Life's A Pitch

All classical music publicists try really hard to place their clients in different sections of the paper, but I nearly passed out when I clicked on a Google Alert and saw this last night:Sex & Dating...Great dates...Hilary Hahn.  Private and quiet Hilary, right there under Sex & Dating. It turns out, they were listing this:String dateClassical music never seems less old and musty than when violinist Hilary Hahn shows up. The virtuoso will chat about her Pulitzer Prize-winning album at Housing Works Bookstore Café. FREE 126 Crosby … [Read more...]

I had a Spring for Music festival meeting at Opus 3 Artists this afternoon, and was extremely distracted by the truly excellent vintage posters and flyers hanging in the conference room. The best one, from a publicist's perspective, was this Yo-Yo Ma booking flyer from the mid-70's: Sure, the pull-quotes are "Spectacular!" "Undeniable Skill!" "Prodigious!" "Spellbinding" and "An Extraordinary Cellist!", but they're from Novedadas Mexico D.F., Louisville Times, Vancouver Sun, Ottawa Journal and the Louisville Courier-Journal. There's nothing … [Read more...]

I woke up at 5am today to get on a flight to LA. It really did feel like the first day of school, despite my complete lack of children. I had my not-trying-too-hard plane outfit picked out and everything. The season's starting, which means many things, including (but not limited to) me having to wear more make-up and fun (free!) CD release events. I'm en route to the sunnier coast because Nico Muhly has two albums coming out on Decca in a few weeks, and I'm handling the PR for them. [Fairly to moderately unrelated, you can read Nico and me … [Read more...]

News from Apple today, via CBS: iTunes 10 So far 11.7 billion songs have been downloaded from iTunes. At the same time, 450 million TV episodes and 100 million movies have also been downloaded, as well as 35 million books. The 10th major version of iTunes features a hybrid view that displays album artwork if you have five songs from the same album. Apple also added a feature to help users discover music with a technology called Ping, a social network for music, according to jobs. "Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes," he said, which is built … [Read more...]

There is nothing more terrifying (except, perhaps, bedbugs in the movie theater where you wanted to see Step Up 3D?) to a Manhattanite than encountering this on a presenter's website:Montclair State University is located on Valley Rd. and Normal Ave. in Montclair, NJ. The University's main entrance is on Normal Avenue. FROM POINTS NORTH: Take Garden State Parkway to Route 46 West (exit 154). Exit onto Valley Road (south) toward Montclair.* FROM POINTS SOUTH:Take Garden State Parkway to Route 3 West (exit 153B). Exit onto Valley Road (south) … [Read more...]

When my friend Abigail from IMG e mailed to say that there were "delightful little scooters" outside Carnegie Hall today, I knew I had to take a detour from my lunchtime eyebrow threading appointment and see it for myself. Sure enough, when I came up on 57th street and 8th avenue, there was a fleet of four scooters with Carnegie ads attached parked along the sidewalk. Naturally, I walked up to them and asked what the situation was. They told me they were going to Carnegie Hall ("right down the road!") next, and that they had been to Wall … [Read more...]

Oh - all you did was e mail a press release for that opera?  You didn't issue an inter-galactic invite that was transmitted from a de-commissioned telescope station? LAZY.Via Wired dot com:Upping the ante on the Elvish power ballad performed in the Lord of the Rings-inspired musical Fellowship!, Dutch sci-fi fans will stage the world's first Klingon opera next month.The opera, titled u, plays at the Zeebelt Theater in The Hague, Netherlands, from September 9 through 12.The organizers have even extended an invitation to the Klingons … [Read more...]

With so much discussion about the future of classical music, I think we're all ignoring the real future of classical music. That would be our unborn spawn. All of us, that is, except the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, who recently hired ad firm Euro RSCG Prague to design posters for a series of 16 concerts for mothers-to-be. And they're very cute and lovely. What, I wonder, is the programming for these 16 concerts?Via Ads of the World: Advertising Agency: Euro RSCG Prague, Czech Republic Creative Director: Eda Kauba Creative Leader: Pavel … [Read more...]

OK, everyone stop playing. The game of who can write the best classical music reviews has been won, and the winner is dark horse candidate Vice Magazine. This link came to my attention because Sondra's CD is reviewed about halfway down the page. She got a teethy smiley face, not a vomit face, and thankfully, not TWO vomit faces like Sting. SONDRA RADVANOVSKY PERFORMED WITH CONSTANTINE ORBELIAN CONDUCTING THE PHILHARMONIA OF RUSSIA Verdi AriasDelos Maybe you're a little burned out on Italian opera composers of the 19th century. Hey, who isn't? … [Read more...]

A few marketing/PR jobs have been forwarded to me, so I thought I'd post them, since you're all presumably interested in such subjects (and if you're not, what are you doing here??).The first is from my client, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Fair warning: if you get this job, you will have to work with me.Job Title: Communications Manager Job Description The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra seeks a driven and creative Communications Manager to lead and oversee all Marketing and Public Relations initiatives. The Manager, with the assistance of the … [Read more...]

Emily, my trusty intern of two summers who's leaving tomorrow to do something silly--I don't remember what, maybe go back to college?--has been researching a selection of classical musicians who blog, Tweet, and [accepted verb form of] Facebook, and how they use these outlets. Here's what she came up with (followers and friends numbers as of 8/16/10). She took the liberty of adding Lady Gaga's various numbers, either for inspirational purposes or to make me furious.TwitterAndré Rieu (@andrerieu) - 11344 followers, personal travel updates and … [Read more...]

Both these items come from Bill Kirby at McCarter Theater. He reads sports things. From The Onion:CINCINNATI--Bengals wide receivers Chad Ochocinco and Terrell Owens reportedly stayed late after practice Tuesday to begin writing the libretto and music for, and start preliminary blocking on, a new touchdown-celebration opera. "Me and T.O. have both been working really hard on these tight arias that really capture the awesome feeling of scoring a touchdown," said Ochocinco, attaching a Phantom Of The Opera mask to his helmet. "And the Italian … [Read more...]

Via the excellent daily newsletter You've Cott Mail, in today's Wall Street Journal: More museums are paying to send stealth observers through their galleries. Based on what they see, the museums may rearrange art or rewrite the exhibit notes. Their efforts reflect the broader change in the mission of museums: It's no longer enough to hang artfully curated works. Museum exhibits are expected to be interactive and engaging. As well, many foundations and donors are requiring proof that their funding is well-spent, and the studies provide data to … [Read more...]

Shock of the Day! Glenn Beck does not think the arts are worth the money.Via Tim Smith's Clef Notes blog for the Baltimore Sun, we have Glenn Beck calling Baltimore's Lyric Opera House "stupid" and "snotty." Beck claimed that $750,000 was in the budget for that historic venue in our fair city, while "cops are on the chopping block. This is like my wife saying we are broke, we have to cut down our expenses on food. I turn around and say, OK, when you grocery shop, no more meats, organics, milk -- we're cutting that out. Just get Mountain Dew and … [Read more...]