Interchanging Idioms

I often rant about the need for more musicians to Tweet and Post about their involvement with the orchestras they play. I may be changing my tune Post after post I have railed at the musicians who don't talk about what they're doing in terms of orchestra performance. I have gone on and on about how more musicians need to be vocal about classical music, because if we don't who will? And yet, looking back on my own tweets and Facebook posts over the past year I'm not sure I can honestly maintain that diatribe. For nearly a year I have been the Music Director for TwtrSymphony. The organization was started because of my need for an orchestra and the wealth of musician friends on social media. However, managing an orchestra and the 60+ musicians we have 'on staff' is a great deal of work - so much so, it has impacted my ability to communicate over social media. I have not held conversations with a number of the friends I grew very accustomed to chatting with regul...

LSO Futures celebrates composers at the cutting edge of music today through a week of events at the Barbican LSO Futures and LSO St Luke’s including two concerts curated by François-Xavier Roth. The LSO has been nurturing the talent of young composers for several years through its Panufnik Young Composers Scheme (set up in memory of composer Andrzej Panufnik), the UBS Sound Adventures Scheme and the recent creation of LSO Soundhub, a laboratory for composers at LSO St Luke’s. LSO Futures throws the doors to these initiatives open, showcasing both the music of today? and the minds behind it. In the words of François-Xavier Roth, it’s a ‘homage to modernity, to new ways, and to creation’, a celebration of music in the 21st-century. On 9 April at 8pm, composer Tansy Davies presents a UBS Soundscapes: Eclectica concert at LSO St Luke’s which recreates her acclaimed album Troubairitz, putting her own music, with its hints of funk, experimental rock, industrial techno, atonalism and elect...

Honestly, this isn't a new trick. Several orchestras are already doing this. Other orchestras could learn to leverage this technique to build new audiences via social media Both Facebook and Twitter are about engagement. However, what most orchestras currently do with their social media is to talk 'at' their audience and not with them. By changing the way they post and tweet, by devoting a bit more time for their social media campaigns, orchestras could find a wealth of new patrons for their concert halls. They will certainly expand their existing fan base. The key to this technique is re-posting/sharing what classical music fans are already posting. Facebook It is possible to post on other people's timeline as a person, but not as a page. When someone posts something to an orchestra's page, it doesn't show up in the main feed unless the administrator(s) actually shares the post. If orchestras would encourage their fans and musicians to start posting on the...

Jo Johnson, Digital Marketing Manager for the London Symphony Orchestra, replied to my previous post: Classical Music continues to lag behind in social media My reply was too lengthy to put into a comment field. Jo - Thank you for you Excellent Reply! The London Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony and San Francisco Symphony are some of the shinning examples of organizations that are succeeding with out-reach into Social Media. You really are out there engaging. Yes, orchestra musicians may not be as engaged in social media as their 'pop' counter parts. But we live in a world where people question the value of the arts. Here in the US, orchestras are finding an attitude of "why should we support classical music, when pop music doesn't?" I am not trying to argue the value of classical music (I am very much a member of that choir). However, if those of us involved do not beat our own drum, how can we honestly expect other's to do it for us? A s...

Four programs are cancelled and four are rescheduled as negotiations continue The Minnesota Orchestral Association announced today that it has cancelled or rescheduled its concert performances through Sunday, April 7, 2013, due to the current labor dispute. All ticketholders of affected concerts are being contacted and offered a variety of options including the opportunity to exchange tickets for a future concert or receive a full refund. A complete list of impacted concerts is available on page 2. In the ongoing contract talks with the Musicians’ Union, the Orchestra Board agreed on January 2 to conduct the joint financial analysis musicians have sought in order to verify the organization’s financial position. Last week, the Board suggested that the terms of this analysis should focus on testing the accuracy of the organization’s Fiscal 2012 results and the forward-looking financial assumptions upon which the organization’s strategic plan is based. Discussions between the Board...

Music of Now Marathon Begins Composers Now Series is HARDLY music on NOW. The above article by Steven Smith starts out, "No concert, however epic in duration, could encompass the entirety of the contemporary classical world, which has grown too broad and variegated to sample in one sitting." Ok, I agree. But then the article goes on to highlight some of the pieces performed Libby Larsen’s 1991 string quartet “Schoenberg, Schenker, Schillinger” Bernard Rands "Memo 5" written in 1975 Looking through the rest of the program on composers-now.org , there are pieces from the 70's, 80's, 90's and even a few from the early 21st century. This seems incredibly odd to me for a festival to be promoting itself as music now, when only a small percentage of the pieces are from the last decade. Composers go through periods of music. Beethoven has his early, middle and later period of music. The style of music he wrote in each one is fairly different from the o...

While more and more orchestras and classical music artists venture into the social media space, they lag behind other industry artists in leveraging their fan base. This has less to do with use and more with how their fans respond. If you follow classical music artists on Twitter and Facebook, you'll get the feeling they are keeping up with the times. Numerous orchestras posts daily on Facebook and several times a day on Twitter. Compare that with how often Justin Bieber or Miley Cirus post on either and you'll see classical music artists are far more active. So, why aren't classical music artists getting the millions of fans of their pop counterparts? It has to do with fan leveraging. Pop music fans tend to share posts, re-tweet and are far more fanatical about spreading the word for their idols. Miley has only three posts on Facebook this past week. But, each post was shared by her fans a minimum of 64 times. One post was shared over 648 times. Justin Bieber is a bit...