Freelancing in the “New” Economy (Part 1)

Remember that little catchphrase from the late 90's, when internet stocks were soaring and there was no end to rising profits? I think that today we are in for a new "new economy" that reverses the simplistic overconfidence of the previous era. Let's face it: times are going to be tough for everyone (except, perhaps, for the golden parachute boys of Wall Street).

But I'm really not writing this to pour more grim news down throats or complain vociferously. It's time, I feel, to regroup and retool freelance careers. For musicians who do not have full salaried work, now is the time to plan ahead for a recession and its probable impact on our field. While there is some cheerleading about how great things are in the classical music world, I prefer to take a more cautious approach. I believe that the immediate future will most likely bring a serious dollar-diet to many arts organizations, especially those that are dependent on yearly corporate donations. I don't think the sky is falling, though – crystal balls about finances for the arts have usually been quite wrong on the worst-case scenario coming to fruition.

However, for many of us who have freelance careers a good deal of performance work could dry up. (I include myself even though I hold a few part-time positions that provide steady income.) It is likely that in some places orchestra seasons could shrink, people may need to stay at home more, and the regular side gigs many of us enjoy could simply vanish. What do we do in the meantime, wait out the storm and just hope for the best?

Remember the Pasteur quote, "Chance favors the prepared mind." Here are some of my ideas for securing work and income in the near future, some of which are applicable to all musicians while others are strictly keyboardist-oriented. Good luck out there!

1) Don't be lazy.

Let me start with a brazen (and politically incorrect) statement: far too many musicians are lazy and less productive than they could be. Those of us in the field know this to be true – we've seen it in colleagues and students. None of the plans below are an easy out – they all take some legwork and determination. Let us all be aware of this tendency (I include myself) and combat it by hitting the bricks to make things happen.

2) Teach private students if you do not do so already.

I know that most of us do this no-brainer already, but many musicians do not teach. Some claim to not have the temperament, but that is something a pro-active person can change. Teaching an instrument to young people is one of the most rewarding activities we can do. It is win-win – you get paid for your time, you get to share your expertise, and you are providing all kinds of benefits to the people who will be in charge of things thirty or forty years from now.

There are many ways to get started. If you are uncomfortable due to lack of experience, look into a pedagogy course at your local university or college music department. You can start a studio at local community music schools relatively easy and with very little start-up cost. Most of these places are small businesses themselves and carry a good reputation with the community if they have been around for many years. Go to the established places and inquire about starting a studio. You might only get a student or two at first, but then you can build from there. If you are lucky enough to catch an opening when a teacher moves, you could inherit an entire studio. This is what happened to me when I started teaching in northern Kentucky in 2002. I have had 15-20 students at all times since then. It can be very secure once you get established.

You can also try preparatory departments in your local university (though in many cases these teaching positions are only available to those on the inside: graduate students, alumni, etc.) Another option is to open up a studio in your home or apartment. This option is really attractive since you can advertise in so many inexpensive ways now via the web. Another bonus to teaching home lessons is that YOU keep all the income, rather than paying a portion of your earnings to a community music school. It also reduces travel costs: I don't hit the gas pedal when I go from my desk to the piano in the living room for my in-home lessons.

Finally, you may be skeptical about this when money is tight for families. But parents will still spend money on their children's education and music lessons will always be popular. It's really a recession-proof job!

3) Accompany students at a university music department.

This one is for pianists. Do you happen to know the core repertoire for a given instrument? Did you learn a lot of lieder in your bachelor degree days? Put it to good use by sending out feelers to local teachers. Here's an example: if you know a lot of trumpet repertoire, give the local trumpet professor a call (or send an email) and let her know that you are available for lessons, recitals, juries, etc. In most situations these people will be delighted to know someone they can call. Even if they already have a list, you will get a call when the first-call folks are too busy.

The downside of this is that a lot of students do not have much money. But you can still earn something significant if you can respond to advantageous situations. A few years ago, I made a killing playing TWO pieces for a lot of flutists. I knew about a national competition that was coming up, looked at the repertoire required, and offered my services to record those two pieces with students looking to send in an application. The best part was that I did not need to learn twenty different pieces, but made the kind of money that looked like I should have!

There are MANY situations out there that are advantageous for good collaborators. This one is also very recession-proof: students will still need to graduate, so they will need to do their required recitals, juries, competitions, etc. If you're really good at what you do and you impress the professors, you might also get asked to work with them in the future.

4) Hone a skill set outside of the music field for part-time work.

Since the early summer I have been back working a part-time office job for extra income, balancing spreadsheets and doing other clerical duties. If you know how to do spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel, for example) and are good with numbers you have a potentially valuable skill. It doesn't have to be office work – you could drive a delivery van, become a handyman in your neighborhood, babysit, etc. Part-time work can be scarce, but if you find something decent it can save you from debt when you hit a no-gig dry patch for a couple of months.

I am always amazed at how some musicians often look down on doing work outside of their field for extra income. I can speak from experience: doing some outside work can actually be mentally healthy, and I've always found that it gives me a little more confidence when I know that I can actually produce something other than pretty sounds at the piano. Another benefit is that a lot of part-time work is left at the work site – you don't necessarily have to take it home with you. Music is usually the opposite: we almost always take our work home with us in the form of practicing or other kinds of preparation.

PART TWO will provide more at a later date – please check back for the next installment!

UPDATE: Link to PART TWO.

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Careers in Music by MENC

Interested in pursuing some kind of career in music? You might be surprised by the wide variety of career paths that are possible in this field. The National Association for Music Education has compiled a very complete list of industry professions on a webpage titled Careers in Music. Many jobs in the music world do not necessarily require virtuoso performance abilities or master teaching skills - one could train to become a librarian, recording engineer, performance arts medicine specialist, music therapist, instrumental repairperson, etc.

The site contains a great deal of useful information on training and/or schooling, qualifications, required knowledge, and salary expectations. This is a great resource to consult if you are looking to work in the music field and need a straightforward guide for comparing career choices. Another page to look at would be the Career Center. Be sure to take a good look around the rest of the MENC site as well - it offers an abundance of material on many topics.

(Via Amy Gould at Music Teacher's Blog)

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Playing for Funerals

Of all the possible gigs a pianist may get, funerals are certainly one of the least discussed and mysterious events to face for the first time. Since I have been a part-time church musician for over five years, I thought I would share my experience with these rather common rituals and provide some guidance for you if a funeral gig presents itself. It is yet another one of those practical things you do not tend to learn about in music school, but should – keyboardists often take on church jobs while in graduate school, and many of us who are more or less freelance performers depend on a church gig for steady income during those inevitable "dry" spells. If you work (or think that you will work someday) as an accompanist/organist for a church, playing your first funeral will be just a matter of time.

Readers may be wondering why I am pursuing such a somber topic! Well, let me just break the ice and say that playing for funerals can be rewarding and even quite lucrative. After all, somebody has to do it and that someone is going to get paid. And consider this: if you are a musician that can handle playing for funeral services, you will never be completely out of work! You know the old saying, attributed to Benjamin Franklin: nothing is certain but death and taxes. Now we just need to work on getting some kind of music-requiring ritual involving taxes…but I digress.

If you are a church musician, what follows below may not offer much that is new. I should also add that preparing music for a funeral service is mostly just a matter of common sense. (My focus here is on the funeral practices of Christian-based services; I don't know enough about other religions' funeral rites to properly comment.) But I know that I would have liked to have known a little bit better about what goes into a funeral performance when I first got started. My purpose here is to include the needs of the pianist and/or the organist – in fact I usually play both instruments at funeral services. Here are ten things to consider when preparing for one:

1) A funeral service is almost ALWAYS a short-notice performance.

When you are notified about playing for a funeral service, you will usually have just two to five days notice. That simply comes with the territory for obvious reasons. Enough said. However, you may occasionally get longer notice about a remembrance service that occurs well after the deceased has passed. These types of memorial services, however, are quite rare.

The trick is to be aware that this is the way it is, and prepare ahead of time accordingly. If you follow my guidelines below, you should never have to scramble to prepare for the short-notice funeral service.

2) Develop a repertoire of suitable material to use for the "Prelude" (before the service) slot.

Most funeral services will have a "Prelude" of music selections before the actual service begins. These preludes can last anywhere from five minutes to half an hour in my experience. If you want to feel comfortable with your Prelude material when the call comes to play, have a list of selections that you already know and can perform in a few days' time. You should keep a list handy to which you continually add new pieces that work well for Prelude music (see number 3 below). I keep a list of pieces/arrangements in a spreadsheet document, complete with time lengths, stylistic considerations, and the place in my library where the piece can be quickly located. The more prepared you are ahead of time, the easier it will be to fill in the gaps during crunch time.

You should also mark places in the music where repeats could work – there will be times when you may want to extend a piece for a little while longer if the circumstances warrant it.

3) In general, Prelude music should fit the following descriptions: Reflective, Peaceful, Meditative, Tasteful, Uplifting, and Appropriate.

Prelude music at a funeral should not be a place where you do your aesthetically challenging repertoire. Stick to quiet, subdued classical music (just to provide some examples, I've used Debussy's Reverie and some of the Gliere Preludes) or tasteful hymn arrangements. Some common hymns associated with funeral services are "Abide With Me", "Amazing Grace", "Be Still My Soul" (also known as Sibelius's Finlandia), "I Need Thee Every Hour", "Be Thou My Vision", and many others. One tactic you can use is to look at the appendixes in your church's hymnal and find a section that lists hymns for funerals. You can than shop for arrangements of these hymns online or at your local music store – lots of good arrangements are coming out every year of the most common tunes and hymns. (A future post may contain some more specific suggestions for prelude music at funerals – including that here would make this post way too long.)

Yes, it is true that someday you might be asked to do something a little more off the wall for the Prelude. Maybe the deceased really loved ragtime, and so the family wants you to play nothing but Scott Joplin. In those cases, you should try to go with what the family wants if possible.

Don't get into extensively pyrotechnical music – the funeral service is not for you! Dazzling your "audience" with your most recent rendition of Liszt's Dante sonata will probably get you a dirty look from the clergyperson presiding over the service. Repertoire like that is simply not appropriate here.

Stay away from extensively minor mode music as well – remember to keep it uplifting. Whatever you do, NEVER play the third movement of Chopin's B-flat minor sonata. Not ever.

4) Whatever amount of time you are told to dedicate to the "Prelude" slot, add ten minutes and prepare enough music for that amount of time instead.

Believe me, you do NOT want to get stuck playing prelude music at a funeral and then run out of music before the service starts. Anything can happen before a service – an important family member could be late, children who are speaking about Grandpa might get uncooperative at the last minute, etc. Do yourself a favor and be ready for a delay in the service. Most of the time, you will not get through all of your prepared material. But isn't that a lot better than running out of material and needing to repeat stuff ad nauseam from just-played pieces? It's simply more professional to not have to resort to endless repeats. I've done it before, of course, and I'm never very happy with the result.

If there is to be 10 minutes reserved for the prelude, prepare 20. Et cetera…

(Those of you who are good improvisers probably do not need to worry about extending your repertoire – I just thought I would mention that!)

5) Develop a few solid organ and piano pieces to use for the Postlude.

If you have never played a funeral before, keep in mind that it is usually preferable to do the postlude on organ rather than piano. Like your prepared-ahead-of-time list of known pieces for the Prelude slot, you should have a couple or three pieces that you can whip together in a day or two that work well as postludes. I have a list of about five organ pieces and two piano pieces. The reason you want both instruments covered is so that you can adapt depending on circumstances. Sometimes one or the other instrument is out of service or the institution at which you will be performing does not have an organ. Again, be prepared for an unexpected change in plans.

Postludes should generally be uplifting, up-tempo works that contrast with the reflective qualities of the music for the Prelude. If you are not sure what kind of piece you should prepare, ask your pastor or reverend what they typically expect for the postlude. The family who hires you may also wish for something specific – in those cases, go with what they want if at all possible.

6) Learn the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah.

This is the most common request that I have encountered in my experience playing funerals. You can often demand more pay if you are required to play this work. Find a reasonable version (there are many available online) and be able to play it on piano and organ. You will save yourself a massive headache when the request comes in to prepare this in three days. It will happen – it did to me!

7) Be able to play specific hymns on the organ WITH pedal tones.

Let's face it: hymns at funerals really should be played on the organ rather than the piano (unless otherwise requested). If you are new to the organ and have yet to get your feet involved on the pedals, start practicing simple bass lines for the most common hymns ("Amazing Grace" is a great place to start). You should of course have the music theory and harmony chops to come up with simplified bass lines that you can play with your feet for the required hymns if the notated bass line is too technically demanding. (They often are a bit too hard for me – I am definitely a pianist first and a sometime-organist second!) If you can't do the pedals just yet, be sure that at some point you couple the left hand with some 16' or 8' stops for more bass. Let it rumble a bit!

8) Honor any musical requests for the deceased person's family to the best of your ability.

If your pastor calls you in and tells you that the deceased person's Uncle Hank and Cousin Jimmy want you to accompany them on a banjo and harmonica rendition of Barry Manilow's "Looks Like We Made It" – smile politely and say you would be delighted. When the duo show up twenty minutes before the funeral with five chord changes scribbled on a greasy napkin, and they instruct you to just "follow them", smile again and serve up the music as best you can.

If you play in a church long enough, you will be sure to run into an absurd request now and again. You need to be able to just roll with it and not get personally offended or feel like you've "sold out." Keep in mind that this is someone's funeral – the memory of that awful performance (in your mind) might be someone else's long-cherished memory for years to come. It is honorable to meet the needs of the bereaved, no matter how silly or absurd you may find those requests to be.

9) Be sure to leave enough time for one music store run before the funeral.

This goes along with No. 8 above – a family member may ask for something that you do not currently have in your library. Always be sure that there is enough time in your schedule (a free morning or afternoon, for instance) to allow for a last-minute run to the music store to pick up any requests. Do this and you will be remembered as a dependable musician for folks in the real world.

10) Be prepared for the possibility of an intensely emotional experience if the death was tragic.

OK – time to get back to something serious after the fun of writing No. 8 above. Something has to be said about this, even though it is a no-brainer. Believe it or not, most of the funerals you will play will be for very old people who have mostly lived long and productive lives. Their passing is not the tragedy it could have been if it happened years or decades earlier. Therefore the service in these more common circumstances is usually not a heart-wrenching ordeal. But watch out if you get the call to play for the funeral of an accident victim or someone who was taken suddenly by cancer or other fatal health problem. These services can leave you reeling if you are not prepared to handle the highly charged emotional atmosphere that comes with the tragic death.

Usually you can safely check with your clergyperson (the professional clergyperson will understand your need to know if the death was tragic or "nothing unexpected") and then make a decision based on your ability to remain detached. I'll readily admit that this is not an easy thing to do. If you feel like you may be too disturbed to handle a given situation, it is perfectly professional to say no up front. Some weeks it is just not necessary to subject yourself to the intensity of someone else's sudden family loss.

Now these ten items about playing for funerals are certainly not the final word, so I invite you to chime in with whatever else pertains to the subject!

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POW!

Want to know how I finished out the performance season this spring? I was the cannon in Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, banging away on the bottom keys of the glorious Yamaha DX-7 synthesizer complete with a cheesy "1812" sound patch. (You could probably guess, correctly, that this was a Memorial Day concert.)

What fun! Did you know that the cannon part is notated with precise rhythms in the percussion score? I always thought it was just something that happened toward the end at the climactic places without much specificity. There's one really neat place where Tchaikovsky sounds the cannon in cross-rhythm - it "explodes" every three beats while the music is in four (or two, I can't exactly remember). That's what's supposed to happen, anyway.

Keyboard players just never know for sure what sounds they'll be making out there in the real world...

Image source

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Life Moves Quickly Sometimes

Things have been pretty slow here at the Cincinnati Pianist blog for some time. I thought I'd throw a bone to my readers with the following update.

Recently it has been problematic for me to do any posting because my own computer has a bad video card and I have needed to use it only in "safe" mode (and only in 16-bit color, which is taking me back to the mid-90's!) My usual dedicated "blog browser" is Opera, but it won't work for me in 16-bit safe mode. But it turns out that I have some deeper hardware problems and will need to replace the poor machine entirely. So I am avoiding committing much more material to the blog until I get the new machine.

How about some good personal news? I have just been offered an adjunct teaching position at CCM in the CMT division (Composition, Musicology, and Theory). The course I will be teaching is a survey of chamber music literature for graduate students, many of whom are pursuing a cognate minor in chamber music. I have done this class once before in 2005 but gave it up after one quarter because I was still pretty burned out on academic life at that point. (I graduated with my doctorate in 2004 after a seven-year slog through the curriculum!)

But it's been a couple of years now; life has moved on, and it's now the right time to get back into academia with this opportunity. Usually this class has been taught by a musicology professor (rather than a performance professor) so the CMT division is showing considerable faith in my academic and classroom skills by offering it to someone who is mainly a performer and private lessons teacher. I am looking forward to improving and streamlining the coursework this time around. The good thing is that my performance schedule will be solely local for a few months, which will allow me a decent amount of time for preparation and research. UC is just down the street from me, so there's really no commuting issue either.

The bad news is that this new part-time job will take even more energy away from blogging here, but I am planning on continuing to post at least once (maybe twice) a week in the new year. Since I will be teaching the history and repertoire of the string quartet first, it will be nice to come back to writing keyboard-oriented material on off-days.

I'll be back soon with new material. Happy Holidays to all!

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Sun Sets on CCM Summer Programs

Thank Charles Dickens for an opening sentence that rings true for so many situations: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." For me this month has been filled with some really fun and energetic music-making in various places, but there is some bad to balance out the good. It is with a distinct feeling of melancholy and disappointment that I (reluctantly) write the following:

CCM’s yearly offering of a wide variety of enriching music festivals known as CCM Summer Programs has been officially declared cut for good. Summer 2008 will be the last year for these programs that include many internationally and nationally well-known festivals: Opera Lucca, MusicX (the X being whatever year it happens to be, such as Music 2007), the Conducting Workshop, Flute Symposium, and the always popular Grandin Festival. This was a difficult decision made by the current dean, Warren George, in order to make up for CCM’s budget shortfall.

Now it is not my place to pontificate on whether this action is right or wrong, or whether or not UC is doing the right thing by forcing so many colleges in the campus to cut operating budgets by double-digit percentages. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. I’ll admit that I am not an impartial observer. But it is certainly not an event to celebrate no matter how one thinks about necessities and practical financial responsibility. While I don’t like to use my blog as a podium of negativity, I want to share some thoughts on the subject. Here’s my point of view as a participant, which might serve to add another layer to the picture:

I came to CCM in 1997 as a doctoral student looking forward to participating in these festivals, especially because students could get high-level (and often paid) performance experience during the penniless off-season months of the summer. It’s probable that the first concert I saw in Cincinnati was at one of these festivals. For many of us graduate students attending CCM, they were more accessible than some of the expensive and long summer festivals such as the Aspen Music Festival. Imagine traveling to Lucca, Italy, on a scholarship that put you in the heart of Tuscany performing operas and songs of Puccini and Mozart. A student enrolled in MusicX could meet composers from all over the country and perform their music, making some money doing new music premieres. You could also earn money playing chamber music in the Grandin Festival, being part of a guinea pig wind band for aspiring conductors in Rodney Winther’s conducting workshop, or accompanying flutists in masterclasses with some of the country’s leading flute performers. There are plenty of other workshops and festivals, too.

I was able to do a lot of these things as a doctoral student. In MusicX from 2000-2002 I got the opportunity to work closely with composers George Crumb, Augusta Read Thomas, and George Rochberg. I gained invaluable experience learning how to play keyboards in large ensembles through the Conducting Workshop (and go figure, most of my performance income now comes from playing in large ensembles).

But I also got the chance to develop another set of skills and gain some practical administration knowledge as an assistant worker with the CCM Summer Programs business office. For the past six years I have been an on-and-off part-timer working with the ever-patient and knowledgeable Joan Van Brocklin in the Summer Programs office. There I learned about spreadsheets, balancing budgets, taking care of travel arrangements for artists, preparing mailing lists and registrations, working with convoluted university account systems (it’s crazy), and all kinds of other administrative duties. All of these things are necessary for any kind of music festival to operate, but many musicians don’t get a chance to look at exactly what the process involves, let alone help out with the work associated with that process. This job gave me an added appreciation for the scaffolding that behind-the-scenes administration is for a festival. Without it, absolutely nothing can take place.

My point is that all of these wide experiences for me (as well as for others) were made possible by CCM Summer Programs, the loss of which may save money but will cost the school, its faculty, and students in non-financial ways. The programs might not be of core importance to the school’s functioning, but it is part of what made CCM a special place of many different types of opportunities for graduate students in music. Unfortunately, it looks like I’ll be among the last beneficiaries of Summer Programs’ varied opportunities.

This wasn’t a happy post to write, but I think a necessary one for me to put up. Perhaps some readers would like to comment or even provide some memorable moments of what it was like to be an observer or participant in these festivals.

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Music Education vs. Performance?

Should college-level music students necessarily force themselves to choose to pursue only music education or only music performance in their undergraduate years? Could there be such a defensible position in today's multifaceted career paths in music? Apparently someone still thinks so and is looking to keep potential professionals squarely on one side or the other through a rather alarming list of what I would consider outmoded reasons.

Jason Heath has written a beautiful response to this attitude that I think would benefit readers who are music educators, performers, or both. The truth is, most of us career musicians are already both educators and performers; the lines between these roles are becoming increasingly blurred in the 21st century due to many reasons that Jason eloquently elucidates in his substantial post.

Yours truly even left a (probably overlong and overheated!) comment because I was moved to make my point of view known. (Indeed many have joined in the discussion of these topics; see the other comments below Jason’s post.)

Many music educators might defend the instructor’s position that I’ll summarize: Potential K-12 instructors must focus more purely on the acquisition of the many skills needed to become an effective music educator in the current school environment today, at the expense of honing performance skills as an instrumentalist, vocalist, or conductor. This is largely true, and there is no doubt in my mind that future school instructors need a lot of careful training and study to become effective classroom educators.

But the instructor’s list of reasons in support of this seems meant to dissuade students from exploring if they might be able to balance the two (performance skills and educational skills) in their pursuit of a musical career during their undergraduate years. I can speak from some experience myself: I spent three very busy years pursuing doctoral coursework full-time, tackling a large teaching load (both private and class piano inside and outside my university), and at the same time bettering myself as a pianist and performer. Yes, I had plenty of 15-hour days. Yes, some days I was a better teacher but a worse pianist. Some days it was the other way around. It wasn’t easy. But if I can do it, others can too. Students shouldn’t be preemptively funneled into limiting their growth through the exhortations of some authority who thinks that no one can balance it at all.

I’ll rephrase a popular saying: The path to a narrow musical career is paved with good intentions. Today, more than ever, that path needs to widen rather than permanently branch into two unconnected avenues: educators who are not performers, and performers who are not educators.

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The audience CAN inspire the musician

Read this lovely and touching article about how a unique audience member provided fresh inspiration for musician Holly Mulcahy. (via Drew McManus)

Stories like this provide more reasons why it is important (and beneficial) for classical musicians to interact "one on one" with audience members. Besides, you never know what kind of unpredictable response you might get (Holly's story involves cows!) At my next performance I will track down a familiar-looking audience member and ask them why they are at my concert and what do they get from the experience. Maybe some of you performers out there could try to do the same? Let's offer someone a chance to give something special back to us. As Drew says, it shouldn't be a one-way street.

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Thomson on the Musical Life

“Of all the professional trainings, music is the most demanding. Even medicine, law, and scholarship, though they often delay a man’s entry into married life, do not interfere with his childhood or adolescence.

Music does. No musician ever passes an average or normal infancy, with all that that means of abundant physical exercise and a certain mental passivity. He must work very hard indeed to learn his musical matters and to train his hand, all in addition to his schoolwork and his play-life. I do not think he is necessarily overworked. I think rather that he is just more elaborately educated than his neighbors. ...In any case, musical training is long, elaborate, difficult, and intense. Nobody who has had it ever regrets it or forgets it. And it builds up in the heart of every musician that those who have had it are not only different from everybody else but definitely superior to most and that all musicians together somehow form an idealistic society in the midst of a tawdry world.”

--Virgil Thomson, From "The State of Music," (1962 Second Edition) in Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Musiced. Elliott Schwartz and Barney Childs (New York: Da Capo, 1998), 173-4.

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pulsoptional: It’s Not Chamber Music (is it?)

A recent New York Times article from June (“Music That Thinks Outside the Chamber”) raised what I thought was perfectly valid question: is chamber music performance, as we traditionally know it, dead?

Many classical musicians might resent the idea that one of our most hallowed, enjoyable, and deeply satisfying artistic experiences is being given the “doomsday” treatment. Well, part of me is sensitive to this, but another part says, “Tough – deal with it!” Sometimes we performing musicians need to have our mental wiring shocked into accordance with present-day reality. The truth is, many people who otherwise like live music are not coming to (or supporting) the traditional, formal chamber music concert as much as they used to. (Take a look here for some thoughts on redirecting chamber music events towards the more informal.)

This is not to say that there is something wrong with traditional chamber concerts. Here’s a great example of a wonderful program for a typical chamber concert (this is taken from a program offered by the St. Lawrence String Quartet at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in November 2007):

Ernest Chausson, Chanson perpetuelle for Soprano and Piano Quintet, Op. 37
Cesar Franck, String Quartet in D major
Robert Schumann ,String Quartet in F major, Op. 41, No. 2
Roberto Sierra, Songs from the Diaspora for Soprano and Piano Quintet (CMS Co-commission, NY Premiere)

It’s a really terrific program: plenty of meaty classics from the Romantic era, a little variety in the instrumentation through the inclusion of voice and piano, and the obligatory new piece which lends the program contemporary resonance. OK, great for CMS; these established programs involving performance institutions like the St. Lawrence Quartet can bring in people who appreciate great chamber music. But what if there are simply too many of them, with too much of the same thing, in the same venues, with all of the same people on stage and in the audience? People will begin to yawn if this kind of event is replicated over and over again, which, with some notable exceptions, is precisely the situation anywhere chamber music is active. And sometimes people are just simply intimidated by chamber music culture. Don’t musicians who are armchair-administrators always talk about bringing in NEW and FRESH audience members? What about contemporary relevance, too? How can we bridge that gap – gain wider audiences, balance tradition with innovation, and most important, just get interested parties more excited about hearing live music in an intimate setting without fears of feeling inferior?

Into this arena walks a group like pulsoptional, a composer-collective outfit that operates in and around Durham, North Carolina. A good friend of mine, composer Marc Faris, is a member of the group (the rest of the members are Sydney Boquiren, Jennifer Fitzgerald, Todd Hershberger, Thom Limbert, Caroline Mallonée, John Mayrose, and Carrie Shull). He was kind enough to give me a copy of their debut album (self-titled pulsoptional) which was just released this year. pulsoptional is a great example of a group of self-sufficient musicians too busy to think about these issues because they are doing something about them instead. I wish the NY Times article author, Anne Midgette, could have known something about this group before she wrote the article. Though the groups she mentions (such as the Chiara String Quartet) are indeed exploring some valid ways of circumventing the often overbearing conventions of chamber music practice, pulsoptional goes much further in terms of “thinking outside the chamber”.

Here’s a description from the group’s own website:

pulsoptional, Durham, North Carolina's Band of Composers, challenges and enthralls audiences with its innovative new music programming. Since its inception in January of 2000, the new music ensemble and composers' collective has developed a diverse, devoted audience and continues to attract listeners new to contemporary music with its boundary/genre-defying, high-energy concerts. pulsoptional creates and performs new experimental works for its eclectic instrumentation, commissions new music by emerging American composers, and maintains a repertoire of experimental "classics" with an emphasis on the American experimental tradition. pulsoptional has performed in music festivals, rock clubs, dance spaces and other non-traditional venues, as well as prestigious concert halls. pulsoptional's commitment to performing in non-traditional venues has attracted audiences of diverse ages, ethnicities, and social and economic backgrounds. pulsoptional is a non-profit organization dedicated to presenting high quality performances in the Triangle area and beyond, especially music by young and/or lesser-known composers. By charging no more than $8/ticket, pulsoptional remains accessible to audiences.

They consider themselves a “band of composers” first and a “new music ensemble” second. Right away there is an acknowledgment of the terminology issues (and its concomitant PR consequences) raised in the NY times article. Second, they write AND perform their own music and seek out alternative venues for their performances. In other words, they are truly blurring the hard distinctions between the traditional notions of the chamber music group and the idea of a sophisticated rock band of musical innovators. Some of the members also function as the band’s public relations and development personnel. Third, there is the completely unique instrumentation of the group: electric guitars, electric bass, piano, bassoon, alto saxophone, percussion, violin, and oboe/english horn. Simply put, there are going to be sounds not heard before due to the diverse instrumental canvas. They are also versatile performers who explore improvisational settings, create live music for silent films, and are willing to submit to amplification.

But don’t think that they are completely turning chamber music on its head. They maintain a subtle link to the tradition by performing modern “chamber” pieces by established composers (such as Daniel Lentz, Steve Reich, and Alvin Curran), and they also arrange twentieth-century classics for the group’s instrumentation. See this page for more information on their current and past performances and programs.

I wanted to share all of this because I think that we can learn something from pulsoptional’s approach to re-defining the roles of composer, arranger, performer, and arts marketer in the twenty-first century. They certainly provide a great example for what varied skill sets modern concert groups need to incorporate to achieve progress in this field. And they are contributing to an ever-widening definition of what chamber music is, which is a net positive from my point of view. Chamber music certainly isn't "dead" when it gets enlivened by new ideas through a group like pulsoptional. (I hope the group’s members don’t mind me considering their activities as a more modern and accessible version of chamber music practice, so I certainly invite comment and discussion of this aspect.)

Since this post is getting a little on the long side, I have written about the music on pulsoptional's debut CD in another post. You can hear some samples of their music by clicking here. The CD is also available for purchase from that page.

Image from the pulsoptional website.

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Informal Chamber Recitals: After Effects

This is a follow-up to my post about a recent chamber music event I performed on Sunday, July 22 in Dayton, Ohio. This first post generated at least a little buzz in the music blogosphere (see Jason Heath’s comments on this post and my response, and Chris Foley linked to me), so I figured I should write a little bit about the post-performance scene.

Sheridan Kamberger Currie (principal violist of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra), John Kurokawa (principal clarinet, DPO), and myself (as newly instituted principal keyboardist of the DPO) performed a well-rounded program of varied chamber music in a private home for a crowd of about twenty-five donors, board members, and other patrons and staff of the DPO. Executive director Curt Long and music director Neal Gittleman were on hand to give brief talks before the performance, which certainly lent the occasion some higher significance. (In fact, Neal graciously turned pages for me during the performance. No pressure there!)

The performance went very well. John spoke eloquently and instructively about most of the pieces on the program, and I talked a little bit about my piano solo. This is another skill that classical musicians of the twenty-first century need to cultivate: public speaking in front of audiences. Communication skills are becoming increasingly important in this business, and young musicians today avoid honing theirs at their peril.

After the performance, we musicians mingled with the guests over drinks and hors d’oeuvres. Here are paraphrases of some of the things I heard attendees say:

-We can’t wait to have another event like this. This should happen more often.
-I prefer this kind of private performance to seeing the full orchestra. (I heard this more than once.)
-It is incredible to see up close how musicians interact with one another during a performance to keep the music flowing and accurately timed.
-Can you show me that part in the music where (insert dramatic playing technique, such as tone clusters on the piano) happens?
-Welcome to the DPO family! We’re happy to have someone like you here.
-Where are you from? Where did you go to school? When did you begin your music study? What other roles do you play in your career as a musician besides being a DPO member?
-We really enjoyed hearing something different by (insert composer name). I think I’ll look into getting some more CD’s of that particular composer.
-It’s great that this event introduces you to people who enjoy funding the arts. It creates possibilities and connections. How do you feel about this kind of interaction?

Though these are paraphrases wrought from my own inevitably biased memory, I hope that the reader is getting a sense of how involved these people were in the music-making they witnessed and the curiosity, gratitude, and support they were expressing to the musicians. I certainly hope to participate in (or even help organize) more exchanges like this, and it would be useful for other artists and administrators to take note of what good can come from smaller-audience, socially interactive performance events. It's also just plain fun.

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Jason Heath comments on informal recitals

Blogger and bassist Jason Heath has written a nice response to my recent post about short chamber music recitals given in private, small-audience settings. He offers some additional observations and convictions about these events from his own experiences that support my original thesis: These events are a “win-win” for everyone involved. Jason makes some positive points about interacting with audience members, increased engagement of the audience during performances, and the thrill audience members can get hearing (and seeing) musicians do their thing up close and personal. My experience this past Sunday performing for one of these informal  events certainly confirms Jason’s statements. 

I should mention that Jason and I participated in one of these private events together in Memphis for the benefit of the IRIS orchestra. (We are both "traveling" members of the IRIS orchestra.) The theme for that event was to honor the host-families that collectively put up dozens of musicians from around the country throughout the season. That event involved a number of different ensembles so that more of the entire orchestra was represented. It was yet another way small recitals (complete with receptions afterwards) can “give back” to communities that support arts institutions, and to continue, in Jason’s words, “to establish audience/performer relationships and create strong bonds of patron loyalty.” Thanks, Jason, for the additional  insights.

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Some thoughts on short chamber music recitals

Here’s the repertoire I will be playing at a chamber recital for Dayton Philharmonic donors on Sunday:

Max Bruch, No. 2 and No. 6 (Nocturne) from Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano, Op. 83.
Malcolm Arnold, Sonatina for Clarinet and Pianoforte (1951).
Camille Saint-Saëns, Movements II and IV from the Sonate for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 167.
Gabriel Fauré, Barcarolle No. 4 in A-flat Major for piano, Op. 44.
W. A. Mozart, Trio (Kegelstatt) for clarinet, viola, and piano, KV 498.

The recital is a private event that will be presented in a patron’s home. (Apologies to any local fans who would have liked to attend!) A reception will follow so that everyone can mingle in the (hopefully) golden afterglow of a good performance. Now why do I bring all of this up?

I think this kind of more informal event is a really good idea for performing institutions like orchestras and chamber music societies. I have done a few things like this in the past for other institutions or groups, and it is always educational, fun, and eye-opening all at the same time. Here are some of my reasons for why this is important today:

1) Audience/donor/musician connections. Today it’s all about breaking down that wall between the stage and the first row. Events like this let musicians get to know their audience members, and audience members get to know the musicians they see week after week on stage. It is also important for musicians (or any other artists) to learn about the people in their communities who can financially support artistic institutions. Those connections can lead to new endeavors or programs that enrich the arts scene of any town or city.

2) Special musical opportunities for working musicians. There are not too many people in our field who would turn down the opportunity to play some chamber music for a small, appreciative audience. Most professional musicians (especially those who play in an orchestra) appreciate the chance to express themselves in intimate settings through chamber music. Orchestra administrations are beginning to address this need in more creative and beneficial ways these days. A good-quality chamber music program that involves many musicians over the course of a season can also be a huge morale-booster. Higher morale = healthier artistic environment.

3) Unique programming. These small, short, informal recitals can withstand a more bricolage-like approach to programming. Formal big-league chamber concerts can get a little stuffy sometimes with their emphasis on lengthy and dramatic string quartets, piano quartets, etc. These private events can feature more varied, shorter, and lighter works, including even some compositions of questionable merit, simply because it is a little more about entertainment than deep structural listening. Our program above includes many styles that span centuries and three different types of instrumentation (clarinet-viola-piano trio, clarinet-piano duo, and piano solo). An astute observer might also notice that we are actually performing an incomplete work (only two of the four movements from the Saint-Saëns clarinet sonata)! Well, before the program police rant and rave about how terrible this is, let me just say this: It is a matter of historical record that common performance practice in the nineteenth century involved the presentation of single movements from larger works, as well as a wide range of styles and instrumentations. At a concert back then one could have easily heard a single movement from a Beethoven symphony, a couple of arias from Cosi fan tutte, and then maybe a big virtuoso piano solo (something like the Spanish Rhapsody by Liszt), all in one half of an evening’s program.

Well, I think it is right and appropriate to try this kind of thing again today. After all, there is nothing to lose (except stuffiness) and everything to gain. Besides, presenting shorter works lets the guests refill their drink glasses more often.

Let me also say that much of this lighter music really should be played in a living room or smaller performance venue (that’s why it’s called chamber music). There is a time and place for the larger concert hall, but also a time and place for the small, intimate setting. Both situations can reap meaningful rewards for receptive audiences.

If anyone would like to offer additional thoughts on the topic of this post, please feel free to leave a comment.

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