It's that special time of year: you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a "Best of" something. So let's add to it!E mail me with your nominations for the following in classical music and opera:Best Marketing Campaign (describe)Best Publicity Pitch (describe)Best Feature Story (please include link)Best Review (please include link)Best Artist Interview (link, if applicable, or describe if coming from a journalist) Best Album Art (link or jpeg)Best Advertisement (please include screenshot, scan or jpeg)Best New Music Blog (that would be "new" … [Read more...]

Gawker reports that Mark Pinsky from The New Republic wants Obama to bring back the Federal Writer's Project: The Federal Writers Project operated from 1935-1939 under the leadership of Henry Alsberg, a journalist and theater director. In addition to providing employment to more than 6,000 out-of-work reporters, photographers, editors, critics, writers, and creative craftsmen and -women, the FWP produced some lasting contributions to American history, culture, and literature. Their efforts ranged from comprehensive guides to 48 states and three … [Read more...]

The venerable Jean Sibelius would have turned 143 years-young on this cold day of 8 December. Birthday wishes - what I've been told is her "best reference to the final movement of the Sibelius concerto" - from Hilary Hahn can be found here. I can't say for sure, but I'm fairly to moderately certain that all Jean wants for his birthday is for the Violin Concertos of Schoenberg and Sibelius on performed by Hilary Hahn released on Deutsche Grammophon to win two (2) Grammy Awards. Don't quote me on that, though; he could very well want something … [Read more...]

First, let me express my sincere condolences for friends and colleagues who have lost their jobs, and artists who have lost performance contracts, in this financial mess. I joked when Lehmans closed shop that finally the economics of the arts and the rest of the world had evened out, but...it's all gotten progressively less funny. Though we never had much money to spend in the arts anyway, these months have been especially tough. I touched on some of these ideas back in July here, but, in honor of the recession, let's think about arts marketing … [Read more...]

Oh, noooo:In an effort to reduce the numerous emails the League of American Orchestras sends its members, early in 2009 we will launch The Hub, the go-to source for orchestra news. Media View (formerly known as In the News) will cease as an e-newsletter and move to The Hub, a new page on the League's website, where it will be updated daily. The Hub will also contain everything you need to know about what is happening in our field, new appointments, and the essential information and services the League provides.  As previously stated, … [Read more...]

I'm flattered/horrified that so many people e mailed and asked what I thought of the YouTube Symphony project. It doesn't exactly BLOW MY MIND, but it's not a bad thing.Some thoughts: The London Symphony Orchestra Master Classes are amazing. I am so impressed that all the musicians took the time to tape them. This is something I've been trying to get my artists to do for a while, but I could never figure out the format. Should the master classes be sold on iTunes, should they be subscription podcasts? Given away for free on an artist's site or … [Read more...]

The big news from my colleagues in Europe who wake up before me is that both The King's Singers and Hilary Hahn are nominated for GRAMMIES. We have Hahnda Accord in Best Classical Album and Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra), and All The King's Singers' Horses and All the King's Singers' Men in Best Classical Crossover Album. Now let's see...six Singers plus one Hahn times two tickets each minus four managers minus one mother minus wives and children...yeah, there's no way I'm getting to that ceremony.  … [Read more...]

From The Boston Globe last week:In an extremely rare public flare-up in the outwardly genteel world of major symphony orchestras, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, the 77-year-old maestro who is one of the last living links to a golden era of Russian music, has pulled out of the entire run of four concerts he was scheduled to conduct with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which began on Thursday...The trouble began on Wednesday during a rehearsal break, when the conductor and his wife took a stroll around Symphony Hall. They came upon a promotional poster … [Read more...]

Who wants to buy Time Out (New York AND Chicago, 2-for-1 recession special)?One clever commenter on Gawker writes, "and too late for inclusion in their cheap holiday gifts issue, too. what a shame." … [Read more...]

My college roommate was in town this weekend and informed me about the completely nauseating Wal-Mart stampede incident. "I read it on the Times site this morning," she said. "It was in the 'Most E mailed' column; that's how I get all my news." Now, this is a girl who's getting her PhD in East Asianist History at Yale, so I strongly doubt the "Most E mailed" column is her one source of current event intel. That said, I see a "Most E mailed" list and I generally read through those articles/blog entries first, whichever site I'm on. Most … [Read more...]

I'm enjoying the growing list of what me and my people do wrong in the comments section of this post. To re-cap, journalists don't like it when publicists:...use ALL CAPS in the subjects or bodies of their e mails....mail discs with no liner notes/track listings/context of any kind....blindly send press releases to journalists who have no history of writing about that artist/concert/repertoire/genre....don't include audio or video clips in their press releases....act all lover-scorned when editors aren't interested in their clients....send … [Read more...]

One topic of conversation at the Turkey Day table yesterday afternoon was how early everyone was getting to the Short Hills Mall, Kohl's and Best Buy today, destination preferences delineated by expected gender and age stereotypes. That in mind, my first order of business this morning was to do some serious Google work on Black Friday classical music sales ((nerd)). Do any orchestras have discounted tickets tonight? Does ArkivMusic have a Black Friday CD sale like Amazon does? Are there any afternoon chamber music concerts advertised as … [Read more...]

Atlantic Records' digital sales beat physical sales, so says The New York Times and lots of research-y people. HOWEVER:This performance is sharply at odds with the trends in the music industry over all, where data show that sales of compact discs still account for more than two-thirds of music sales. Forrester Research does not expect digital music to reach 50 percent of the overall pie until 2011.Fear not, gentle readers, Atlanta Records President Julie Greenwald has "figured it out", "it" being, presumably, how to sell records in 2008?"I … [Read more...]

From: a New York City classical music and dance writerTo: Me, just nowI would like to take a moment to thank you for never sending me emails with all caps subject lines.  It is an affliction of many publicists, and actually makes me less likely to want to read the email.I also assume that marking all your press releases "High Importance" gets pretty annoying to writers. And including huge attachments, I would imagine. Calling all journalists! What do publicists do that annoy you the most?[Some comique is probably going to say "blog".] … [Read more...]