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Life's A Pitch

For immediate release: the arts are marketable

Get off my lawn!

November 16, 2011 by Amanda Ameer

Michael Kaiser wants those crazy kids to turn their loud rock 'n roll music down! You with your "chat rooms" and your hippy hippy shake shake and your mobile telephones. He wrote a blog post on the Huffington Post about how social media and bloggers are ruining arts criticism. Before we go on, kindly take a moment to absorb the irony of  someone writing for the Huffington Post commenting on the demise of traditional media outlets. I've covered these topics before, and I don't want to be That Blogger who just writes the same post over and … [Read more...]

Because of your niceness

November 15, 2011 by Amanda Ameer

About a month ago, The New Yorker ran a fascinating profile of Taylor Swift. After noting that in the past five years, Taylor Swift has sold more albums than any other musician (a cool 20 million),  the writer points to the not-so-secret of Swift's success: "Swift's ability to hold her audience's interest reflects, in part, a keen understanding of what fuels fan obsession in the first place: a desire for intimacy between singer and listener." The piece goes on to describe how Swift's mother handpicks superfans from the audience of her … [Read more...]

Advertising is good for you

November 8, 2011 by Amanda Ameer

New York City's classical music station WQXR got a nice New York Times hit last week in the advertising section. Yay for classical music getting featured in another part of the paper! Stuart Elliott from the Times reports that WQXR created a poster in the style of Shepard Fairey--of Obama campaign/possible image theft fame--to promote what they are calling "Beethoven Awareness Month." The concept is based not on Fairey's Obama poster, but rather on the Andre the Giant Has a Posse thing-thing/OBEY Giant posters: I personally feel awareness … [Read more...]

Cracker Jacks

October 28, 2011 by Amanda Ameer

Update on the World Series Orchestral Battle of Destiny, which ends tonight. I was at Siegfried last night, but could have actually watched the end of that crazy game, even after a 5.5 hour opera, if I didn't go to the after-party. The New York Times randomly reports on the Dallas Symphony, and Alex Ross checks in with St. Louis: As Red Sox fans, we here at The Rest Is Noise take no position on the current World Series, which finds the St. Louis Cardinals doing battle with the Texas Rangers. Applying purely aesthetic criteria, however, we … [Read more...]

Positive thinking

October 24, 2011 by Amanda Ameer

Congrats to the DeCoro Choir from Latvija, for writing the best Twitter bio--and perhaps the best bio, period--that I've ever seen.   … [Read more...]

I want to swim in that pool

October 20, 2011 by Amanda Ameer

I think Declan, who works with me, sent this over to make me feel bad about not doing enough for Hilary's Ives album. I mean, even the video ABOUT the ad campaign is cooler than anything I've ever done. When they have the hamburgers wrapped in Jay-Z prose it's like COME on. I like how "big pimpin'" decidedly does not roll off the tongue of the voiceover dude. There's just nothing better than advertising that gets more press. And press that gets more press. Those are my favorite things. … [Read more...]

Root root root for the symphonies!

October 19, 2011 by Amanda Ameer

The World Series starts tonight and I don't care because the Yankees were an unmitigated post-season disaster. I will try and be happy for the two teams that made it, though, if only because both cities have very good symphony orchestras. The St. Louis Symphony has already stepped up to the plate...ba-ZING!...and taped themselves in Cardinals' gear playing 'Take Me Out To The Ballgame". They sound darn good, too: But now it's BETTIN' time. The Dallas Symphony asked the St. Louis Symphony on Twitter if they should bet on the Series. … [Read more...]

Gilbert’s mom

October 14, 2011 by Amanda Ameer

Credit Suisse, NYC tourism, and the New York Philharmonic have placed banners all over the Upper West Side (and perhaps elsewhere, but I never leave) of Philharmonic music director Alan Gilbert: One of the photos is the above, but another is randomly Alan Gilbert with his mother, Yoko Takebe, who happens to be a violinist in the orchestra. She's totally cute, but the problem is that 99.999999999% of people traipsing around Manhattan don't know mom is in the band, so it's just like, what is that woman saying to that man and what does the … [Read more...]

Just think, music lovers

October 13, 2011 by Amanda Ameer

Via Pablo Heras-Casado: I thought I was going to beat Alex Ross ("ARoss", as my cousin calls him) to a 12-tone something, but he Tweeted back that the video was a shortened version of "Arnie Schoenberg and His Second Viennese School," a spoof radio commercial by Cleveland station WCLV on April Fool's Day, 1977.  Alex's post with the full audio is here. And while we're loosely in the Mad Men genre, my favorite thing: … [Read more...]

This hurts my soul

October 10, 2011 by Amanda Ameer

  I mean really, America: snap out of it. … [Read more...]

Impromptu Memorial, photographed by iPhones

October 7, 2011 by Amanda Ameer

A small collection of flowers, letters, Post-Its, candles and drawings for Steve Jobs outside the Upper West Side Apple Store on Broadway last night.     … [Read more...]

Hamsters and Freebasing: Anne-Sophie Mutter on ‘Late Night’

October 1, 2011 by Amanda Ameer

Last night, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter performed on David Letterman to celebrate the release of her box set, which Dave called, "the ideal hamster habitat." Earlier in the evening, Dave discussed crack and freebasing with Samuel L. Jackson, and a girl could only dream that he and Miss Mutter would cover the same topics. Mutter played with long-time collaborator, ex-husband, and Knight of the British Empire Andre Previn, and looked damn good in her little red dress. Why musicians feel the need to play … [Read more...]

And now, the Top Ten Reasons To Watch Anne-Sophie Mutter on ‘Letterman’ Tonight

September 30, 2011 by Amanda Ameer

10. So they book more classical musical guests. 9. So they book more classical musical guests. 8. So they book more classical musical guests. 7. So they book more classical musical guests. 6. Because she's skinny. 5. So they book more classical musical guests. 4. So they book more classical musical guests. 3. So they book more classical musical guests. 2. So they book more classical musical guests. 1. So they book more classical musical guests.   All joking aside, it's a huge coup to have a serious … [Read more...]

I mean, I see the bowl

September 22, 2011 by Amanda Ameer

File Under: Things Artists Do Without Asking Their Publicists, here we have Hilary interviewing a Betta fish. Other interview subjects on her YouTube channel include but are not limited to Leonard Slatkin and Jennifer Higdon. Reports from journalist friends lead me to believe that this is how they sometimes feel when interviewing classical musicians. Conversely, classical musicians are often asked the same questions that Hilary asks the betta, so I suppose all's fair in love and boring journalism. … [Read more...]

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Amanda Ameer

is a publicist who started First Chair Promotion in July 2007. She currently represents Hilary Hahn, Gabriel Kahane, David Lang, Michael Gordon, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Sondra Radvanovsky, Julia Wolfe, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Lawrence Brownlee. She thanks Chris Owyoung at One Louder Photo for taking the above photo very quickly and painlessly. Read More…

Life’s A Pitch

Why don't we apply the successful marketing and publicity campaigns we see in our everyday lives to the performing arts? Great ideas are right there, ripe for the emulating. And who's responsible for the wide-reaching problems in ticket sales and … [Read More...]

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@Amandaameer

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Interviews

Talk to me about marketing Shakespeare

Oh gosh: let's see if I even remember how do to do this. Back in the day, when I didn't have clients playing everything Ravel wrote for the piano etc., I did interviews with Industry Professionals. … [Read More...]

Talk to me about Music Marathon

Remember when I was really awesome and posting interviews every week? Well, I'm less awesome now, but here's an interview with Billy Robin of Northwestern University. He started Music Marathon on … [Read More...]

Talk to me about BBC Music Magazine

As often as possible, on Fridays I will post interviews with colleagues from the field who are far more knowledgeable than I am on various marketing and publicity topics. In honor (-our) of all … [Read More...]

Talk to me about Metropolis Ensemble

In the immortal works of Todd Rundgren, "Iiii don't-want-to-work, I just wanna write-on-this-blog-all day." That's not entirely true: I love my job, but it does make things I also like to do--coming … [Read More...]

Life’s a Twitch, Part 3 (The Journalists)

Though many, many more music journalists are on Twitter, these are the people I noticed interacting with the publicists I interviewed the most. Oodles of thanks to  @nightafternight: Steve Smith, … [Read More...]

Talk to me about ‘Opera News’

As often as possible, on Fridays I will post interviews with colleagues from the field who are far more knowledgeable than I am on various marketing and publicity topics. This week, we have F. Paul … [Read More...]

Talk to me about not music blogging

At the ends of weeks, I post interviews with people who know a lot more about aspects of the proverbial business than I do. Two weeks ago, theater blogger Jaime Green told us she would blog … [Read More...]

Talk to me about theater blogging

Happy Friday! It's not raining and I actually have an interview to post!  This week we have Jaime Green, Literary Associate at MCC Theater in Manhattan and blogger of 5 years. Below she discusses … [Read More...]

Glenn Petry, 21C Media Group

Because 1. no one wants to read about The Life and Times of Amanda Ameer every day and 2. because there are many, many people out there who know more about publicity and marketing than I do, every … [Read More...]

Talk to me about Dilettante

Sometimes it's hard being Amanda. For example, when I think of lots of cool people to interview for (le) blog, and they say yes, and then I don't have time to write the questions? Yes, at times like … [Read More...]

A Virtual Panel

A Conversation

Jan 18-22, 2010: I hosted a virtual panel on when and how artists, managers, journalists, presenters and publicists single out musicians for being "special" in their promotion and career-building efforts. Participants included musician, pianist … [Read More...]

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