{"id":249,"date":"2009-04-29T13:39:57","date_gmt":"2009-04-29T13:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp\/?p=249"},"modified":"2009-04-29T13:39:57","modified_gmt":"2009-04-29T13:39:57","slug":"naked_emperors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/2009\/04\/naked_emperors\/","title":{"rendered":"Naked emperors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve Reich 2009 Pulitzer (from Ronen<\/a>) and John Zorn 2006 MacArthur Genius Grant mentions on The Colbert Report<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Colbert Report<\/a><\/td>\nMon – Thurs 11:30pm \/ 10:30c<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Who’s Not Honoring Me Now? – Emmys<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
colbertnation.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\n\n\n
Colbert Report Full Episodes<\/a><\/td>\nPolitical Humor<\/a><\/td>\nFirst 100 Days<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Colbert Report<\/a><\/td>\nMon – Thurs 11:30pm \/ 10:30c<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Who’s Not Honoring Me Now? – The MacArthur Foundation<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
colbertnation.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\n\n\n
Colbert Report Full Episodes<\/a><\/td>\nPolitical Humor<\/a><\/td>\nFirst 100 Days<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

A few weeks back, I saw a young pianist perform an original composition of his, in addition to some standard piano works. I thought his piece was terrible, and left the concert at intermission. On the 1 train home, though, I wondered to myself, if it had been Nico<\/a>‘s piece\/playing, would I have enjoyed it? If it was David Lang’s, would I have thought it was good? Obviously we all support our friends (and in David’s case, friends and clients), but when you know an artist personally, can you ever be objective about his or her work?<\/p>\n

And what happens when we all think we know an artist personally because he or she has achieved a certain level of fame; can anyone then be objective? Clearly Steve Reich “deserves”, by nearly any definition, a Pulitzer, but I think we “in the industry” often forgot how our heroes may be perceived by the world-at-large. Look at Colbert’s face after hearing a clip from Reich’s winning piece, Double Sextet: <\/p>\n

<\/i>\"Reich-Pulitzer.jpg\"<\/span>
\n\"Colbert-Reich.jpg\"<\/span><\/p>\n

I suspect that is the exact face my college friends would make if I played Double Sextet<\/i> for them. My parents and sister would have similar responses. “I’m sure it’s…good, it’s just not my thing.” So, a few questions: 1. Does winning a mainstream award for music matter if the music is not mainstream? 2. If we’ve (I’ve) drank the new music Kool-Aid, how I can effectively publicize it to people who haven’t? 3. If you care about, say, classical music enough to promote it as a career, how can you (I) possibly understand – and thus connect with – people who don’t care about it at all? <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve Reich 2009 Pulitzer (from Ronen) and John Zorn 2006 MacArthur Genius Grant mentions on The Colbert Report: The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm \/ 10:30c Who’s Not Honoring Me Now? – Emmys colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor First 100 Days The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm \/ 10:30c Who’s Not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}