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.

Gabriel De David and the New World Music School

 The New World Music School is a bilingual institution that teaches music to children and adults in Orlando, Florida. The school is located in a small building on University Boulevard, near Forsyth Rd; it was founded seven years ago by its current owner and president Gabriel De David. Mr. De David is an American musician of Puerto Rican descent who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the Inter American University of Puerto Rico, and with a Master’s Degree in Music Education from Florida State University.

He is a nice, smiley guy who is passionate about teaching music. He told me during our interview that his dream had always been to have his own music school, and that his only regret was that it took him so long to do so. He is retired from the Florida Public School System where he taught elementary school music for 20 years, give or take.

Most of the negotiations that Mr. De David does in his work involve his students, and their parents when the students are children. It is quite difficult sometimes, to find common ground when you are working with kids. Parents are very protective of their children and a lot of times they want other people to accommodate to their needs, especially with extracurricular activities they see as a hobby. Gabriel tells me that the most difficult situation to negotiate is when there are 2 or more kids from the same family who want to take lessons of different instruments during the same time slot, since this implies coordinating the schedule for the children and the teachers. Usually what he would do is ask the customer what day works better for them and then accommodate the schedule with the available hours his teachers have. However, it not always works.

Whenever there is a situation where an agreement cannot be reached, he uses objective criteria. Industry standards of how most music schools work around this area helps him make his customers understand that there is a reason behind the apparent madness, and that he is not being unreasonable, but merely looking out for the good operation of his school. He also told me that being upfront from the beginning about the school policy has helped him avoid any ugly confrontations. Thinking about the customer service he wants to offer at his school is the method he uses to separate people from the problem and always keep his cool. Nevertheless if an agreement cannot be reached after further negotiation, the school’s Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement is to offer the customer the opportunity to find another school that meets his needs better.

He also told me his students sometimes use dirty tricks to try and cancel a lesson, by faking to be ill (which is the only excusable reason to reschedule a lesson). If it is a one-time occurrence, he will let it slide because there is no way he can actually confirm if the student is sick or not. However, if he finds a pattern from a student, he told me he would talk to the student and confront him about this repetitive behavior he has noticed.

These are some examples of the kind of negotiations I will have to deal with in my career. Hopefully I will get to fulfill my dream as Mr. De David; I will already have a better understanding of the various ways to deal with some of the difficult situations I will be faced with.

Let's play!

Next May 28^th will see the launch of the first ever NY Phil Biennial, to take place. From that Wednesday until Saturday, June 7^th, music will take on New York City with 22 concerts taking place in many different scenarios in the city, with a roster of many well-known musicians, including Alan Gilbert and Alisa Weilerstein amongst others.

The truly amazing feature of this Biennial is that all the music that will be played is new. This spectacle will include contemporary composers from all around the world, bringing new sounds to a bunch of different corners of the city. Going against the common belief that the audience “isn’t ready” to listen to contemporary music because of its complicated musical language and sounds, the New York Philharmonic has opted to create a whole festival around new music, with a fresh take on the classical world.

This initiative coming from musicians means a lot when it comes to appreciating and not underestimating audiences. People are ready to listen to the music that is being produced nowadays and this festival reinforces that idea by only presenting fresh music. It also shows the beauty of arts working together to create amazing pieces that will float around and envelop New York City’s venues. From The Raven, an opera based on Poe’s brilliant poem, to CONTACT! At the Biennial, the US premiere of a musical piece inspired by outdoors sculptures in Salzburg, this event will be filled with references of our current environment and world, and that is precisely why people are ready to listen to it.

But as if it wasn’t enough, the NY Phil Biennial will also include events featuring young students from the city, creating another element of inclusion in their concerts. With the participation of the Julliard’s AXIOM Ensemble in the opera Gloria – a pig’s tale; the concert performed by the Kaufman Music Center's Special Music School High School, the only ensemble 18 and under dedicated only to the performance of music by living composers; to the Very Young Composers of the Philharmonic, a concert performed by Philharmonic musicians and teaching artists with music composed by students of the Very Young Composers program, and Jovenes Compositores de Venezuela program.

This event will truly be a musical revolution. It will have the great task of showing people how much they are ready for new music, and show those musicians clinging to the past how ready audiences are for new music. As Benjamin Zander says, “everybody loves classical music, they just don’t know it yet”. And what better way to find out that you love this music than to hear the interpretation of your current world through sounds, the sounds of today.  So I invite you to join the NY Philharmonic in their “musical playground of the here and now. Let’s go beyond. Let’s explore, let’s revel. Let’s play!”

The transformative power of classical music

Benjamin Zander is an English orchestral conductor and cellist. He was born in 1939, of German descent, started composing music at the age of nine and became the youngest member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain at the age of twelve. He even caught the attention of composer Benjamin Britten who invited him and his family to spend three summers with him at his summerhouse.

He is now a living legend. Zander’s life has been so deeply moved and driven by his love of classical music that he devotes his time to teaching, conducting and speaking around the world. And in listening to his TED talk he did move me. He speaks with wisdom and passion about something that he is passionate about and that comes across: he is genuine and transmits his truth to the audience.

There were particularly two quotes from his talk that I find very interesting. One is musical. He says about conducting: "The conductor of an orchestra doesn't make a sound. My picture appears on the front of the CD, but the conductor doesn't make a sound. He depends, for his power, on his ability to make other people powerful. And that changed everything for me. I realized my job was to awaken possibility in other people. And of course, I wanted to know whether I was doing that. And you know how you find out? You look at their eyes. If their eyes are shining, you know you're doing it. So if the eyes are shining, you know you're doing it. If the eyes are not shining, you get to ask a question. And this is the question: who am I being, that my players' eyes are not shining? We can do that with our children, too. Who am I being, that my children's eyes are not shining? That's a totally different world."

The other quote goes like this: "It's one of the characteristics of a leader that he not doubt for one moment the capacity of the people he's leading to realize whatever he's dreaming. Imagine if Martin Luther King had said 'I have a dream. Of course, I'm not sure they'll be up to it'." 

Although one is embedded in a musical example and the other one is not, his words are about leadership. Having played in orchestras and sang in choirs for most of my life I understand entirely the meaning behind those words; and is that kind of leader, the one that empowers others, the one I aspire to be. I want to see the eyes of the people around me shine. A lot of times, being in a position of certain power blinds us to the things that are going around us and that are truly important. We get lost in the less important work and forget the passion and the motivation that drove us down the path we chose. We forget there is a bigger picture. It happens a lot in classical music with conductors who get stuck in their jobs and forget that it was the love for music what put them there; they just move their hands and expect the gesture to be enough to make good music. Or at least music. It also happens in many other aspects of life and career choices and it is something to fight against. Being apathetic is never a good thing.

I also loved about his talk the fact that he got an audience of 1.600 people to listen to Chopin. It seems like no big deal, right? Every day many more people go to concerts all around the world. But do they really listen? It is the true listening of the music, and the understanding, from our personal conditions and experiences what makes it such an amazing experience. As Zander himself says, everyone loves classical music, they just don’t know it yet.