Classical Music Bloggers are Macs, Traditional Media are PCs

I had an interesting conversation at a house concert in Toronto just over a year ago. A man I was talking to that evening bemoaned the fact that Toronto only has one opera company. Excuse me? Only one opera company? Exasperated, I asked him what made him come to that conclusion, to which he replied that from listening to the radio and reading the Toronto papers, the only opera company he ever heard about was the Canadian Opera Company and wished that there were others. Still stupefied, I informed him that he was completely mistaken and that there were in fact over a dozen companies in town (in fact, there are at least 17 in the Greater Toronto area at present). He still didn't believe me. To give the papers their due, writers who work for the Globe and Mail, National Post, and Toronto Star do mention the smaller opera companies from time to time and review their work, but on an occasional basis compared to their regular coverage of large organizations such as the Toronto Symphony and Canadian Opera Company. (It must also be mentioned that The WholeNote Magazine does chronicle the entire classical scene in Toronto to its farthest reaches, although this type of magazine is a rarity in North America.)

You find a similar situation with radio stations and television, although classical radio generally has a much better record of broadcasting a wide variety of artists and works, with special kudos given to the CBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3, numerous European radio services and NPR stations. Still, radio's scope is limited to classical artists that are recorded, and by its nature usually ignore segments of the classical music world that aren't represented by recordings. Classical music is featured even less on television, given the economic realities of the medium (although cameo appearances often work in the format, such as my recent interview for CBC television). And what always looms over radio and television coverage is the ever-present specter of cutbacks and cancellations.

But how does one measure success and prominence in the classical world? Shall we celebrate only a few prominent soloists and ensembles, or chronicle the masses of music educators, orchestral musicians, chamber players, soloists, university students, amateurs, professionals, and administrators that make up the bulk of the classical music world and toil in the mines far from the star-making gaze of newspapers, television, and radio stations.

But take a look at a few classical music blogs and you'll find a completely different scene, with plenty of composers, artists, companies you've never heard of, new and exciting projects, a sophisticated level of discourse, and an exciting community far from the stuffiness classical music is supposed to embody. Part of the promise of classical music blogging lies in the following limitation of traditional media:

Except for a few major newspapers, traditional news media only report on a very small segment of the classical music scene, targeted towards the media outlet's demographic, and fit into the space alloted by editors and producers.

Classical music blogs have no such restrictions, are only limited by the vision of their authors, and aren't subject to restrictions of space and economics. They are not limited by utilizing a sole medium (words), since a classical music blogger can easily expand the range of the medium through offering podcasts, online downloads, traditional books, ebooks, or even radio programs in addition to their core blog. In fact, there are huge chunks of the classical music world and its stories that literally never got their due until these types of blogs came along:

• Africlassical - the major contributions to the classical music world from the African diaspora.
• The Concert - written by soprano Anne-Carolyn Bird, and follows her career from graduate school to the Met and beyond.
• Opera Chic - the scandal-filled world of the opera scene and its larger-than-life players.
• On an Overgrown Path - the nooks and crannies of a wondrously diverse classical music culture
• Wolf Trap Opera - the inner workings of a vibrant opera company chronicled from the drawing board until opening night.
• Oboeinsight and Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog - instrumental niches that are usually not given their due, but in fact yield a vast wealth of insight into the art and industry of classical music (in addition to being uber-cool places to hang out).

Not to mention this humble blog, which focuses on the diverse (and lucrative) activities of those pianists that choose to make music with others and go on to become some of the busiest people in classical music even though they are often omitted from programs and reviews, and under-appreciated by the general public.

I'll be the first to admit that no media outlet is ever completely neutral--every single writer has their agenda, their issues, and plays favorites. But the classical music blogosphere seems to have a more interesting cast of players, a wider scope of activities, no publication deadlines, creates their own demographics and rules, sets their own agenda, and does it with a passion that is bringing in a surprisingly large number of new readers every month (click on the Sitemeter stats of a few blogs in case you disagree).

The impact of classical music blogging is still being created and I still feel that nobody has yet chronicled what the medium can actually do, but 2008 already feels like the year in which classical music bloggers are starting to get their cred. So load up your Bloglines, Google Reader, or NewsGator account with your favorites, get connected to a part of the music world that's actually growing, and hopefully you'll enjoy what you hear.

Discovering and Working with New Media in the Arts

If you're confused about the changing landscape of media outlets in the arts, you're not alone. Drew McManus of Adaptistration is currently writing a series entitled How To Connect With New Media. Part 1 attempts to define what new media is and how to identify new media sources (of which CPB is one). This series will be required reading for anyone in the arts that is looking to publicize artists, events, or products and wondering how it can be properly done.

Although Drew`s series is probably the first of its kind in the arts, there are already guides on how to approach bloggers, the most comprehensive being Darren Rowse`s article on ProBlogger entitled How to Pitch to Bloggers - 21 Tips.

Opera's New Media Buzz

Two articles from print and blogosphere in the last few days highlight opera's stretching of new tendrils into new and fascinating territories. Jan Breslauer wrote in the L.A. Times about the L.A. Opera's ventures into musical theatre and increasing radio coverage, the Met's expanding repertory and directorial pool, and San Antonio Opera's foray into zarzuela. In the Wolf Trap Opera blog, Kim Witman writes about the new media workshops at the 2007 Opera America conference in Miami.

Ms. Witman's caveat about the use and misuse of new media should be read by all organizations looking to expand their demographics and offerings:

If our hip cyber-efforts don’t bear any real relationship to the product, we won’t keep a single new recruit past the first performance. Even if we get the attention of a new patron, and s/he buys a ticket, if the experience doesn’t live up to the promise of the über-sexy marketing, we’ve won the battle but lost the war. This by no means makes any of the many kinds of satisfying opera experiences inferior. Just incongruous with some of the hype that's beginning to be generated. Sell opera for what it is, and neither apologize for nor mislead folks about what it isn't.

In other words, don't dumb the product down just because you're using technology to get the attention of a new audience. Young people are smart--they'll respond to opera's sex, violence, powerful stories, and great singing just as audiences have in previous generations. The recording industry's ongoing woes would seem to suggest that music in general is going through a rough patch. With too much attention paid to the media, money, and marketing end and not enough going towards really good music, there are bound to be a lot of alienated young listeners out there. Sell the genuine product and audiences will respond. With any luck, they'll come in droves, which they seem to be doing in many opera markets across North America.

But jumping on the "look at us, we're embracing technology" bandwagon without enough real artistic integrity to back it up can result in just as much loss of market share that popular genres have suffered recently.

Is this blog a resume?

Are the classical music bloggers just a bunch of eccentric hobbyists or are they the vanguard of what is to come in the field?

Adam Darowski at Traces of Inspiration writes that the blog is in fact the new resume:

Blogging is the perfect way for a candidate to give an employer a more detailed sales pitch—to show they can “talk the talk” (as opposed to just fill a resume with buzzwords). I can’t think of a reason for any serious tech professional to not have a blog. Not only does it serve as an excellent notebook for storing ideas and links, but it can come in handy in a job hunt where what interviewers really want to just know what, professionally (and somewhat personally), engages you on a day to day basis. How often do you look at a resume and wonder what exactly the person’s role on a project was? Well, if the person blogged about it then you would have a better idea—and you would know if the role would fit in with your team.

In the classical music field, this would seem to fly in the face of traditional wisdom, where many people with witty, informative, and irreverent writing styles were aghast at my suggestions that they start a blog because of a perception that they would never get hired if they decided to actually voice their opinions. In Canada at least, the experience of Erin Wall, author of the now defunct Chiago Canadienne, seemed to point that the more work you got, the more scrutiny would be levelled at your blog writing. Is this true? I certainly hope not but the idea persists.

At any rate, I've been writing this since November 2005, have got only a few angry comments, have more work than ever, and am throroughly enjoying myself. If I had never started blogging, I wouldn't be as knowledgeable about a lot of things as I am now, although I would certainly be a much better player of computer games.

For those interested in reading more about this issue, Traces of Inspiration also has a discussion roundup on the issue.

Update 23-04-07:

Doing an old-fashioned resume? You might want to check out these bookmarks on del.icio.us.

MySpace Classical Music News

Say what you will about MySpace but the launch of their new beta project MySpace News will bring a brand new audience to those of us in the classical music blogosphere, especially since there is a dedicated classical music page.

(Thanks, problogger)