Archives for September 2008

Gramophone Artist of the Year voting has closed, but I'm kind of terrified to report that you can still Vote for Hilary!Playboy's Sexiest Babes of Classical Music - could I/would I make that up?I'm actually pretty impressed with their description of Hilary! I've read presenter ad copy about her far worse than this. It's quite well-written and accurate, actually. Maybe I'll start reading Playboy for the articles. Hilary Hahn Who she is: A serious-minded violinist who isn't afraid to find partners outside classical music She'll play a Bach … [Read more...]

The unnervingly lovely Renée Fleming releases her newest album next week, and combing through her press materials to promote it, I stumbled upon this:Master Chef Daniel Boulud has created the dessert "La Diva Renée" (1999) in her honor, and she has inspired the "Renée Fleming Iris" (2004), which has been replicated in porcelain by Boehm.She also has a Coty (synonym for "fancy") perfume coming out if/when The Metropolitan Opera Gift Shop reopens this winter called  "La Voce". My Coty perfume, "Life's a Spritz" (2008), will be coming out … [Read more...]

In commercial (or, more specifically, consumer-brain) shorthand, classical music and opera = high-end, expensive, classy. If you buy a car that was advertised with opera playing on the TV, you are one cultured, loaded guy. I think a lot about how the "industry is dying" but classical music and opera are still omnipresent. I'm sure if I had a different job, I would still passively hear classical music once a day. So my ears always perk up when opera comes out of my television, but when this Jeep commercial came on last night during Frasier, I … [Read more...]

Last week, I saw the extremely funny What's That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling in previews at The Atlantic. The show is being billed as "an absurd musical satire that charts the career of eternally up-and-coming (and fictitious) musical theatre composer Jacob Sterling", and, while ostensibly about a guy who can't get a break (SPOILER ALERT: his Broadway debut is pulled because of September 11th), it's actually about a guy who just writes bad music, and thus "can't get a break" ("  ").There were (are) many talented artists at IMG when … [Read more...]

New Zealand's national airline is attempting to pay bald men to advertise on their heads. There's creative thinking and then there's good old-fashioned weirdness. Although...Thanks to Bill Kirby for the link! … [Read more...]

The opera blog Parterre Box is looking for critics to cover The Met's gala opening night, critics ("  ") not necessarily employed by a newspapers, and perhaps all the more critical!La Cieca is looking for a member of the cher public who is already planning to attend the opening night gala at the Met and is willing to write about it for parterre.com. Your doyenne will need 400 - 600 words by 11 AM on Tuesday, September 23 for publication that day with your byline. If you are willing to commit to getting in a review of the night's … [Read more...]

The festivities have begun already. Thanks to Randy, Larry and the rest of the Schoenbergs of LA, we have (exclusive) photos from past Schoenberg family birthday parties to kick things off: Remember to visit www.youtube/hilaryhahnvideos on Schoenberg's birthday - Saturday, September 13th - to see and hear all your burning questions about the Schoenberg Violin Concerto answered by Hilary Hahn. … [Read more...]

I am all-for copying good marketing ideas: if something works in another industry or for another company, apply it to your own and see how it goes. But there's copying a concept - if a talking duck can sell insurance, why can't a talking gecko? - and then there's...stealing, which is frankly just too comical to be effective. A few things I've noticed around town in the past week:1. This suit company on 32 and Broadway, whose ads look...exactly...like iPod ads and commercials. 2. The new Verizon FIOS TV commercials with the cool ("  ") … [Read more...]

I am in Las Vegas this weekend, and thought I could collect all sorts of good ideas to report from the marketing capital of the country. Unfortunately, the take-home messages have been as expected: sell via lots of skin and sparkling lights - which I totally do already - so nothing gained there. I did notice that various smells were being pumped into the streets outside the casinos: bakery smells outside the Paris, orchid smells outside the Mirage, so on, so forth. Forget music, Carnegie Hall - pump croissant scent onto 57th street and the … [Read more...]

In celebration of Arnold Schoenberg's birthday on Saturday, September 13th, and with the help of the estimable HappyCorp, we're launching a custom-designed YouTube channel for Hilary that will include new video content she will create in response to fan questions about her most recent album - the violin concertos of Schoenberg and Sibelius - as well as a collection of past performance and related videos.We're not entirely sure how this is going to work out, but she's ready to film answers to your questions, so send them our way! I even set up … [Read more...]

Sometimes, I'm ashamed of my race. I've heard tales of publicists pitching writers about an artist who the writer had literally covered the month before, publicists sending out mass e mails to any writer they can find on a publication's website (one classical journalist told me she was contacted about a local football game), and publicists asking journalists if they had ever written about the artist he/she was pitching. I mean, if you don't have your own artist's press kit in front of you, let's do some brisk Googling; let's not go ahead and … [Read more...]

I like this free tickets to the dress rehearsals of fancy things trend. And this one comes with a coupon! Who doesn't like a coupon. Wednesday, September 17th in New York City:9:45 AM: FREE Dress Rehearsal Join us as Music Director Lorin Maazel, Sir James Galway and the Philharmonic rehearse the evening's concert, a program featuring Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture, Ibert's Flute Concerto, and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4. Free general admission tickets will be handed out on a first-come, first-served basis, starting at 8:00 a.m. that … [Read more...]

Not to be outdone by the The Metropolitan Opera, it seems the Carnegie Hall ticket website is down. Single tickets went on sale at 11 am this morning, so I assume the demand crashed their servers? I called "Carnegie Charge" to see what was up [What's got two thumbs and is a hard-hitting journalist? THIS GUY.], but obviously the line has been busy all morning. While I'm genuinely thrilled that the public-at-large is clamoring for tickets to Carnegie Hall, one wonders why they couldn't, what's the saying, "Make it work"?As my friend and client … [Read more...]

New York, NY - Our special, special industry has made it onto Stuff White People Like. I'm like a proud mama bear. If a white person starts talking to you about classical music, it's essential that you tread very lightly.  This is because white people are all petrified that they will be exposed as someone who has only a moderate understanding of classical music...Therefore it is essential that even if you possess a massive amount of knowledge about classical music, do not share it with a white person regardless of how much they profess to … [Read more...]