Greg Sandow on the future of classical music

From a musician in a mid-sized orchestra, at a meeting I was at today: I was taught that the art is everything, but that's a fallacy. I've come to think of classical music as an advocacy profession, like being a lawyer, and working as a public defender. You'll have to explain why you do what you do. Many younger musicians feel this way. Another way I've heard them put it is that careers aren't in any sense automatic, even for musicians who are really good. To some extent, you'll have to make your own way -- and an important part of your … [Read more...]

In my last post, I looked at Vanity Fair's music issue from the viewpoint of its editors. Why did they pick the two classical artists they included? Now let's look at it from the outside in, from the viewpoint of the classical music world. Why isn't there more classical music in Vanity Fair, and especially in its music issue? Suppose I ran the Cleveland Orchestra. I might ask myself, "Why aren't we featured in the magazine this month?" I can think of four answers (not that there might not be more): a) We don't belong there. Vanity Fair is … [Read more...]

Just bought their annual music issue. Gorgeous, thoughtful photos, lots to read (or at least skim). An overview of where music is right now, for many of the people we in the classical music world hope to reach. And of course nearly all of it is pop, in all pop's striking variety. What part does classical music play? Well, look at "The Music Portfolio," starting on page 333, a kind of honor roll of musicians in 2003. First The Dixie Chicks, in a warm, arresting photo luxuriously spread over two pages. Clearly three smart women, and, above all, … [Read more...]

My Pittsburgh concert seems to have been a big success. But I don't like the way that reads -- so let me change it to say, "Our Pittsburgh concert seems to have been a big success." Because one thing brought home to me by doing this is how much teamwork is involved. The team in this case was pretty small, consisting just of me; the conductor, Daniel Meyer (who's the Pittsburgh Symphony's Assistant Conductor); Genevieve Code Twomey, the Orchestra Manager; Robert Moir, the Artistic Administrator; and a very few other people. In the past, the … [Read more...]

As a footnote to my little piece of Mozart history, in my last post, here's a Canaletto painting, done in 1754, called "London: Interior of the Rotunda at Ranelagh." It shows a concert. Notice how informal it is, and in some ways how much like a modern rock club. A few people are gathered by the stage, listening (I'd think) intently. Others are scattered through the space, talking and hanging out. It's easy to see how in an atmosphere like this, people would feel free to clap right in the middle of the music, if they heard something that they … [Read more...]

This Thursday, 10/23, I'll host a concert on a Pittsburgh Symphony series called "Symphony with a Splash." These are early evening events (they start at 6:45), aimed at young professionals who don't usually go to symphony concerts. Drinks are served, and, as the Symphony's website says, "The coolest networking happy hour mixes with one of the world's best orchestras" (which the Pittsburgh Symphony certainly is). This will, to say the least, give me a first-hand look at how these efforts to attract new listeners really work. I worked with the … [Read more...]

Here's still more on concert dress and atmosphere, from Evan Tucker, a student composer who disagrees with Marla Carew. Click his name to e-mail him; he asked me to include his contact info, and I think he'd like to hear from you. "You don't tend to meet too many other classical music nuts on college campuses," he writes, "particularly among other music majors." And here's what he says about concert dress: Earlier tonight I went with some of my good friends to a dance studio which offers swing dancing with a live band. None of them are … [Read more...]

From my faithful correspondent Marla S. Carew, a dissent on concert dress, one worth taking seriously: I noticed that one of your correspondents opined that formal dress in orchestras keeps away mass audiences. Why? And more important, why should orchestras give in to that prejudice? Yes, our society is becoming more casual, but occasion-appropriate dress connotes respect for the given occasion and for the wearer. Wearing a tux to perform at Lollapalooza would be a sarcastic or "up yours" gesture just as much as wearing jeans onstage at the … [Read more...]

One reader thought I wanted orchestras to still wear formal dress when they play standard repertoire. In an earlier post on concert dress, I'd talked about new music groups dressing informally. Then at the end, I added this: "New music concerts tend to be informal, of course. Their audience tends to dress casually. What you'd wear to play standard repertoire in a formal concert hall for a dressed-up audience -- that's another story." I hope it's clear I didn't mean this wasn't a story that should ever be told. It's just a more complex question. … [Read more...]

News item: When a restaurant plays classical music in the background, diners spend more. Or so conclude researchers at the University of Leicester, in England. According to a story in the Associated Press, these researchers studied how much diners spend when classical music is playing, when Britney Spears is playing, and when there's no music at all. Diners spend more when they hear the classics. I'd have been happier -- assuming that the news story is accurate -- if the researchers had also studied the effect of jazz, and of upscale pop, … [Read more...]

Today's news about Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic is amazing, though not exactly a surprise. Right from the start, as I wrote in my Wall Street Journal piece on the proposed merger, the directors of the two organizations talked very differently about what the merger meant. For Robert Harth, at Carnegie Hall, the merger was an opportunity for adventurous programming. For Zarin Mehta, at the Philharmonic, the merger was all about orchestral imperatives -- the Philharmonic's need to own the hall it played in, and of … [Read more...]

Naxos held a competition some time ago for ideas about saving classical music. Now they're running excerpts from competition entries each day on their website. You can find them here. Today's (credited to "A.A.") is maybe not so helpful: By catering to the elite, classical music has become too conservative, too formal, too inaccessible to the masses. Only when the performers break off their exclusive relationship with the elite and play for the masses will live classical music achieve true popularity. A mass audience, pretty obviously, … [Read more...]

I hate to keep slamming Musical America, but they've done it again -- raised an alarm where no alarm was needed. One story today reads like this in their summary: Venerable Instrument Plant Closing -- Kids just don't want those acoustic white elephants any more. But when you follow the link to the original news item (from WNDU TV in South Bend, IN), things don't look nearly so bad. Conn-Selmer -- which makes wind instruments, and is one of the oldest businesses in Elkhart, IN -- is laying off some of its workforce and closing one plant. But … [Read more...]

Yes, the border -- porous, shifting, maybe even nonexistent -- between art and popular culture is tricky to understand. Yes, the role of pop culture in art (and of art in pop culture) is worth debating. But please, let's be clear about which is which. With near shock today I read this in Musical America, a website (once, in the distant past, a magazine), which I and many others turn to every day for news about the classical music world: For all the talk of Riccardo Muti's resistance to popular culture at La Scala, the conductor is in talks … [Read more...]