The classical music “crisis” and what it has to do with shaving my head
For some time now, an increasing amount of media attention has focused on the “impending doom” of the classical music art form. The symptoms are out there: audiences are growing older; there is a lack of new artistic blood in the canon (i.e. anything composed by someone with a pulse); a handful of orchestras have gone belly-up over the past several years; and so on.
With all of this so called “evidence” in place one might ask, “Jeff, why the heck are you still in the industry?” Why? Because it is NOT going to die. If anything will be deceased one generation from now, it will be classical music as we know it today. Just listen to the scores of symphonic ring tones on the streets, try to get tickets to one of the last performances of Wagner’s Ring Cycle at the Chicago Lyric Opera, or check out the sold-out crowds at a “Dear Friends: Music From Final Fantasy” concert and you will clearly see that the music still holds the power to captivate in ways no other art form is capable.
Classical music, or symphonic music to use a less limiting term, will not die. It will simply have to change to survive. This is why I wholeheartedly believe that there has never been a more opportune time to work in the field. My generation has been charged with finding the solutions to reconnect with audiences and revitalize the industry. It is obviously not an easy task but nothing of significance ever was.
Despite having both hands strapped behind their backs due to financial difficulties, many orchestras are finally beginning to perform the necessary but often risky R&D (research & development) to redefine the symphonic music experience. Today, I am going to briefly mention two such efforts taken on by the Pittsburgh Symphony over the past week.
Symphony with a Splash: Splash, as we call it, is the PSO’s current answer to attracting new audiences. Combining social elements with the lifestyles of a younger demographic, this Thursday night 3-concert series begins at 5:00pm with a casual happy hour where audience members munch, martini, and mingle. Then at 6:45, symphonic music expert, Wall Street Journal critic, Juilliard professor, and fellow blogger Greg Sandow and PSO resident conductor/all around suave guy Dan Meyer lead the audience in a themed, interactive, intermission-less and scripted concert that always contains some kind of a twist. The theme last week was Femme Fatale: Famous Music Inspired by Infamous Women and the twist (hold on to your hat)…an audience volunteer got their head professionally shaved during a 7 minute excerpt from Saint-Saëns’s opera, Samson and Delilah. I was sweating for a solid week before the concert because had an audience member not stood up, I would have been the fallback victim (by choice). It would have made for a killer one-of-a-kind “Fellow’s” story and blog picture, that’s for sure. However, much to everyone’s surprise and my relief, we had over a dozen people step up to the plate and audience response to the gimmick as well as the whole night was absolutely incredible to say the least.
Masterprize: You Choose Programming experimental things on a new, experimental series is one thing but doing the same to your core product, the mothership Mellon Grand Classics series, really takes some guts. To generalize as much as one can possibly generalize, “traditional” audiences usually flock to the exits whenever the term “contemporary music” is even whispered. Reversing this trend is one of the biggest challenges the field is currently facing and the Masterprize concert provided a serious step in the right direction. Modeled after the music event of the same name in London, audiences heard three recent compositions during the first half of the the Masterprize: You Choose concert, voted for their favorite during intermission, and heard an encore of the most popular piece each evening after Emmanuel Ax (nice guy!) played a Mozart piano concerto on the second half. The response from this “traditional” audience was unbelievable. A surprising 90% of them turned in ballots for their favorite piece as they discussed their thoughts with friends and total strangers in the lobbies. Many of them, admittedly there for Mozart alone, said had they known how much they would have liked the new works beforehand, they would have come Ax or no Ax. These new music skeptics turned lovers were converted thanks to a little empowerment/involvement, what a change!
With all of this so called “evidence” in place one might ask, “Jeff, why the heck are you still in the industry?” Why? Because it is NOT going to die. If anything will be deceased one generation from now, it will be classical music as we know it today. Just listen to the scores of symphonic ring tones on the streets, try to get tickets to one of the last performances of Wagner’s Ring Cycle at the Chicago Lyric Opera, or check out the sold-out crowds at a “Dear Friends: Music From Final Fantasy” concert and you will clearly see that the music still holds the power to captivate in ways no other art form is capable.
Classical music, or symphonic music to use a less limiting term, will not die. It will simply have to change to survive. This is why I wholeheartedly believe that there has never been a more opportune time to work in the field. My generation has been charged with finding the solutions to reconnect with audiences and revitalize the industry. It is obviously not an easy task but nothing of significance ever was.
Despite having both hands strapped behind their backs due to financial difficulties, many orchestras are finally beginning to perform the necessary but often risky R&D (research & development) to redefine the symphonic music experience. Today, I am going to briefly mention two such efforts taken on by the Pittsburgh Symphony over the past week.
Symphony with a Splash: Splash, as we call it, is the PSO’s current answer to attracting new audiences. Combining social elements with the lifestyles of a younger demographic, this Thursday night 3-concert series begins at 5:00pm with a casual happy hour where audience members munch, martini, and mingle. Then at 6:45, symphonic music expert, Wall Street Journal critic, Juilliard professor, and fellow blogger Greg Sandow and PSO resident conductor/all around suave guy Dan Meyer lead the audience in a themed, interactive, intermission-less and scripted concert that always contains some kind of a twist. The theme last week was Femme Fatale: Famous Music Inspired by Infamous Women and the twist (hold on to your hat)…an audience volunteer got their head professionally shaved during a 7 minute excerpt from Saint-Saëns’s opera, Samson and Delilah. I was sweating for a solid week before the concert because had an audience member not stood up, I would have been the fallback victim (by choice). It would have made for a killer one-of-a-kind “Fellow’s” story and blog picture, that’s for sure. However, much to everyone’s surprise and my relief, we had over a dozen people step up to the plate and audience response to the gimmick as well as the whole night was absolutely incredible to say the least.
Masterprize: You Choose Programming experimental things on a new, experimental series is one thing but doing the same to your core product, the mothership Mellon Grand Classics series, really takes some guts. To generalize as much as one can possibly generalize, “traditional” audiences usually flock to the exits whenever the term “contemporary music” is even whispered. Reversing this trend is one of the biggest challenges the field is currently facing and the Masterprize concert provided a serious step in the right direction. Modeled after the music event of the same name in London, audiences heard three recent compositions during the first half of the the Masterprize: You Choose concert, voted for their favorite during intermission, and heard an encore of the most popular piece each evening after Emmanuel Ax (nice guy!) played a Mozart piano concerto on the second half. The response from this “traditional” audience was unbelievable. A surprising 90% of them turned in ballots for their favorite piece as they discussed their thoughts with friends and total strangers in the lobbies. Many of them, admittedly there for Mozart alone, said had they known how much they would have liked the new works beforehand, they would have come Ax or no Ax. These new music skeptics turned lovers were converted thanks to a little empowerment/involvement, what a change!
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