Why classical music is not dead

Not too long ago I came across an article in Classic FM, one of my favorite classical music websites, titled “13reasons classical music is not dead”. I loved the article because it pretty much sums up a bunch of funny reasons that show you classical music is not dead. Funny but true reasons that, amongst the lighthearted nature of the article, actually embody a powerful tool to rebate those who claim that classical music is dying.

The dying nature of classical music is an old-talked-about topic and a heated debate amongst musicians and aficionados. It has also sparked some of the more modern approaches to this music, such as open air concerts with amplification, the Metropolitan Opera’s revolutionary presentation of their operas in movie theaters around the world, the NY Phil’s Biennial and so any other efforts to keep classical music relevant.

After a rough 2013-2014 season, the Metropolitan Opera recently announced that their ticket sales are rising and are up 2 million dollars from this same time last year. After difficult labor talks with the choir and orchestra, in which both decided to reduce their fees by 7%, the administration and even the soloist have opted to voluntarily lower their fees to keep the institution running.

The fact that some of the biggest musicians in the opera world such as Joyce Di Donato, Anna Netrebko and Plácido Domingo have decided to lower their fees for the Met Opera is a clear indication that, as long as there is people who love it classical music will stay alive, because we will do everything in our power to keep it alive.

Now it’s just a matter of continuing to look for ways to integrate classical music with audiences nowadays, to make it more approachable. A very good example of a way to do this can be found in Baldur Brönninmann’s article “10 things that we should change in classicalmusic concerts”, in which he proposes, among other ideas, to allow people to use social media during concerts as long as their cell phones are in silent mode, because what musician wouldn’t like the free publicity of the whole audience tweeting or posting about it?

Unfortunately some musicians are still holding on to the nineteenth-century etiquette for concerts, which makes these feel very distant and cold. Hopefully the new generations of musicians that are now seeing the benefits of opening up our craft to a more modern approach, can end up convincing these traditionalists to come to our side, the side of people making music for other people and all kinds of people.

Sometimes musicians get very full of ourselves because we have the ability to bring this amazing, beautiful gift of music to the world. But at the same time, we forget that it is truly, only a gift, if an audience can appreciate it and love it as much as we do.

Come and enjoy the NY Phil for free

For their 2014-2015 concert season, the New York Philharmonic has announced their Philharmonic Free Fridays; anyone between the ages of 13 to 26 can attend for free to their Friday’s concerts on a first-come first served basis. There will be 100 tickets and people can reserve theirs online and pick them up at will call. After the amazing first ever NY Phil Biennial that took place in May of this year, this orchestra continues to strive to involve and engage younger audiences with classical music.

Although the New York Philharmonic has long been a staple of culture in the United States and around the world for the amazing quality of the music that they play, the soloist and conductors that they invite and their always dynamic and entertaining programs, they are also aware of the very fragile and delicate state that classical music is in right now.

Recently Peter Gelb, executive director of the Metropolitan Opera, said that the Met could be broke in two years time. Classical orchestras and Opera Houses around the world are declaring bankruptcy and going out of business. So the NY Phil’s efforts to attract younger audiences is really important in this context; not only through their educational efforts, but even down to the programs they are putting together, the idea of drawing in young people is floating around all of their work. It was clear during the Biennial with the inclusion of several programs played by young musicians, including the Julliard AXIOM Ensemble, the Kaufman Music Center's Special Music School High School and the Very young composers of the Philharmonic program, to the Philharmonic Free Fridays that are starting this week for young people to attend for free to their concerts.

I do not think classical music will ever cease to exist. It has been around for centuries and it’s still happening. However, classical music as we know it may very well change if we don’t make it more approachable for the general audiences. The only option for classical music to continue existing is to try to reach larger audiences, and younger audiences. After all, young people are the future, as cliché as that may sound, and it is them that will help move culture ahead after the current generation goes out of business. Programs and efforts like the ones the NY Phil is putting in motion are a first step towards this goal. It is now for the younger generation involved in classical music, to start putting our heads together and craft the new future of it. Because music is passion, and life without passion would be extremely boring.

P.S.As a little token of the kind of "out of the box" programs that the NY Phil plays, here is a video of the fantastic Idina Menzel singing Lady Gaga's Pokerface!

Apple, U2, and the future of the music industry

There has been a lot of buzz lately about a new digital music format that U2 and Apple are planning to launch together in the near future, being U2’s next album –the one they will release after Songs of Innocence- the opera prima. Being strong anti piracy advocates, U2 decided to pair with the giant technology mogul in an attempt to come out with something new and exciting that can make people want to buy music again, be it entire albums or single tracks.

Apparently the new format will be interactive, audiovisual and, most importantly, not possible to pirate. This piece of information emerges as the most important bit of news for the music industry in a very long time. If the new format is, indeed, impossible to copy, this could mark the start of yet another change in how the music business works.

In the last decade or so, the music business has been rocked by many changes in consumer behavior and distribution methods. Becoming more and more digital every time, the age we live in right now is dominated by digital downloads and streaming sites that offer artist’s music free of charge to listen to on their website platforms, creating revenue mainly through advertisement and, sometimes, paying members. Because of this, I think piracy is hardly the only thing to blame for people not buying music, although that is not to say that it isn’t an important issue.

Will the release of this new format imply a change in the way we consume music? Maybe, maybe not. Buying music is no longer what it was in the past; but for the huge, devoted fans to any musician, buying their music and their merchandise is still important and is what established bands with following should aim to do. A devoted fan would buy almost anything! (KISS coffin, anyone?).

There is a possibility that smaller artists are the ones that might benefit from this new format, and is allegedly the goal of U2. But that, too, remains to be seen.

A couple of live events around Orlando

During this month I had the opportunity to attend two different events around the city of Orlando. The first one was a concert by Brazilian guitarist Ricardo Filipo at Timucua Art Foundation on August 10^th.  The second one was the concert “An evening with Bernstein and Sondheim” at the First  United Methodist Church of Orlando on August 24^th.

Although both experiences were concerts, both were very different in format. For the first concert the environment was very intimate and familiar. There is food and wine that the audience brings and people are free to make a donation for the artists and the house itself. Along with the musician, there is also a visual artist that showcases his art every Sunday.  The venue is beautifully built and the acoustics work fairly well. It is also amazing to me that people would open their house for the general public just for the love of art, which makes the experience that much more emotional. 

There are, however, a couple of aspects that could be worked upon to improve the experience of the white house of Timucua. First of all, although I am aware of the desire to make the experience feel familiar and intimate, I would serve the food and wine after the performance was over. This way, people would be much more focused on the performance itself and would not be constantly going out and coming back in, also letting the rest of the public enjoy the performance much more quietly.  The second aspect is the parking. Because a lot of people go to these events, I think they should explore the possibility of opening more parking spaces by, for example, making an alliance with the school that is just across the street of the white house or with another nearby parking lot. A third thing that could be improved upon is having a concert program in which people could read the pieces that are going to be played and the biography of the musician and the artist present for that evening. This doesn’t have to be something elaborate or expensive; it could even be just projected on the television set that is hanging on the back wall of the stage.

The second concert I attended was held at the First United Methodist Church in downtown Orlando. The church is a beautiful building with seating capacity for around 700 people. The program of the concert consisted of the Chichester Psalms by Leonard Bernstein and several songs taken from his operas and musicals, as well as Stephen Sondheim’s musicals. It was a larger-scale concert that included a symphonic orchestra, choir and vocal soloists. The ambience of the concert was very fun because people felt free to clap and cheer for the musicians although they were in a church, and the musical quality of the program was very good.

One aspect that could be improved upon is the marketing of the event; the church has capacity for around 700 people, but almost one third of the benches were empty. However I know that these concerts are organized with the support of volunteers and the budgets are usually not very large; plus, they don’t charge admission. This translates into the inability to invest a large amount of money into the marketing of these events. One thing they could do to attract more people is to have everybody that attended reach out to their friends and family for the next event, as to create a buzz around the community. They could also use social media to reach more people; as far as I could see, they had only one post about this event on their Facebook page, posted on August 14^th, a long time before the concert actually took place. Activating their social networks may actually also help to reach a younger demographic to attend their concerts.

Another thing to work on for this event; is to consider having the option to sell refreshments like water or soda, or anything to eat once the concert is finished; because a lot of the people that go are older, having water around should be a good idea. Besides these two aspects, I thought the event was almost perfect; they have ushers, programs, good parking and security.

As a whole, both concerts provided me with two very different ways to live and feel music, which is always a fulfilling experience.

Quatro Solutions at 1 Million Cups Orlando

Quatro Solutions (see their business pitch here) is a start-up company that created a tablet and resources for educational purposes.  Their bet is to help schools implement a full digital curriculum for their students in each course, turning paper into digital content. Quatro Solutions manufactures the actual device, built on Android platform, and have several partnerships and resources built into their services to allow schools to efficiently transition from paper to digital.

Although they cannot take a teacher’s content and turn it into digital, they are able to provide teachers with the tools to include their worksheets and texts by simply turning them into a .pdf file. They also provide schools with teacher training for the use of the tablets, and fully compatible information in case the school decides to change tablets for the following years.

With all this great features their tablets also cost a fraction of what their competitor’s devices, at around $300.00 per device. They also charge some extra fees if the school is in need of extra help such as training or insurance for the tablets, to help elongate their lifespan.

Although they provide a great service, one weakness that I find with Quatro Solutions is the fact that they are not very well known, because they are just starting; their first tablets were sold on April 2013. With giants like Apple and Samsung in their same line of business, they are going to have to do an outstanding job with their technology and service, in order to establish themselves in the market. One strength that I find is the fact that they want to sell exclusively to institutions, which spares them to go into the retail sale market, which is a lot different to the model they have been using until now. Also, their tests have proven successful in increasing the understanding of the students while using their tablets.

For the presentation itself, I would say that you should never start by apologizing because your presentation may not be as prepared as you would like, even if you found out on Monday that you had to pitch your business on Wednesday. I would also tell the presenter to slow down and enunciate, to avoid losing his train of thought and using pet phrases too often, or simply getting his words wrong. As for the business, I think hey should focus their differentiating factor on their services and partnerships, and not focusing so much on their price. Price is a very fluctuating item and nothing stops their competitors to possibly come out with great products of the same price and from a better-known brand. That is why I believe that it is those other factors that should be used as they main strengths.