<p>I love that speech. I’ve already been sending it around. Makes me tear up.</p>
<p>Just forwarded the address to DS. Thanks for the post.</p>
<p>Just forwarded my to DD! Thank You!</p>
<p>Carl Stalling was an serious musical genius, his music for those cartoons was clever and also quite technically demanding. It was obvious he knew and loved music, and his music was full of ‘musical puns’. I know a lot of people who got their first taste of classical music from those cartoons, though the music ranged genres (my favorite was the cartoon with the owl who is supposed to be playing the violin, but sneaks out and becomes “owl Jolson” singing Jazz <em>lol</em>). Listening to today’s cartoons, which are as empty musically as they are content wise, it is no wonder kids think that these pop stars can sing. Other then a relatively few (Queen Latifah has a hell of a voice IMO), kids basically know little or nothing about what good music sounds like, in any form, and that is sad.</p>
<p>I am not surprised that politicians think that the arts are not worth supporting, our society today reminds me of the F’rengai empire on Star Trek, if it isn’t about making more and more money for people already very well off, it isn’t worth it. Heck, we have people deriding education spending as ‘wasteful’,that we should be going back to the “3 r’s”, so what chance does art, especially music, have with these lunkheads?</p>
<p>Not to hijack this thread, but speaking of good musical puns, who here has seen/heard the amazing one used in one of the recent Red Bull animated commercials? </p>
<p>I would hazard a guess that less than 1% of the overall population, and far less than that number in the audience that Red Bull targets, appreciated the genius of that commercial since it involved a Mozart aria…</p>
<p>Zep, maybe we ought to let papengena answer that. ;)</p>
<p>No problem; my directors have taken the time during class today to share it with us and print out copies for each of us. Really a moving speech.</p>
<p>It’s well worth the read, and worth passing on. For the record, BassDad posted the link about ten days ago <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/661352-karl-paulnack-importance-music-todays-world.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/661352-karl-paulnack-importance-music-todays-world.html</a></p>
<p>Unfortunately today also brings bad news. The Baltimore Opera will fold in Chapter 7 instead of trying to reorganize under Chapter 11 as previously announced. .<br>
[url=<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/12/AR2009031203447.html]washingtonpost.com[/url”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/12/AR2009031203447.html]washingtonpost.com[/url</a>]</p>
<p>“Three months after seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and canceling the remainder of the 2008-09 season, the board of trustees of the Baltimore Opera Company voted yesterday to pursue Chapter 7 liquidation and dissolve the 58-year-old organization. The company will sell off its assets, including a warehouse, scenery, costumes and technical equipment, and distribute the proceeds among creditors.”</p>
<p>I forwarded it to my kids too!! Excellent speech.</p>
<p>Thank you violadad - I couldn’t find where I had originally stumbled across it!</p>
<p>I sent this to my son who replied that he had already read it (and thought it was awesome). It must be making the rounds at music conservatory programs.</p>
<p>[Classical</a> music sometimes falls on deaf ears - New Canaan News Review](<a href=“http://www.newcanaannewsonline.com/ci_13354723]Classical”>http://www.newcanaannewsonline.com/ci_13354723)</p>
<p>Just some musing, as a “local”.</p>
<p>Interesting article. Being fairly local, I can say that the Waveny Series offers a great venue and a fantastic selection of artists, yet does a pretty poor job of marketing itself. No web presence, very little if anything within area print media announcing concerts. I can’t speak to the distribution of free student tickets now, but they weren’t apparent a few years back in the day son was involved in hs, area youth symphonies, etc. If they were, I’d imagine the older established patrons would have balked at the presence of so many “kids” in attendance. </p>
<p>Preu at the Stamford Symphony is a young, enthusiastic director with a great sense of humor, and an engaging podium presence. He was a favorite as resident conductor at an area ys, and is doing quite a bit in taking some of the perceived stuffiness out of classical music.</p>
<p>The Greenwich to New Haven corridor is filled with an abundance of high quality professional regional orchestras, marvelous venues and series for chamber music both during the summer and the standard concert season. A number of players serve as faculty at a variety of institutions. </p>
<p>Anyone wishing to take advantage passing through while visiting schools (or attending schools in NYC, Purchase, even Bard or Hartt) can pm me for links to local performing orchestras and chamber venues. Most are easily accessible from MetroNorth rail, or via car for those students with access, and are typically below NYC venue pricing. The area chambering offerings are really quite exceptional.</p>
<p>Violada-
I suspect you are correct that if they gave out free tickets to school kids to attend the concerts, they would have problems with older patrons not appreciating kids. Sadly, most concert organizers recognize that their audience is generally pretty gray haired (I am a babe in the woods comparitively) but they are faced with a quandry, because if they encourage young people to come it will turn off their normal audience, but if they don’t get young people to come, well…one of the bigger ironies of this for me that being a regular attendee of concerts over the past several years, that many of the older patrons are more of a problem then kids are, their behavior can really be disruptive, yet they are the first to complain of kids ‘ruining’ the performance <em>shrug</em>. </p>
<p>Given the lack of musical education in the schools and exposure to classical music, at some point orchestras are going to have to find a way to get younger people into the halls. I see signs of hope with this in NYC, Jeremy Denk (among other things, Joshua Bell’s regular accompaniest as well as a first class solo performer) gave a concert at the high line ballroom, and it was packed, and it was a mostly young crowd…might have had to do with the fact that it was a nightclub type place and Jeremy Denk was wearing Jeans…:)</p>
<p>The greying of the audience at classical venues is definitely a major problem. Let’s face it, many of us are products of “Lennie’s” Young People’s Concerts and/or Carl Stalliing’s classic music laced Looney Tunes soundtracks. Decreasing the average age of the audience is a challenge for every music director in this country and clearly there hasn’t been any sustained successes like that of Bernstein for many a year. </p>
<p>I didn’t realize the magnitude of the problem until about 3 years ago when my D and her friend, another conservatory bound student, asked that we stay after a performance by Renee Fleming to get her autograph. As I was waiting on line I realized that I was on the younger side of the gang, and these 2 18-year olds were the youngest on line by a good 20 years. Even Ms. Fleming noticed their youth and as she took a few extra minutes to talk to these ladies. Once she found out they intended to go to conservatories, she cheered them on and exhorted them to find ways to get their peers interested in opera and other aspects of the arts. </p>
<p>Very sad, but the average teen, 20 and 30 something are attracted to the wild, sexual gyrations of lip synching “divas” like Shakira, while the thought of listening to a true diva like Renee Fleming singing Puccini is viewed with the same disdain as a root canal. I hope this trend can be reversed before it is too late.</p>
<p>Imperial-</p>
<p>I think it can be reversed, but it isn’t going to happen passively. From what I have been led to believe, both the LA Phil and the SF Symphony have been succesful in attracting younger audiences, and it has been done both with outreach and in making the orchestra relevant (this started before the advent of Dudamel, but with him it is taking a big turn). And MTT from what I have read has done not only outreach, but like Lennie has attempted to explain about the music, to make it more interactive (sorry, but I see nothing wrong with the conductor or someone else talking from the stage, talking about the piece, and so forth, to connect with the audience). Music is going to have to lose the 19th century attitudes, the idiotic rigidity (sorry, but I would rather people enjoy a concert and clap between movements, and have them, well, enjoy it (as Anne Akiko Meyers put it in an interview with a new classical music magazine, “If they want to clap, then #&$&$& let them” . </p>
<p>And I do see hope. Joshua Bell has taken some heat when he puts out albums like “the romance of the violin”, that had movements of famous concertos, but guess what? He sold something like a million copies of that recording, has done others, and having been to his shows he attracts a younger audience. Classical purists, like the moron who is the head of the arts section at the times (not Thomassini, this other putz) ripped Lang Lang for his theatrics, calling him a ‘showman’ and such…well, guess what, numbnuts, Lang Lang sells out concert halls, and his audience is young.In NYC clubs are booking chamber music, and performers are reaching out and getting younger audiences, because they are able to make classical music reachable. I saw the NY Phil in the park this summer, there were 100,000 people there, and many of them were young (Allen Gilbert was conducting; Maazel, a throwback to the 19th century, pretty much refused to do those concerts at all, it was beneath him I guess). I saw Hillary Hahn do a program at the Metropolitan Museum with this young folkie singer-songwriter Josh Ritter, and you should have seen the kids reacting to her, especially when she did "the last rose of summer’ by Ernst…hopefully it left them with the impression that a talented, poised young person can make the music exciting. I actually think one of the saviors is going to be the upheaval in the business that has happened in recent decades, where artists and orchestras now have to learn the art of promotion and marketing. I have heard stories about performers, who were told, if they were classical musicians, that they better not do jazz, because word would get around and they wouldn’t be taken seriously…well, that kind of thing is dying, and good riddance…</p>
<p>And I think this is important, for any of us whose kids want to go into classical music, because getting young audiences is going to be the key to having a vibrant classical music scene in the future. What scares me is that everyone acknowledges it, but the only activity seems to be on the edges for the most part. The big orchestras for the most part seem to be thinking it is 50 or 60 years ago, that somehow things are fine, and they aren’t (though I have to hand it to the cleveland Orchestra, they have done some really fun stuff, including the Lord of the Rings Symphony and doing a live performance of the music from Loony Tunes, including the incredible “What’s Opera Doc?”, with the cartoons actually playing on a projected screen…may not be Mozart, but it is still music, and if 10 people start thinking this isn’t bad, ya never know.</p>
<p>Bringing young people to classical music is very important. I agree with the points made about some ways it could be done. Certainly the discounting of tickets so that young people can afford to attend, especially members of shool band programs, youth orchestras, etc. is a good vehicle for doing that. I have also heard resistance to young people being at concerts from the “patrons” who spent big bucks supporting the orchestra.</p>
<p>When we talk about only gray hairs, myself included, being at concerts, I have to say that 30 years ago it was almost only gray hairs too. Certainly that crowd is not the same people we see today. Classical music concerts are likely to be mostly attended by the over 50 crowd for various reasons throughout history. The issue maybe implanting youth with the desire to attend so that when they are the over 50 crowd, they will attend.</p>
<p>Trumpet-</p>
<p>I have heard the same thing said,and I am sure that classical music has always attracted a more mature audience then let’s say pop music (whether big band jazz, rock, whatever). From my understanding of the past, though, what they were calling ‘gray hairs’ in the past were 40 and 50 somethings, that the median age was in that range. With the concerts I have been two, it is more like 70’s and 80’s, and that is a problem, because what it implies is that people in their 40’s and 50’s aren’t ‘replacing’ the older generation who are now in their 70’s and 80’s, so the median age has gone up and continues to. I agree, what worries me more is where are the audiences of tomorrow going to come from, the ‘next generation’ of gray hairs? I think the reason that the median age has gone up is that for people my age (yes, I am in that range), there was little music education and it has only gotten worse with people younger then myself. Perhaps in time a new audience will come along, but I don’t think it is going to happen by default, it is going to take work. </p>
<p>Plus, those who now make up the audience grew up in a world more formal then ours by far, where for example people ‘dressed up’ at work and in much of their life, and where life was a lot more formal. Younger generations, my age and younger, have grown up in the ‘casual’ world, and the ‘forced formality’ of the classical arena I believe is part of the problem as well. Because my son is heavily involved, and because we go to a lot of events, I listen to classical music and talk about it, I get to talking with the mostly younger members of our group, and a lot of my work is dispelling the myths, that the music is boring, that it is like as a kid being forced to go to that relatives house you don’t like, get all dressed up and scrubbed to the nines, and sit there like a statue. They assume it is boring music played for boring people (which alas there is some truth to it IMO…), and that is a barrier that must be breached. One comment from the Hillary Hahn concert I mentioned, couple of the young guys sitting near me, after Ms. Hahn totally smoked the “last rose of summer”, looked at each other, and said “wow, she really rocks…she makes some of these guitar gods look like whimps” <em>lol</em>.</p>
<p>Musicprnt—The LA Phil has done a great job promoting what’s called “Casual Fridays” to a generally younger crowd. Casual dress, informal chats with orchestra members, interesting concerts, and a “hip” vibe in the gorgeous lobby have made Casual Fridays an enormously popular concert series. And it certainly helps to have the fabulous Walt Disney Concert Hall, where EVERY seat is good.</p>
<p>[Series</a> Details | LA Phil](<a href=“http://www.laphil.com/tickets/series_detail.cfm?season=2009&id=91]Series”>http://www.laphil.com/tickets/series_detail.cfm?season=2009&id=91)</p>
<p>musicprnt you have valid concerns and your points are well made.</p>
<p>I too have noticed far more casual dress at concerts. To the point where few people wear ties and many have even gone to sweaters instead of a sports coat or suite jacket. That is a very good thing in my opinion. A shirt with a collar and nice slacks should be fine for a concert. Pops concerts draw more people and the dress is even more casual.</p>
<p>Making adjustments to please the audience is long overdue.</p>
<p>I wonder if the number of regional or coomunity orchestras has affected attendance as ticket buyers have choices that are closer to home and cheaper. I would guess there are far more of those today as excellent players that have no major orchestra openings to win, end up in alternative situations that produce excellent music.</p>