Greg Sandow on the future of classical music

From another frequent corresondent, Eric Edberg, and also originally posted as a comment on my book:: Dull music-making is indeed a big issue. And the ironic thing is that conservatory training, the orchestral audition process, and most music competitions emphasize technical perfection, discourage genuinely individualistic performance, and are much of the problem. The more charismatic an established performer, the more likely (s)he is to be ridiculed by teachers and by other players of that instrument. The more impassioned and original a … [Read more...]

From my faithful correspondent Joseph Zitt (and originally posted as a comment on my book site): One useful buzzphrase: when I took a performance workshop led by Deborah Hay in Austin, one thing that she insisted on for all performers was that they "Invite being seen." Performers have to be conscious that they don't become invisible once they stop sounding, and that, unless they are playing in the dark or physically obscured from the audience, they will been, and what the audience sees as their state affects how things are heard. A while … [Read more...]

As a followup to my last post, about my students, here’s the conclusion from a very useful paper, http://www.aeaconsulting.com/site/platform/v05i01/index03.htm "Some Thoughts on Consumer Behavior,” originally published in ArtsReach(a magazine for arts marketers) and reprinted in Platform, a publication of AEA Consulting, which is where I saw it. The authors are Alexis Frasz & Chris Lorway. Here’s how they conclude. People who’ve been reading me ought to find these thoughts familiar: The world has changed dramatically and will continue do … [Read more...]

In my Juilliard graduate course, that is, called “Classical Music in an Age of Pop.” It’s about, guess what, the future of classical music. We were talking about how concerts might change, so they’d be more likely to attract an audience (especially a new, young one). And, I might add, so they’d be more interesting for the musicians playing them. That’s something the students insisted on. Greg Anderson, a pianist, described what sounds like a stunning concert he gave in the Twin Cities. I’m not going to venture a description myself. Maybe I’ll … [Read more...]

Today in the New York Times -- a business-section piece on TV commercials, yet another threatened institution in the rush of current changes in our culture. Companies now divert some of their TV advertising dollars to cell phones and the Internet; many people record shows with DVRs, and skip the commercials; many people go onnline during commercial breaks, and don't watch the commercials at all. (The Times business section, by the way, is a good place to find out what's changing in our culture. Anybody trying to sell anything has to know how … [Read more...]

I'm happy to announce a performance of a recent piece of mine. This is a piece for cello and piano, called A te; it's an unpredictable and (if I say so myself) rather sly set of variations on "A te o cara," a tenor aria from Bellini's opera "I Puritani." These performances are happening on a series called Second Helpings, produced by the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble. Here's the data: April 1, 2 PM: ChelseaArt Museum, 556 West 22nd Street, in New York April 2, 2 PM: Dia Beacon. This is a museum in Beacon, NY, where the Dia Foundation shows its … [Read more...]

The following comes from somebody in the business who wants to be anonymous. It was sent as a comment on my book, but it's worthwhile putting it out for everyone to see: Permit me to offer a real-world perspective re your comment that "orchestras should try to find people who really like the modernist works." That's very true, but the cold, hard fact is that, at the present time, it's a small audience. The research I’ve seen says somewhere between 5 – 10% of the current orchestra audience likes modern or contemporary.And the other 90%+ … [Read more...]

Once more I'll be going out on stage at Severance Hall in Cleveland, to lead short musical discussions during a Cleveland Orchestra concert. This coming Sunday, March 26; the concert starts at 3 PM. … [Read more...]

Small audience, good discussion. I was very struck with the passion that began to come out. This subject -- the future of classical music -- gets people going. It doesn't only stir up peoples' love of music; it stirs up everything they care about in current culture. So one woman got up and passionately said it was "naive" to think that a more informal presentation could attract newcomers to classical music .The music's too complex for that, she said. Someone else declaimed for some time on the theme that popular culture makes everybody … [Read more...]

The third episode of the new version of my book on the future of classical music is now online.  Gradually I’m making my way through what will be the book’s first introductory chapter (or maybe simply the introduction), in which I set forth, in general terms, what the book’s going to say. When I’m through with that, I’ll launch the first main section, which will be about the measurable side of the classical music crisis—aging audience, declining ticket sales, and all the rest. The next episode goes online two weeks from today, on April 3. If … [Read more...]

This coming Thursday, March 23, I’ll be speaking on a small panel about the future of classical music. 6:30 PM, at the Dahesh Museum, 580 Madison Avenue, in New York. One reason this will be fun for me -- I get all of five minutes to state my position. There's nothing like brevity to focus my thoughts; this should be a big help in organizing my ideas for my book. Composer Stefania de Kenessey will moderate, and my co-panelists will be the very lively composer Paul Moravec, winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in music, and two people I don't … [Read more...]

The Wisconsin Public Radio broadcast I thought I was doing — during my visit to Milwaukee, to talk about Brahms for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra— fell through. But I had a lively time on Milwaukee’s classical station, WFMR. I was talking to Steve Murphy, the station’s program director, and Samantha George, the associate concertmaster of the orchestra, on a weekly show they do called MSO Backstage Pass. I couldn’t imagine two better people to talk to. Samantha asked most of the questions, and I loved, really loved, talking about music as one … [Read more...]

As I studied various Brahms scores, I was forcefully hit by something I'd thought about before, but never noticed this clearly. You can gush about great composers all you like -- their magical inspiration, their matchless flights of musical creativitiy -- but it's hard to keep doing that when you study details of their orchestration, especially if you've ever orchestrated yourself. Yes, there are times when some orchestration idea strikes like a ray of light out of nowhere (that final chord in Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, the famous flute … [Read more...]

I'll be in Milwaukee this coming weekend, speaking about Brahms for the Milwaukee Symphony, along with my old friend Tim Page. We'll be doing preconcert talks at 10:30 AM on Friday, and at 7 PM on Saturday. That's right, 10:30 AM; the concert's at 11:15.. Tim and I will also be on Wisconsin Public Radio at 9 AM on Friday. And so now you know why I've been blogging recently about Brahms. Just doing my normal overpreparation, which in this case has been a joy, partly because Jan Swafford's Brahms biography is one of the most deeply satisfying … [Read more...]

After I blogged on Peter Gelb's turnaround plan for the Met, Joe Kluger e-mailed. Joe used to run the Philadelphia Orchestra; now he works with AEA Consulting. I asked Joe if I could share his thoughts, and he agreed. Very interesting thoughts here, about what has to happen -- in very practical terms -- for the Met to truly turn around: Greg: I read your ArtsJournal blog on the Met, which I thought was a great synthesis of all the positive things about Peter’s plans. The initial reaction that some of us at AEA had when we read the first NYT … [Read more...]