Success story

Here’s something really heartening, from Ariel Davis, a

student who found that her local orchestra was reading her blog — and taking it

seriously. She e-mailed all this to me, and I’m posting it with her permission

(though we took out specifics about exactly who’s involved, because the

orchestra in question may not be expecting any public discussion of what they’ve

done):

Greg,

I know you get tons of e-mails, and

I’ve e-mailed you several times before (and made a few comments on the first

version of your book). I don’t mean to take up a lot of your time, but I wanted

to tell you about something related to a comment you made months ago on your

blog. (Right now, I’m the fine arts editor at my university’s publication.)

I made a comment on your old book

draft, and you plugged my old blog, "Writers Block" and suggested

that many symphony orchestras should be listening to what I have to say,

because I’m a 21 year old avid concert-goer. I was

very flattered, but surprised. I didn’t think that anyone would want to

listen to what I had to say.

Fast forward to yesterday. I had

plans to meet with the conductor of the small orchestra in my town. I was

to interview him for a profile, but when I arrived at the offices, two of the

marketing directors were there, and they had arranged (which I had no idea of

until I arrived, but word was around that I was coming) for us to all sit

down and start brainstorming ideas about getting young people to buy tickets to

the symphony. So I was politely questioned for 45 minutes, and they took

notes. At the end of the "meeting" they had found a way to utilize

the charms of the composer in residence, (my suggestion, since he seems to

attract women) for a orchestra sponsored party at my

university campus, where he would DJ, etc. 

It turns out that the conductor,

and many of the staff at the symphony had been reading "Writers

Block" and found my concert comments to be very valuable. Orchestras are

listening, and I never believed that before yesterday.

Ariel’s new blog is :”he Stranger in Seat Twelve”; in it you’ll find all the contents of “Writer’s Block.”

And here’s

one of the fine comments Ariel posted about my

href="http://www.artsjournal.com/greg">book

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> (or rather about one of the discussions one of

the book episodes provoked):

I completely agree with the points you

made above in your reply to Andrea la Rose, especially about new music in

concert programs. In addition to making music sound like the music in the

outside world, I think it brings something fresh to concert programs.

Many people I know don’t attend

concerts because they don’t think they’ll get anything new out of it than they

will from listening to a recording. However, new music brings attendees that

fresh experience that they are hoping for, and in that way, I think it might be

a very effective way to attract patrons.

In addition, performers can also

bring a “rarity” to concerts by, as you wrote, bringing their “individuality”

to the performance. I’m not saying they should change a work so much that they

stray too far from the original piece, but they should make it their own so

that people are drawn to a performance because of this distinction, and

recognize it’s rarity because of it.

In addition, I wish performers

still wrote original cadenzas. If three different orchestras and performers

were doing the same concerto at the same time, on the same night, and one of

them was performing it with their own original cadenza, I’d be much more apt to

buy a ticket to that show than the others. Why? Because it’s something new,

different, fresh, and not too far removed from the original piece itself.

I enjoyed reading the section of

Chapter 2 about the audience’s response to music in the concert hall. I admit

that I feel a little restricted listening to music in a concert hall, because I

can’t dance, I can’t sway, I can’t chatter to my friend about what to listen

for next.

My father went to his first opera

with me last year, and I hadn’t schooled him on etiquette. He yelled and

shouted and made faces and laughed loudly. I was embarrassed, but then I

realized, “Why should I be?” Why can’t watching an opera or listening to a

concert be like watching a movie, more interactive and exciting?

I recently attended a concert, and

at the start of the “William Tell Overture” the audience let out a collective

“ah” in recognition of the familiar music. For the first time it hit me that I

was experiencing the music with other people. Even though the show was sold out

and the stage was filled with people, I didn’t realize that I was sharing the

musical experience with other people, and if I was how would I know? The

orchestra looked staid, the audience looked even more

unaffected.

I had a similar experience at a

Yo-Yo Ma concert with the Mobile Symphony Orchestra, Ma came on stage for a few

encores and said “Help me!” requesting help for what to play. Immediately

everyone started shouting out titles of pieces, and it was incredible. I felt

like some big ice barrier between everyone had been broken, and I didn’t feel

class=GramE>so restricted as I had before at concerts.

No matter how friendly everyone is,

for me, personally as soon as I sit in a seat at concert hall, I enter this

structured, environment where I’m very conscious of my actions–almost like

being in school. I’m not comfortable, even if I’ve

been millions of times, and I can see how new concert guests can be

uncomfortable too.