Greg Sandow on the future of classical music

(Another of my occasional posts about classical music publicity and promotion. It's so often done badly, with flyers, posters, and press releases that don't say a thing. How can we do it better?) I don't know Laura Seay. But I admire her a lot. She's a viola student at Juilliard, and gave a recital a month or so ago, joined by three other musicians, all Korean or Korean-American. (Not hard to do at Juilliard, with its heavy Asian enrollment.) And so she put up flyers for the concert, advertising the show as "Laura and the Koreans." As if they … [Read more...]

Rock of Ages by Jeff Leeds New York Times, November 26, 2006 The AARP is going into the music business. As this news story says, the AARP is sponsoring Tony Bennett's current tour. And not only that: Elton John performed at the association's "Life @50+" convention in Anaheim, Calif., last month; officials said they have booked Rod Stewart and Earth, Wind & Fire for next year. James Taylor played two years ago, and the group's magazine has named him as one of the hottest people over 50... [The group is also] bulking up its Web site … [Read more...]

I've often cited Stephen Johnson's book, Everything Bad is Good for You, an ironic title, since the book talks about how smart pop culture has gotten. And there couldn't be a better example of his thesis than the new James Bond movie, Casino Royale. I won't pretend to know how its producers planned it, but I can imagine them thinking something like this: "The James Bond franchise is old and stupid. People feel affectionate toward it, but they know how silly the movies are. Times have changed; people now expect more. What can we do to bring … [Read more...]

I've complained often enough about classical music publicity and press releases. So it's wonderful to see someone doing it right. Though as it happens, this isn't a press release, but instead a newspaper item about an upcoming concert, printed today in the Times-Herald Record, the really fine local paper for New York's Mid-Hudson region: Beethoven and the yaks There may be no greater musical treat this season than what's happening at Bard College today. The college's Conservatory Chamber Orchestra will present a free program in the Frank … [Read more...]

Thought for today, from the New York Times business section: Y&R, a very traditional ad agency that recently has lost major clients and also staff, has appointed a new chief executive. He's interviewed in the Times, and here's the first question he was asked, along with the start of his answer. Q. How can an agency like Y&R, known for its traditional approach to advertising, thrive when the marketing landscape is changing so much? A. There is an awful lot of confusion out there. No one knows what will really happen. It's all up … [Read more...]

Loonacied! Marterdyed!! Madwakemiherculossed!!! Judascessed!!!! Pairaskivvymenassed!!!!! Luredogged!!!!!! There, from Finnegans Wake, is the motto of my latest book episode, the latest improvised installment of my online book on the future of classical music. If this episode were positioned in the style of a computer folder, it might be book/how classical music is today/how classical music got that way/the effects of modernism. As faithful readers know, I'm not happy with the effects modernist music has had on classical music, even though I … [Read more...]

Cities Compete in Hipness Battle to Attract Young New York Times, November 25, 2006 "Baby boomers are retiring and the number of young adults is declining. By 2012, the work force will be losing more than two workers for every one it gains." So cities are trying to attract people 35 and under. "They are people who, demographers say, are likely to choose a location before finding a job. They like downtown living, public transportation and plenty of entertainment options. They view diversity and tolerance as marks of … [Read more...]

800 Very Unsquare Feet New York Times, November 30 What this story says: In Malibu, there's a store called Free City Supershop, run by a fashion professional named Nina Garduno. "Is it a camping store?" the story asks (and it's a very vivid, focused story, I might add, written by Cathy Horyn). "Ms. Garduno sells customized teepees, with one on display near the entrance." "Is it a bike shop? She sells vintage and new bicycles, each one refitted and custom-painted so that no two are alike. "Is it a clothing store? Ms. Garduno sells … [Read more...]

For the second year in a row, I've been asked -- along of course with many other people in the music business -- to nominate candidates for the Pulitzer Prize in music. Let me quickly note that this isn't any great distinction. Anyone can nominate somebody for the Pulitzer Prize. We can all even nominate ourselves, and why not? But for the past two years, they've been actively looking for nominations, and I think that's linked to the expansion of eligibility rules that they announced a couple of years ago. And that expansion irks me no … [Read more...]

I'm thinking a lot these days about popular culture, and how to compare it to high culture. Many people, I think, would assume that there's some intrinsic difference. And if that's true, we ought to be able to say what it is -- we ought to be able to find some irreducible quality in any sample of popular culture, which wouldn't be found in any sample of high culture. And samples of high culture, of course, would have some irreducible quality of their own, which wouldn't be found in any example of popular culture. (Jump down three paragraphs, if … [Read more...]

Because this history isn’t well known, I thought I’d summarize some of the data I’ve uncovered about American orchestras in the past, and their audience. (Even at the risk of repeating myself.) This first post shows the data on the audience’s age. This data teaches two lessons: We can no longer say the orchestra audience has always been the age it is now. That’s just not true. We can’t assume that younger people will start going to classical concerts when they grow older, as past generations did. Here’s the data. In 1937, the average … [Read more...]

Thanks to the kindness of the archivists at the New York Philharmonic, I've gotten a copy of a report on the state of American orchestras in 1972, written by the big management consulting firm, McKinsey. And actually what I've gotten is two documents, one a 1969 McKinsey memo to the presidents of the Big Five orchestras, the other the longer, more formal 1972 report. Both are fascinating, even revelatory. What's in them? Try this: the Big Five routinely sold out all their concerts in 1969. This was so much taken for granted that, to calculate … [Read more...]

Why did the Big Five commission McKinsey to make these reports? (See my previous post.) Because by the end of the 1960s, orchestras were having bad financial problems. The Big Five first pondered this alone, then convened a conference of many orchestras, and brought in McKinsey. I learned this from Howard Shanet's book Philharmonic, a history of the New York Philharmonic. I then asked the Philharmonic's archivists if they had the report, and they got me a copy. (Thanks, Richard and Barbara!) And what the report says is fascinating. Large … [Read more...]

My post on how to attract a younger audience -- a way that really works - - has gotten an unusual number of comments. Apparently it struck a nerve, both for people who like the idea I offered, and for people who don't. But one of the most important comments came to me in a private e-mail from Molly Sheridan, the managing editor of http://newmusicbox.org/index.nmbx NewMusicBox, an important webzine published by the American Music Center. Molly herself is AC/DC, audience-wise -- a classical person by training, and by disposition a member of … [Read more...]

Not a theory -- instead, a way that really works. I've heard about it working, and I've also seen it myself, twice. You combine classical music with alternative pop (an umbrella term that may not really exist, but which I'm using here to mean all kinds of pop music that isn't on the pop charts, including alternative rock and electronica). The London Sinfonietta (as I've written here before) has done this several times, and (or so I've been told) has gotten 1000 people in their 20s cheering for Xenakis. There's a double CD set on Warp … [Read more...]