Greg Sandow on the future of classical music

When I saw I had 16 comments on my latest post about CD covers (and more have come in since), I knew I'd provoked a storm. And I had. Many of the commenters objected to the Lara Downes CD cover — for her album Exiles' Café — I offered as an example of something good. (Shown here.) Which is perfectly fair. Nobody's required to have my taste. But the reasons for not liking it! You can't see her whole face. She's not in focus. She's on a slant. "It looks like when my five-year old goes on a shooting spree with my phone camera." It's soft … [Read more...]

First, here's a success — a good CD cover, sent to me by Lara Downes, a pianist whose new album it is:   Strong, evocative. And the image resonates with the album's name. Thanks, Lara, for sending this to me! Your website is terrific, too. Now for some bad ones. I doubt they need any comment, but I've added few words anyway. From Sony Classical:   Who, looking at this  — and not knowing Manny Ax — would want to hear it, let alone buy it? Does the person shown here look like an artist, someone with taste and … [Read more...]

Fascinating pushback that I've gotten to my "Fail" post, about how bad classical CD covers are. To me, their prevailing hopelessness suggests that classical record companies  — even the biggest — don't really believe they have a market. Any healthy company engaged with a market wouldn't put up with these covers for five minutes. But one commenter, who's often angry with me, rose up to defend the record labels, saying I had no idea how many hours they spent in meetings, trying to decide what the covers should be. This was appalling news. So … [Read more...]

But first, the flu. That's what floored me for the past week, explaining my silence here. I did make my Boulder trip, and had a fabulous time, seeing friends, family, and engaging with the Entrepreneurial Center for Music at the College of Music at the University of Colorado. While barely fighting off the flu at night. When I got home, I thought I'd better rest. Now I'm back. Mainlining cough drops on Amtrak, but I'm back. And my first priority here is expanding the blog. In a post all too long ago, I asked for people who might want to … [Read more...]

In posts a couple of weeks ago, I talked about the community around this blog, and about new directions I wanted to move in, and wanted the blog to go in. Here are some ideas, some things I'd love to see. First, I'd like other voices on the blog — guest bloggers, including a few who'd be regular guests. I've got one guest gearing up for his first post, a young composer in Britain. Anyone else? I'm open to all kinds of people, all kinds of ideas, as diverse (geographically, musically, and otherwise) a group as possible. Contact … [Read more...]

That's what I'm billed as giving next Wednesday, at the College of Music at the University of Colorado at Boulder. I'll be the guest of their Entrepreneurship Center for Music, and my talk -- called "The Classical Music Crisis: How You Can Help" — is billed as their Spring Keynote. And it's open to the public: (free) 5 PM, January 30, in room C-199 in the Imig Music Building (the main music building) on the CU campus. All my readers are welcome, along with anyone else. Come up and say hello afterward! Below you'l find a campus map, showing … [Read more...]

Continuing the growing list of mavericks, people in classical music who do things in new ways. Go here for the first post in December's mavericks series, scroll to the end for the complete list.  Readers named more than 50 maverick people or groups. And here come some more. Start with Etienne Albin Abelin, a Swiss violinist, composer, and conductor with an active career both in the classical mainstream, and in indie classical work. Here he is as a member of Orchestra Mozart Bologna, a group Claudio Abbado conducts. And here's a MySpace page … [Read more...]

That's what you'll find on Tom Huizinga's NPR blog today -- things many of us hope will happen in classical music during 2013. I'm there, along with Marin Alsop, Jennifer Higdon, Kevin Puts, and some others, including Tom himself, of course, and his fellow NPR blogger Anastasia Tsioulcas. Alsop's wishes are as lively as she is. Her first one: For all of us in classical music to stop being afraid of having fun ... and showing it! Love that! Here's a summary of my wishes: classical music institutions should make finding a new audience … [Read more...]

A followup to yesterday's "Renewal." I realized, as I said in "Renewal," that my blog — and all my work — involve a community, a community that nourishes me, and that I seem to nourish, a community of people involved with (or even just thinking about) change in classical music. But I also realized that it's time for something new. And I thought of two new paths to follow. I could take my work to an institution, maybe a music school or university, maybe a music school that's looking for a director, and would want me to take the … [Read more...]