Classical Music undergoes image makeover to make the genre more popular

Classical Music undergoes image makeover to attract a bigger audience and to make the genre more popular. There are many who feel that the classical music business needs to break down the rules and make concert-going a more contemporary experience.

“We Don’t Do That”: Need to Relax a Bit

A man who enjoys listening to all kinds of music but makes his livelihood playing rock songs on the radio, recently attended a chamber music concert at Carnegie Hall. At the end of the first movement of a piano quartet, he was so thrilled, he applauded. The man sitting in front of him turned around and said, “We don’t do that. There’s no applauding between movements.”

There are many who feel that kind of attitude stops people from appreciating the true worth of classical composers and also puts off non-purists who would otherwise pay good money to attend concerts.

Lot of youngsters are trying to popularize Classical Music in their own unique ways, but when it comes to concerts, not much has changed since Mozart’s time.

The Boston-based Handel and Haydn Society (known as the H+H Society) recently put on a classical concert where they performed Mozart’s Masonic Funeral Music. At the very end of the performance, however, a little boy in the audience broke the silence with an awestruck “WOW!”

But this time no one objected. In fact, the innocent “wow” seemed to win over the hearts of both the audience and the performers, and for a change, the audience applauded the moment.

Mozart makes us feel that way, too! Help @handelandhaydn find this child: https://t.co/TsjEQmeSYX pic.twitter.com/FYpXmOT8hl

— 99.5 WCRB, Classical Radio Boston (@995WCRB) May 8, 2019

Intellectual Exercises Suits Classroom More Than Concert Venues
A programmer of classical music on the radio says he is often criticized by purists for playing individual movements of great pieces. The thinking is that certain pieces such as Beethoven’s Fifth is meant to be heard in its entirety.

However, he counters the objection by saying “Beethoven’s Fifth wasn’t meant to be heard on the radio at all!” And if they strictly follow the rules, classical music radio stations will have almost nothing to play.

Many feel that if classical music is to survive, it will need to welcome a wider audience of music lovers and it needs to break down the barriers to entry and connect with listeners and audiences on an emotional level.

Perhaps, the child’s “Wow!”, and the reaction of the audience, is an indication that classical music performance could get more tolerant in future.

Classical Music Undergoes Image Makeover to Attract Younger Audience

A new movement in classical music (part one)
Growing up in a rough part of Northeast Baltimore, Tariq al-Sabir swore he was going to be a rapper. His grandmother bought him a keyboard when he was around 10 years old and he said he “just went crazy” making beats.

Then, in sixth grade, he turned on a special airing on Maryland Public Television and heard Andrea Bocelli sing “Che Gelida Manina.”

Now, with the help of a scholarship, the 20-year-old attends the historic Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, one of the nation’s top music schools.

“I have friends who just didn’t make it. Some of them passed away. Some of them are in jail now because of bad decisions,” he said. “But I also think, man, what if they just had an outlet like I did.”

But people like Sabir are increasingly rare. Peabody’s enrollment has dropped slightly, as is attendance at symphony orchestras across the country, and the cash flows that come with it. To fill seats, many are going global to places like China, where the market is strong. A third of Peabody’s students are international.

Some orchestras are trying to mix up their presentation in order to keep their audience interested in classical music.

Between 2003 and 2012, attendance for classical performances dropped more than 1 percent each year, according to Jesse Rosen, president of the League of American Orchestras. A labor dispute and financial troubles have Atlanta’s orchestra in a lockout. Orchestras in Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, Denver and Indianapolis have all faced serious financial problems in the last two years.

“Part of what’s been happening is our whole culture has been changing. People are really wanting to consume, to engage, in very different ways,” said Rosen.

To attract bigger audiences, many orchestras are changing the way concertgoers engage with classical music: adding videos, celebrity appearances or even mixing in more popular music. In June, Sir Mix-A-Lot performed with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. In September, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra announced it would be ditching its tuxes and tails. This week, Ben Folds performed his pop piano ballads with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra doing backup.

“I think one of the great things about the time we’re in now is that the definition has been opening up,” Rosen said. “The way we think classical music is has never been a fixed repertoire or mode of presentation.”

A new movement in classical music (part two)

A lot of the new and edgy programming is directed at younger audiences, who traditionally haven’t flocked to Rachmaninoff. And when it comes to entertainment, younger people tend to have slightly different tastes. Specifically, they want more interactivity and a range of media, according to those who work in the field, beyond just watching the musicians play.

“There is an assumption in the industry perhaps that a classical music audience is less open to having sort of cross-forms of presentation for the music because they’re slightly older, slightly less tech-savvy,” said Thomas Dolby, who’s helping to create a new center for technology and the arts at Johns Hopkins. “ [It] becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, because if you choose not to use the media that are popular among young people, then young people aren’t going to listen to your classical music.”

Best known for the synthpop anthem “She Blinded Me With Science,” one of the first popular music videos in MTV’s early days, Dolby has long dabbled in the intersection of art and tech. Back in the early 1990s, his Silicon Valley company created the progenitor of the polyphonic ringtones found on more than 1 billion phones today.

And as a professor at Johns Hopkins, he hopes to inspire students to find the next “new thing” and think outside the music box. He’s currently co-teaching the course Sound on Film, which connects film students and composing students to produce film soundtracks.

“Technology could be a great liberator here,” Dolby said. “You might get a brilliant, young composer or instrumentalist who becomes an international star … through the fact that their brilliance is exposed to millions of people, using the technology that we have today, and they bypass the whole industry.”

Conservatories, including Peabody, have tended to be “very conservative places and very, sort of singularly focused,” said Fred Bronstein, who just took over as Peabody’s dean following a six-year stint leading the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. But Bronstein wants to change that. In St. Louis, he helped revamp the orchestra’s marketing and branding campaigns, leading to increased revenue and ticket sales despite the Great Recession.

And Sabir wants to be part of classical music’s evolution, seeking new sounds and new ways to market himself and, hopefully, an audience to support him.

“I plan on writing some really cool stuff,” he said. “I want to be a singer. I want to be a classical singer who’s bringing something beautiful to the table.”

Most Orchestra nowadays do more than just play classical music concerts. They provide educational and cultural programming and offer performances on other occasions as well (annual holidays).They are wearing many hats and are playing music of all styles, in order to reach a wider audience of all ages. They are trying their best to maintain the traditions that are very important to classical music.

Source: america.aljazeera.com

Cantabile Tomorrow’s Joo Won & Shim Eun Kyung Talk About Classical Music

Classical Music Goes Clubbing, Audience Enjoy the More Relaxed Environment

Classical music finally seems to be moving with the times. Several clubs and pubs now have classical musicians playing live music for the audience, albeit in a a more relaxed and fun environment.

And I guess its a win-win situation for both.

• A group of classical musicians play classical music at different venues in London. Known as ‘The Night Shift’, these musicians play everywhere from clubs, pubs and libraries to galleries and even garages.

  And this movement is not just limited to London; its spreading everywhere.

• Norwegian pianist Aksel Kolstad hosts a show that mixes stand-up comedy with classical concerts
• Russian-born pianist Irina Vasilieva, based in Australia, frequently organizes concerts in libraries and art galleries in Perth.
• Etienne Abelin, a violinist, composer and conductor started Ynight — classical mash-up club nights across Switzerland.
• Classical music label Deutsche Grammophon started Yellow Lounge club nights in Berlin and then rolled it out across Germany.
• In the United States, more and more classically trained musicians are performing in bars and pubs.

Watch: THE NIGHT SHIFT EXPERIENCE

Another opportunity to make money
Even conservatory-trained musicians find it difficult to find a full-time job nowadays. But the younger musicians – armed with social media skills, some entrepreneurial skills and their love for music, are figuring out newer ways to make money from music.

Classical musicians love to perform in informal settings, with a little more spontaneity, and are happy to earn that extra income.

The younger generation, who have spent years studying classical music, are frustrated by the isolation of classical music, and most of these musicians have grown up playing other genres of music as well.

So these musicians are going to opt for more exciting, challenging and fulfilling live music experiences, and its sure to attract a younger audience.

Works for the audience too
A typical classical music concert can be intimidating to most first-timers (because of all those rules and protocols).

You cannot talk or laugh, you can’t go to the loo, you can’t have a drink. But a club is a fun environment.

The younger people, who are used to going to gigs where there’s lot more interaction between the audience and musicians, but that is missing in orchestra concert.

I feel like when you go to a concert hall, you have to know a lot about classical music but in a club you don’t need to know, you just learn and enjoy.

But classical clubbing works for the younger lot.

While orchestras and symphonies around the world have been struggling to attract younger audiences to classical music, some classically trained musicians and conductors have taken the matter in their own hands and are taking their music to the people. And it seems to be the right thing to do.

Classical Music Concerts in Bars and Cafes

A group, called Classical Revolution, have been conducting concerts in Bars and cafes across various cities in the US in an effort to make the genre more popular among people.

A Classical Revolution quintet plays a San Francisco cafe. Marco Rozzano/Classical Revolution

It’s Monday evening, and as the light wanes, the din of Revolution Café spills onto the street. An eclectic crew has been gathering here—hoodies, tattoos, leather jackets, and high heels all in one room. Their owners sip beer and sangria from tall glasses as they chat and look for spare tables in the dim, cramped room. Finding all seats filled, newcomers stand outside on the porch.

Standing room only on Monday nights is par for the course at this café/bar in San Francisco’s Mission district, because on Mondays, the café hosts live chamber music. The musicians, a mix of freelancers, conservatory students, and techies who play on the side, are volunteers with Classical Revolution, a program that brings high-level classical music into intimate public spaces.

“We’re taking out all the other stuff that you get in a normal classical music setting: the formal dress, the formal attitude, the stuffy environment.
A violinist announces that they’re getting started with the Mendelssohn octet. He and seven other string players sit at a makeshift “stage”—really just a spot where tables have been replaced by music stands. They bring their instruments to the ready as the buzz quiets to a murmur. They pause, bows hovered over strings. From outside the wall-length window, you can hear a motorcycle whizzing by. But when the musicians start to play, the crowd is enraptured.

I have been playing violin since I was four, performing in more classical concerts than I can remember. Whether I was screeching away at Hot Cross Buns or playing “The Rite of Spring” with an orchestra, the players and listeners followed an unspoken set of rules. The musicians, almost exclusively white or East Asian, walked on stage quietly. While we performed, the listeners certainly didn’t chatter, they didn’t eat or drink, and they tried not to cough or squirm. Yet not once did I glance down to find a crowd as captivated—or as diverse—as the one here.

The easy exposure to classical music, up close and casual, is exactly what Classical Revolution is shooting for, says Charith Premawardhana, the group’s 36-year-old founder, a violist himself. The reason that more young people aren’t interested in classical isn’t the music, he explains, but the setting: tickets are expensive, and you have to dress up and be quiet for hours. “It’s restricting for a lot of young people.” His goal for Classical Revolution is simple: “It’s high art, but it’s not high brow. We’re taking it seriously and playing passionately, but we’re taking out all the other stuff that you get in a normal classical music setting: the formal dress, the formal attitude, the stuffy environment. The music is kept at a high level but the rest is chill.”

Of the dozen or so people I spoke with on my first visit to Revolution Café, only one had ever been to a formal classical music concert. Premawardhana says this is often the case: “They say things like ‘I never realized how much I liked Mozart!'” In a more intimate atmosphere, he says, “You can see the musicians’ fingers move. You can see their facial expressions. It makes the audience feel like they’re more involved.”

Classical Revolution got its start in 2006 when Premawardhana, a recent grad from San Francisco Conservatory, found a cheap room in the Mission and was looking for places to play. He would often walk to Revolution Café—”back then, it was genuinely bohemian”—to hear live music, often jazz or rock, and mingle with fellow musicians. One week, the café’s manager, wanting to mix things up a little, invited Premawardhana’s chamber group to play. Soon enough, musicians in his network of friends were playing chamber music there every week. New players, hearing about a chance to perform with other skilled musicians for a fun audience, were welcomed into the fold. The musicians began performing on Mondays instead of on weekends, because too many people were coming to watch them play. Now, Classical Revolution has volunteer musicians playing regularly or semi-regularly in 30 cities across the world.

As today’s orchestras and symphonies struggle, professional musicians worry that classical music is dying. Here, it seems more alive than ever.
Whether Classical Revolution, as its name suggests, will truly rejuvenate the classical world is up in the air. I can hear the complaints of professional musicians already: How are you supposed to play with the murmur of the bar and the background noise of the street? How can you expect listeners to really hear the subtleties of the phrasing and the dynamics if they’re constantly hearing the tinkle of drinks being poured—especially if they’ve already downed a glass themselves?

The program also has some organizational issues to sort out: It has no institutional funding—it’s all volunteer work, not counting the modest cash musicians and organizers get from venues and tips. Currently affiliated with San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music, Classical Revolution is in the process of becoming a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. But the skyrocketing interest from musicians and listeners—and the frequent line out the door of their regular Bay Area venues (they also play at Awaken Cafe and Caffe Trieste)—is undeniable. Premawardhana estimates that in this city alone, CR musicians have played more than 1,200 concerts. In recent weeks, he’s heard from groups in Korea and Iceland wanting to start new chapters.

Many of today’s orchestras and symphonies are struggling with budget cuts and dwindling ticket sales, and professional musicians worry that classical music is dying. But here at Revolution Café, it seems more alive than ever. The octet moves into the final movement of Mendelssohn, a fiery, romantic, jaw-dropping piece of music. Some people have taken out their phones, sipping their beer with one hand and collecting video with the other. Just in front of me, a guy in a hoodie and sneakers nods with the beat. The woman next to me, with short hair and big earrings, has closed her eyes, a smile drifting across her face. When the piece is finished, the audience roars unabashedly, and passersby on the sidewalk stop and stand outside, wondering what’s causing all the commotion.

Restaurants Mixing Classical Music with Food & Booze

John Devlin go is a conductor and serves as the music director for the McLean Youth Orchestra (among other conducting posts), and spends the better part of his time coming up with ways to communicate classical music in unconventional ways. It’s one of the reasons he was so enthusiastic when John Coco, the beverage director of Bistro 360 in Arlington, approached him with the idea for Gourmet Symphony. The new concert series, premiering Saturday at Atlas Performing Arts Center, uses food to connect listeners with works by classical composers.

“So often you think these dead white German guys did nothing but compose and send out a piece of paper to the orchestra,” Devlin says. “But they loved food as much as anyone else. We’re trying to humanize them.”

Saturday’s four-course meal and beverage pairings — inspired by classic European dishes and provided by Vendetta Bocce Bar & Tavern, Smith Commons and Beuchert’s Saloon — will be served in a space devoid of assigned seating. The orchestra, composed of a talented bunch from the National Symphony Orchestra, Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and service bands, will perform recognizable classics at the center of the room.

“It’s a reimagining of the classical music concert experience,” Coco says. “There’s usually a disconnect between the stage and the audience. We’re breaking that down.”

Between songs, performers will engage with guests while Coco and a music scholar from the University of Maryland share historical anecdotes.

“If you played the oboe in middle school and you really want to talk to the oboe player, just wait five minutes,” Devlin says.

Devlin and Coco — who raised more than double their Kickstarter goal of $2,000 during fundraising — are already brainstorming for the next concert. ­

“D.C. is rich with Asian cuisines, and there’s a world of classical music from that area of the world,” Coco says.

Source: washingtonpost.com

Restaurants Make Music Go with Food, But Is Everybody Happy?

For several years, restaurants have been playing music (usually soft music) in the background to enhance the dining experience of patrons. However, in recent years, the choice of music played in restaurants has undergone a sea-change (to the dislike of some).

The kind of music (playlists) that a restaurant plays has an effect on a diner’s experience and also on the image of the establishment. Depending on the venue and the time, the music is played to make guests either feel upbeat or stay calm.

Chefs & restaurants today experiment with classical, jazz, rap and have the options of digital streaming or using a DJ for hire.

Because its so easy to put up an eclectic mix of music (most try to have non-repeating songs), restaurant owners are meticulously managing their music to create the desired effect on diners. Usually the playlists are organised from somewhat mellow to the most energetic; the music is programmed to get louder as more people enter the restaurant.

Streaming music services, satellite radio, iTunes, movies, are some of the sources from where restaurants create their playlist.

One popular restaurant in New York works with a local music expert to choose about 12 hours of music, then sends those choices to New York-based audio-advisory company El Media Group. The company’s in-house DJs select as much as three times the amount of complementary music for the restaurant to play. “I can, in real time, yea or nay a song from the floor,” with an app, says an executive with a restaurant chain.

There are several diners for whom good music matters, along with good food. But there are some who go to a restaurant to have a social engagement with friends and prefer quieter background music. For them, the quality of the music (and the sound) matters too, along with excellent food. Often the music is too loud, and it becomes difficult to have a conversation and one has to literally shout their orders.

Irrespective, music is here to stay in restaurants, and that too of various genres.

Says a chef, “When people complain about the music, we put on opera. All the sudden Pavarotti comes on … it takes on a very different vibe, but it’s cool.”