Archives for July 2013

A quiet week. Very little input. So I thought I'd feature this story from the New York Times magazine, about Natalie Jeremijenko, whom we'd trivialize, just a little, by calling an artist, even though her work has been shown in top museums around the world: Four years ago, the Australian-born artist Natalie Jeremijenko stood at the edge of Pier 35 in Downtown Manhattan, trying to start a conversation with some striped bass. Just north of the Manhattan Bridge, she and several collaborators dropped 16 tall buoys into the East River. The buoys … [Read more...]

Continuing about the session I led at the League of American Orchestras conference… The story so far (clicking the link takes you to my last post, where I began this): I asked participants to imagine that in 10 years, all the problems orchestras now have will be solved. They'll have vibrant young audiences, eager support from their communities, no funding problems, and freedom to play any music they like.  Yes, that's a dream. But dreams can be freeing. As a first step toward examining this one, I asked everyone to write down three reasons … [Read more...]

Suppose in 10 years all problems that orchestras have will be solved! Suppose that orchestras have a vibrant young audience, that people all over the country are talking about what orchestras do. Suppose there aren't funding problems. And that all of this has been accomplished without the slightest artistic compromise. How -- looking back now from this imagined 10-year perspective — would we have gotten there? What would have changed? That was the conversation I led last month at the League of American Orchestras national conference. … [Read more...]

Here's something I've mentioned on the blog before. Also something I assign in my Juilliard course on the future of classical music. But it's worth showing you again. Back in the 19th century, pianists improvised preludes to everything they played in recitals. Preludes either simply to lead into a piece, or maybe also to make a transition between one piece and another. This survived even into the 20th century, into the age of recording. And Wilhelm Backaus -- a great German pianist of the old school was doing it as late as the 1960s. (He … [Read more...]