Imagine that you were born in a little village in the English countryside, spent your twenties farming the land, joined a local choir - although you don't really read music, and, years later, found yourself singing on the stages of the great opera houses of the world. Imagine you lived a life full of memories and then, with Alzheimer's Disease, began to forget it all. What was left behind, the rest of us won't soon forget. Goodbye, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, and thank you.To hear a rare and sensitive musician, click here. … [Read more...]

Argentina is practically as big as India, but with only 39 million inhabitants. About 40% of them live in the area directly in and around Buenos Aires. The rest are spread across the remainder of the country. Along the western side of Argentina lies the most remote region, Patagonia. There is a village there, and to find it, you would have to travel on a very small road until you arrived at the foot of the Andes. There you would find a town made up of people from Argentina and, surprisingly, from all around … [Read more...]

I went to an orchestra concert recently, excited to hear a world-class orchestra playing a program by one of my favorite composers. The featured soloist was legendary, and the concert-hall was second to none. This was going to be a program I wouldn't soon forget. Beforehand, there was a pre-concert presentation given by a faculty member who taught music theory at a nearby university. "The form of the first movement is a hybrid between sonata and ritornello," he said. And he went on to explain the movement's key relationships, pointing out many … [Read more...]

Last week, I gave a version of this entry at a fundraising event, and later found myself thinking that its underlying message applies to many arts communities. Perhaps it will remind all of us that the structures of support are now communal. The vision that could be accomplished by one powerful man from over two hundred and fifty years ago, must now belong to the community as a whole. Imagine it is 1766, and you are a prince. You have built a palace in rural Hungary, and you love music. Five years ago, in 1761, your brother had discovered a … [Read more...]

Over the past two weeks I've been either attending or conducting concerts woven around a central idea. As both an audience member and as a performer, what struck me was the realization that these were as much projects as they were concerts, and that those projects created a following (read audience or community) around the organizing ideas.  That led me to think about the way communities are formed, how they sustain themselves, and why they stay alive or die.Mulling over the subject, in turn, led to these ten little questions. Perhaps they … [Read more...]

Much has changed around us. We haven't changed much. Embedded in these last six entries are indictments of our ways of doing what we do, the practices we have come to call normal. They are killing us. Killing the field, and ultimately killing the art. Yes, it's true that things happened to us, but we also happened to things. In other words, we were comfortable with the way we were, we were terribly slow to adapt, and it has caught up to us. We still tend to think of management and artists as being adversaries. Our contracts have almost no … [Read more...]

Part 6 of 6 The monopoly of the past century was finished. All seemed lost. That year was a catastrophe. As the months progressed, income plummeted for the organizations while the expenses continued at the same level as before. Again this was because the organizations tried to honor the promises they had made months earlier when they had announced their concerts, repertoire, and guests. Finally, when the season ended they made drastic cuts. Everyone hoped people would return to the concerts, but many didn't. They also hoped their donors … [Read more...]

Part 5 of 6 Then the bottom fell out. Of course, the bottom didn't only drop out on the world of the concert-giving organizations; it was systemic. It crossed every boundary, every country, every business. It was incredible. Many people lost their jobs. Many businesses failed. It was a free-fall. And it kept falling. Everyone thought there would be a bottom, but each month the crisis deepened. Even the banks were in trouble, and certain large companies too. But they got massive government help so they survived. This support said much … [Read more...]

They were in great danger, but they could not see it.Of course, in the background were frequent economic expansions followed by recessions. The recessions were particularly tough on the organizations because their business model didn't allow them to react quickly enough. When the audiences and contributions would get smaller as a result of the temporary economic downturn, there would naturally be a deficit. It was as if there were two slopes, similar in shape but one always a bit behind the other. The forward slope represented revenues, while … [Read more...]

New technologies emerged. At first this development seemed positive. There were new programs on the radio and television. More people heard music through the new technologies than ever before. Certain musicians proved to be very good teachers within the new mediums. Many people were inspired. Radio and television offered new ways to experience extraordinary events and entertainment. They were fun and they felt freer than the traditional entertainment formats. As those technologies matured, each venue of delivery, called stations or channels, … [Read more...]