Greg Sandow on the future of classical music

Set in stone From the University of Chicago comes a major study of arts building — the boom, during the past two decades, in building major arts facilities, including many performing arts centers. The study (called Set in Stone) examined 700 building projects, launched between 1994 and 2008. And its conclusions suggest that caution in building might be a good idea. To quote a quick overview available online (along with the complete final report): "The research we conducted does indeed point to substantial evidence that there was … [Read more...]

Sometimes some of us in classical music talk and act as if we know very little about the outside world. This hurts us gravely. Here we are, losing support in the outside world, but unwilling to poke our heads outside our bubble, to learn about the people we so badly want to reach. Sad example: a very nice man (I know him slightly), who's been a musicologist, a university president, and the head of a major foundation. At the League of American Orchestras conference last month he received an award for his foundation work, and made what I'm … [Read more...]

Crazy fun. Twelve teachers from the Washington Conservatory (a community music school) play Monti's "Csárdás," a famous old chestnut for the violin. Here they're taking turns on the piano. Truly crazy. How'd it happen? The director of the conservatory knows a producer at the TEDMED conference, an annual April gathering at DC's Kennedy Center, where health and science professionals brainstorm and collaborate. Could the conservatory, the producer asked, come up with a musical metaphor for fun, creative collaboration? This was the result. … [Read more...]

Happy I'll start with one of the happiest endorsements for classical music we'll ever see.  Retta, who stars in Parks and Recreation, holds forth with great delight on the Conan show. You have to watch this. Trust me! New World Concerts aimed at new audiences — with paid admission  — bring more new people to an orchestra, more even than free concerts do. They also have a younger, more diverse, more satisfied, and more engaged audience than concerts for the normal audience. Those are some of the findings from a study by the New World … [Read more...]

To finish my account of the session I led at the League of American Orchestras conference (and sorry for the delay)… 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 … [Read more...]

[From Greg: Among much else, this is a killer guide to how to promote a concert in our new age, how to develop an audience. The old ways, as Lara notes, don't work in new situations. So we have to do something new. She does it!  [I'll add that I saw Chris O'Riley play the DC-area show on the tour Lara describes, and I loved it. He played his new Liszt album, and took Liszt where he belongs, way over the top. Most pianists tame Liszt, consciously or not. But not Chris! And, though he didn't say this publicly, he out-Liszts Liszt in his version … [Read more...]

This must have been delightful: The New York Philharmonic played — and staged — Petrushka, with the musicians as dancers and actors. Here's what happened, as described by Anthony Tommasini in his New York Times review: In this “Petrushka” the musicians, many wearing Russian hats and jackets, played the piece and also the rowdy crowd participating in the festivities, stomping their boots in unison with the downbeats and swaying to the swings of the music like the orchestral equivalent of a wave at a baseball stadium. On a screen above the … [Read more...]

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...]

Quickly, this week: The Music Ride "The Cincinnati Symphony and one hundred people on bikes celebrate their city with The Music Ride ~ a fanfare of kazoos and wheels through the historic neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine." The music (as they don't mention here, or on another site where this is talked about) was the Fanfare for the Common Man. With people on bikes adding a kazoo chorus to the backbone of brass and percussion. Here's the other description: "We gave 100 people a kazoo and a music lesson. Then we all got on our bikes and rode ~ a … [Read more...]

"I don't know many other art forms where applause is considered a negative." That was a one-liner fired off by Bo Young Lee (in the photo), a diversity consultant, at a League of American Orchestras conference session called "Developing Cross-Cultural Competency." Of course she was talking about the rules of classical music applause. And how, if we follow them, we actually suppress the excitement of our audience. Lee is senior vice president, Global Diversity & Inclusion Lead, at Marsh, Inc., and she'd be a breath of fresh air … [Read more...]

Last week I was at the League of American Orchestras' national conference, where I led a conversation about dreams. Or, more specifically, about a specific dream —  that 10 years from now, orchestras have a lively young audience and vibrant community buzz. Plus all the funding they need, with no artistic compromise. Why aren't we there now? I asked. And, if the dream came true, what would be the steps that got us there? But more on that later. On Facebook a few days ago, I said that at the conference I'd sensed what I might — and in a … [Read more...]