• Home
  • About
    • What’s happening here
    • Greg Sandow
    • Contact
  • AJBlogs
  • ArtsJournal

Sandow

Greg Sandow on the future of classical music

You are here: Home / 2007 / Archives for February 2007

Archives for February 2007

Inspirations

February 21, 2007 by Greg Sandow

The Apple Store A month or so ago I went to the Apple Store in New York to buy a new iPod. (I dropped mine in the toilet. Don't ask!) And the store was a revelation. It's not just a store. It's a destination. It's packed with people. Some are shopping. Some are just trying out computers and iPods, which are available in great numbers for people to play with. And some people are just hanging out. Some bring their computers, and seem to be sitting on comfortable padded benches, working. When I bought my iPod, I didn't have to wait on a checkout … [Read more...]

Our new audience

February 19, 2007 by Greg Sandow

From Marie Finnegan, a classical music fan "in snowy Maine" (as she says): HI Greg, I found your blog this morning and wanted to share a few thoughts. I am a 39 beginning flute player. I played tenor sax back in high school so music isn't completely new to me. Classical music as an interest is, however. My band instructor wasn't a great motivator or teacher of classical music. (Actually he lacked many talents and the band sadly shrunk because of it.) Our "band" also lacked a string section. (we were 12 to 20 strong on a good day) I came … [Read more...]

The past comes to life

February 18, 2007 by Greg Sandow

In the old days -- which I used to think meant the 18th and 19th centuries -- pianists used to improvise introductions to pieces they played. This was called "preluding," and gave rise to the short, freeform pieces we call "preludes" (like Chopin's), which were written-out versions of the kind of music pianists might improvise. But now I've learned that pianists preluded well into the 20th century. And that there are recorded examples, from old-time like Josef Hoffman and Wilhelm Backhaus! I guess I'm late in learning this, because many people … [Read more...]

Something nice

February 6, 2007 by Greg Sandow

Something wonderful in Andrew Druckenbrod's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette piece on applause...and no, not simply what he and various Pittsburgh Symphony musicians say about how people in the audience should feel free to clap between movements. And maybe even during the music. No, what struck me even more was Andy's many links to musical examples, which bring to life so many things he talks about. He even includes both live and studio recordings of "Un beldi," from Madama Butterfly, to show what happens when people applaud over the orchestral … [Read more...]

Stressbusters

February 6, 2007 by Greg Sandow

My 80 gig video iPod, and my Shure E5-C headphones. I've had Etymotic headphones, which I'd swear were the best in-ear earbuds I could possibly hear, but the Shures (a Christmas gift) outdo them, both in how well they isolate outside noise, and in their sound. It's so rich and detailed that at first it sounded almost phony -- too real, too rich. But then I got used to them. Perfect for planes. Two downsides, though. To get them to stay in place, you have to loop the cord over your ears, which takes a long moment, and can be a little cumbersome. … [Read more...]

Stress and Silence

February 5, 2007 by Greg Sandow

I should apologize for my silence on this blog for the past -- can it be? -- two weeks. Or maybe not. I'd have preferred to post, but (to bring up an issue more important than music, both for myself and others) I realized this fall that I'd been very stressed. My paying work, traveling, my teaching, this blog, meetings on future projects, composing, my online book...I've had a lot of balls in the air at once  and I noticed a lot of classic symptoms of stress. My mind racing at night, back pain, irritable bowels; and throughout it all, a … [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...]

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on RSS

Archives

@gsandow

Tweets by @gsandow

Resources

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...]

Return to top of page

an ArtsJournal blog

This blog published under a Creative Commons license

Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in