Life's A Pitch

I'm not normally a fan of Top Ten lists of any variety (though I sometimes consider making Top Ten lists of critics I don't want making Top Ten lists), but I have to stand behind Anthony Tommasini's 2-week Top 10 Composers list for the response it generated. No, not the OUTRAGE on the interwebz--no women! no one alive! no one not-white!--or the nearly 2,000 comments on the Times' website, but for this letter from an 8-year-old who we will refer to as Lucas The Awesome. From Anthony Tommasini:My two-week project to select the 10 greatest … [Read more...]

Having been recently shown NPR and science-y Valentine's Day cards, and asked by a friend (who can be credited with this post title) if there were publicist Valentine's Day cards, I was inspired to make a First Chair Promotion set for the big day. Send them far and wide, because nothing says "I Love You" like classical music PR. And for all you Gabriel Kahane lovers out there, it could be best to send a simple video e-card: … [Read more...]

We the people do not like to make up our minds. We can watch one TV show with a square of another TV show in the corner. We can buy a dress and return it. We can make a whole brunch out of grocery store free samples. Why then, I often wonder, in this Sample Society, do presenters persist in assuming audiences will pay cash money for music they haven't heard? Sure, some people--and bless them, really--are happy to spend their money on the unknown, but you don't see me, for one, forgoing glorious mint chocolate chip for some chocolate cherry … [Read more...]

I can't go to the New York Philharmonic season announcement today because I have a meeting uptown at 4, but that's NO BIG DEAL because they're streaming it live! Woot. Click here at 3 p.m. today to watch. Maybe they'll change the logo! Probably not, but if the music for next season is good, I'll care a little less. I mean, I'll still care. I'll always care. Oh speaking of, there's this, via Daniel... … [Read more...]

Fresh from their custom line for the movie Burlesque, OPI is offering a series of "Urban Ballerina" nail polishes along with Sephora:Urban Ballerina Collection What it is:A collection of long-wearing, chip-resistant nail polishes. What it does:Inspired by the eclectic style of an urban ballerina, this striking collection infuses a punk-rock edge with the typically soft, sweet (and pink) palette of classical ballet. The shades in the Urban Ballerina collection reflect the urban dancer's dynamic textures and colors, like shimmering pink satin, … [Read more...]

I'm happy to announce my first-ever appearance in the New York Times. Sure, I'm not mentioned by name, and OK, the link doesn't go to anything I myself wrote, but we'll take it. You know what they say: publicists with classical music PR blogs can't be choosers. This comes from Life's a Pitch Artist-in-Residence Jonathan Biss' New York Times profile. Brace yourselves, gentle readers: now that I've (kind of) (but not really) made it big time, I'm going to be more insufferable than I already was. … [Read more...]

This Saturday, January 15, I'll be rolling out of bed to moderate a Chamber Music America panel about presenting new music. The esteemed panelists are composer Nico Muhly, publicist Christina Jensen, and the Chiara String Quartet. The panel is at 9 a.m., heaven help me, and the scene in my apartment that morning will be something akin to this: Here's the official description:SATURDAY, JANUARY 159:00 A.M. (uugggggggg)-10:15 A.M.New Music and Your AudienceAmbassador I, 2nd floorWestin Hotel, Times Square - New York City Your ensemble is … [Read more...]

Inspired by the cooler-than-us kids over on sites like The Awl and Tiger Beatdown, Life's a Pitch Artist-in-Residence Jonathan Biss and I decided to have an iChat conversation. The topic was meant to be Expressiveness in Classical Music Performances, which we soon found means different things to both of us. He won't like it, but it's my blog, so I will take this opportunity to plug his upcoming US concert dates:  January 19th, University Park (PA), Schwab Auditorium; January 21th, New York, Carnegie Hall; January 23th, Baltimore, Shriver … [Read more...]

Sondra hosted the Metropolitan Opera HD broadcast of La Fanciulla del West on Saturday, and it was fairly hilarious. Here are the illegal photos I took at the Ziegfeld Theater. I didn't take any of the actual production, so perhaps this won't result in an embarrassing moment in which an artist's own publicist gets in trouble with her publicist colleagues for using the wrong photos. Here she is with Deborah Voigt (who was cute cute cute!) and Marcello Giordani:And here she is outside with the horse trainers (!): One of the horses copped a feel … [Read more...]

Via my esteemed client Hilary Hahn, who claimed to be practicing when she sent this over:I wrote about Kanye West's Twitter feed, here. I did not sing about it. … [Read more...]

The New York Times, man. If I ever meet someone who works on their website, they're getting a hug from me. And I'm really not a hugger. In honor of Stephen Sondheim's birthday, New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini takes to the piano to break down The Ballad of Sweeney Todd, a few tracks from his take-to-a-desert-island Sondheim show, Merrily We Roll Along, and my least-favorite Sondheim show (I know, I know) Sunday in the Park with George for us. The resulting video is charming, clear, and candid. Artists, take notes! I would be thrilled to … [Read more...]

As my sister Aliza and I were walking down from my apartment to The Scottsboro Boys a few weeks back, I said to her, "Just to warn you, this is going to make me cry." "Well yes," she responded, not much one for my sweeping dramatics, "It's about a fake rape." I told her that I intended to cry over The Death of Broadway, because it had been announced the day before that The Scottsboro Boys--which, by most accounts was one of the best shows The Great White Way had seen in a long while--was to close on December 12. Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson, … [Read more...]

On the last day of 2010, I leave you with this strange mayonnaise ad. One wonders, do we need an official Christmas Mayo? Found at Advertising Is Good For You: … [Read more...]

On December 23rd, characters from the New York City Ballet's production of The Nutcracker rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange! The Nutcracker runs until January 2. … [Read more...]