This comes via Nico via Daniel Stephen Johnson’s blog: Itzhak Perlman’s opposition of Proposition 8 on YouTube. The video was posted on October 22, and has already received 23,879 views. Good stuff, IP.
Also, I’m happy to report that Maurizio Pollini wore an Obama button to his post-concert signing at Carnegie Hall yesterday, and more than one person was talking about it on their way out the door.
You can’t swing a dead donkey without hitting an Obama button in New York City, so I wondered why I, and the audience members at the signing, were surprised to see a classical artist wearing one. It occurred to me that I’ve been to a lot of signings in the past few months, and not one artist was wearing a pin of any political persuasion. I asked one of my artist friends why she avoided talking about politics in interviews, and she said that she didn’t want to alienate audiences: a lot of major donors and classical musical fans are conservative, she said, and she wanted them to enjoy her performances for what they were, not for who she was. Essentially, she considers broadcasting her stance on politics to be bad public relations.
I…totally disagree. Rather than looking at making a political statement – even something as small as wearing a button to a signing – as fodder for audience alienation, I think classical artists should consider their personal politics another gesture toward audience building; the more audiences are allowed to see who you really are and what you really care about, the more they can relate to you, or at least consider you a real person. Maybe politics are the one common ground someone has with a classical music luminary like Pollini, and the next concert of his they see or the next album they listen to will mean more because of it.
And even if you don’t agree with him politically, isn’t it cool to know he cares?
Will some people refuse to attend an Itzhak Perlman concert because they now know he has a happily married lesbian daughter? Maybe, but honestly, so what? Personally, the fact that he did a YouTube PSA makes me want to subscribe to the Westchester Philharmonic as a gesture of support.
Epilogue: Also sporting an Obama button at Carnegie yesterday was CAMI President of 30+ years, Ronald Wilford. Did not see that one coming.
Perlman, Pollini and Ronald Wilford represent the old guard of classical music – presumably as conservative, if not politically conservative, as you can get – and yet they are the ones making statements. Where are the young classical celebs in this? The young artist managers? The new classical concert presenters? Even if folks don’t want to make overt political statements, who is encouraging classical music fans to get out and vote?
Christopher O’Riley, host of NPR’s “From the Top” was in Cincinnati last week, where we recorded a show with the Cincinnati Pops and Erich Kunzel (to be released as a Telarc CD in ’09). Through a scheduling miscommunication, Chris ended up accidentally wearing his Obama sweatshirt for a live television interview on the ABC affiliate. While Chris was pleased with his unintentional political promotion, the station, the interviewer and Cincinnati Symphony all received complaints from viewers.
I think the lesson to be learned here is that there are consequences to artists’ actions. As a former publicist, I felt the CSO’s pain. It’s hard enough to get classical music on local television news, so the next time the PR department tries to book a guest, the station is going to think twice.
I’m a big believer in the First Amendment, as well as an Obama supporter, but as a producer on From the Top, I regret that had this “wardrobe malfunction.”
Yeah, it’s not as if there are any musicians in other genres who take political stands and retain their popularity. Oh, wait…almost all of them do! My mistake.
Why is Classical Music (I capitalize to indicate the whole structure of classical music performance and presentation in America, and not the music itself) so afraid of offending people, while artists in other genres do so at their will? Maybe because there’s a huge disconnect between the political leanings of most classical artists – they are artists, after all – and the moneybags donors who keep them in tuxedos and gowns? I’m just typing random thoughts here, but this seems not implausible.
We need a new paradigm that says that classical musicians are people, with semi-normal hopes and dreams and convictions and fears, and decisions made to try to erase that fact from the public consciousness are stifling the growth and development of classical music in the 21st century. Seriously.
It’s a tricky thing for up-and-coming young classical artists. For better or worse, outside of the major large cities classical concerts are attended in large parts by more conservative audience members, in part because these events are as much social/business networking occasions as they are actual cultural events. If classical musicians reveal their (usually) liberal side, it could bite the hand that feeds them.
There’s also a reverse prejudicial phenomenon that happens, and I confess to being guilty of this as well…I’m definitely politically a progressive and sometimes have fallen into the trap of assuming my colleagues are always liberal, only to be embarrassed upon discovering that my assumption was not always correct.
What would happen if a classical musician had worn a McCain tee shirt? Would she / he dare to bare it? It’s always fine if someone follows the “in” and “cool” thing of the moment. But what if someone has a totally different idea?
You made it very clear yourself: “I was going to post this yesterday, but in a moment of total paranoia decided not to put forth any semblance of a gesture of support for McCain”.
Well, in doing so I suppose I alienated readers, but that’s a (small) risk I was willing to take. As as an earlier commenter detailed, pianist Chris O’Riley alienated potential audience members and orchestra patrons by wearing an Obama/Biden sweatshirt on television there, so “in” and “cool” are all relevant/locational. Thanks for commenting! -AA