I fear that what I'm going to say might ignite a firestorm. But I think it needs to be said.We hear a lot -- or at least we do if we're in the arts -- about an arts bailout. Many people (in the arts, at least) want money for the arts included in the stimulus bill. I get e-mail about that, and eager Twitter tweets. Please support an arts bailout, these communications say. E-mail your senator, your congressperson.And in fact there's a $50 million supplement to the NEA budget in the bill that passed the House. It's not in the version of the bill … [Read more...]

(This is the end of my "Where we stand" series for 2009.)I've notice that, broadly speaking, people take two positions on the future of classical music. Or,.rather, they take these positions if they think that classical music faces any problems. Some people think everything's fine, but I'm going to assume that these people are a small minority, and won't be reading this blog. (If I'm wrong, and you're one of those people, tell me!)So let's assume that all of us -- or most of us -- think that classical music has problems. Some of us will blame … [Read more...]

I loved the Springsteen half-time show. He's 59. An inspiration -- if he has that much energy, I can have it, even if I've got a few years on him. And many people might have said that rock like that was dead, as any kind of current music. That it's now nostalgia. But maybe not. Or maybe nostalgia is part of its strength, a way of bringing back our innocence.A great way to launch the new album, of course. The new song stood up to the classics (though since everything was cut, we don't know how it would hold up at full length). Also -- how happy … [Read more...]

No, not the surge in Iraq. This is a surge, or at least a heartening increase, in ticket sales, which I've been hearing about for the past couple of years. Of course -- since, as I've said, we just don't have reliable data for classical music ticket sales and finances (I should put that in bold type) -- I don't know how big this surge is, or how broad, by which I mean how widespread it is in the classical music world. We know the Metropolitan Opera has been selling more tickets, but that might be a special case, caused by Peter Gelb's … [Read more...]