Beyonce illustrates classical music’s image problem

This video is not only one of the less likely mashups of all time, it also illustrates classical music’s image problem. First – the music. The filmed performance is Turnage’s ‘Hammered out’, which is part based on Beyonce songs, so the combination is not entirely random.

But as I watched, it just struck me, as you see the BBC SO and Beyonce juxtaposed in a fairly unusual way, that the video perfectly illustrates why classical music struggles with younger audiences. Beyonce is sassy, sexy, full of energy and just very now. The BBC SO are static, wearing totally outmoded dress. They might be playing their hearts out but the presentation does nothing to show this. No wonder younger people don’t get so excited about classical music. I know who I’d rather see in concert on the basis of this…

Big isn’t better

And the next mini-post.

I remember being in some sort of branding workshop a couple of years ago, where the facilitator asked us to do a kind of elevator pitch for our organisations – sum our our aims, what we do, our selling point, as succinctly as possible.

Someone started talking about how their organisation put on the biggest events, the most events, was the busiest, the most world-renowned etc. The facilitator responded, saying that it made the organisation sound rather arrogant. Size and scale are not in themselves interesting. Which is why I think this campaign for the National Maritime Organisation is so misguided. It really gives me no reason to visit. The museum is bigger. So what? Why would that make me want to go?

As I’ve said before, when you advertise on the tube you’re advertising to a very broad cross section of people – it’s mass media. Most of them are not going to be aware of your (cultural) product, so you have to assume very little knowledge. So if they weren’t already interested in visiting the National Maritime Museum then this poster is not going to persuade them at all. Why would I want to go to a bigger version of something that I haven’t been persuaded to visit yet?

They could have spent the space telling us about how much more exciting the museum is now, what the new galleries are about etc. But no, they got caught up in their ego and concentrated on size.

Of course, there are lessons here for classical music too…

Once again, who?!

It’s been a while since I posted, so here is the first of two short posts to get me back in the swing of things. First up, here’s a banner outside of Kings Place. It brings me back to earlier postings. I’m sure Ivana Gavric is very nice, but why put her on a poster? Is she a massive name? No. Will she sell any tickets? No.

Ok, you might not have any huge names in your festival (though I’d counter that the London Sinfonietta is a *slightly* bigger name), but given that why not just go for a really fantastic, arresting image instead? If it doesn’t matter who the person is, then be led by the strength of the image.

Nodding off…

I went to a concert the other day. The first piece was rather unengaging. The man next to me fell asleep. My attention wandered, and I started looking around the hall – from my particular seat I could see most of it. It occurred to me that really a LOT of people were asleep. Hard to put a figure on it, but for an event that had begun about ten minutes ago it was a bit staggering.

Of course sleeping in concerts is nothing new and is often jokily remarked upon. I’ve done it myself on occasion. People will often talk about the age of the audience, the effects of a drink before the concert, the conducive effects of a dark warm room, or perhaps it’s just showing just how chilling-out classical music can be.

The Old Vic: Another advertising FAIL

Just to prove it’s not just classical music that gets it wrong…

Here’s the latest campaign from the Old Vic.

Now, I regard myself as fairly average theatre goer. I maybe go 5-6 times a year. I usually enjoy it, but am in no way an expert. Though I regard myself as an average attender, if my attendance record were to applied to classical music norms I would be regarded as very much a core booker (though, somewhat promiscuous, as I have no theatre allegiance).

Anyway, I looked this tube ad and realised that it gave me no reason to go.

A missed opportunity?

Today arts organisations across England waited nervously for that important email to pop into their inboxes, deciding their fate.

As far as classical music goes however the day wasn’t as dramatic as might have been expected. There were percentage cuts to most organisations, with no big names losing out, at least among performing bodies. The seismic shift didn’t happen, and the salami slicing did – the one thing we were told wouldn’t happen.

There were some winners though – the Britten Sinfonia got a boost and the Academy of Ancient Music, English Concert and Aurora Orchestra all got funded for the first time, and it was good to see that the innovative Manchester Camerata clung onto most of its funding. These good news stories perhaps make up for the fact that the City of London Sinfonia and London Mozart Players lost all their funding a while back.

Is the Edinburgh Festival obsessed with nationality?

A strange question you might think.

Here are a few quotes from their hot-off-the-press 2011 brochure:

“the renowned Belgian conductor”
“One of Britain’s finest living composers”
“fellow Argentinian Nelson Goerner”
“Renowned German mezzo soprano”
“Czech born Magdalena Kozena”
“young Russian Alina Ibragimova”
“American soprano Meagan Miller”
“one of Scotland’s most prominent artists”
“Dutch virtuoso violinist Janine Jansen”
“award-winning Finnish soprano”

Print in review: Wigmore Hall Summer 2011

First impressions:
Weighty, pleasingly square, more contemporary than you might expect.

You open the cover and:
Get a long and boring introduction from the CEO. *yawn*. I can’t be arsed to read it all but it appears to just name check all the artists that are appearing at the Wigmore Hall. He’s obviously not been reading my blog.

Delving Deeper
After this there’s a simple to read calendar, divided into genres. Bravo. Sadly it only lists lists artists, not repertoire. The Wigmore Hall is lucky,  lots of these names WILL sell tickets to its knowledgeable core audience. However there are still lot of unknown names here, where repertoire would be more of a selling point.

Why print still matters

All everyone talks about these days is digital. Websites, social media, podcasts, vodcasts, interactivity etc. It is sexy and it is the future. But for many arts organisations a majority of sales are still generated from old fashioned, unsexy old print. But is it it really unsexy? There’s something satisfying about holding a brochure in your hands, reading it over breakfast perhaps. Of course design is where the sex appeal comes in, and that’s what I’m going to examine in a series of posts. Not just ‘does it look pretty?’ but also looking at what it says about the organisation and whether it does it’s job. All views are, or course, entirely subjective…

Why blockbuster concerts aren’t good for classical music

Anyone with even a passing interest in classical music can’t have helped but notice that the Berlin Philharmonic (oops, I mean Berliner Philharmoniker) was in town with Simon Rattle last week. Coverage was everywhere and all the tickets for the four concerts had been snapped up months before, indeed many of them 12 months before.

Many people pointed to these sold out events as evidence that classical music is in rude health. I’d disagree – not that classical music is in good health, but that these sorts of ‘events’ are good for classical music as a whole.

Of course, its exciting that the Berlin Phil are in town, and there have always been these big visiting Orchestras. But it seems to be that in recent years more emphasis has been given to these real blockbuster concerts, and I’m not convinced it’s a good thing.

Why not?

1) They’re bloody expensive
OK, I know it costs a LOT to bring an Orchestra like the Berlin Phil to London but the prices being charged are astronomical – up to £75 in the Royal Festival Hall. Next seasons big concerts go up to £85. At the lower end of the scale tickets which usually cost £6 or £9 with the Southbank Residents go up to £24 for a star Orchestra. The Southbank seems to have embarked on a programme of squeezing as much as they can from customers with little regard for their duty as a publicly funded organisation.