’t normally go in
this direction, they’d help themselves even more with a younger audience if
they’d try it.










Recent Comments
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