Read Molly Sheridan's coverage of The Metropolitan Opera's season brochure and....eeeeeekkk...order forms (!) here. She writes:Now, I bet opera fans were drooling all over this same package, so I don't mean to knock the concept. And it must have cost a small fortune to produce and mail, so I hope they all immediately put in extensive season orders. But it was way more than I, a one-time single ticket buyer, knew what to do with. I'm more a teaser video and "Buy nosebleed seats for this Friday's show NOW for only $25!" kind of girl, … [Read more...]
Just when you think you’ve heard it all
...the New York Post reminds you you haven't. Brought to my attention by the Musical America weekly newsletter, composer Nathan Currier ((who?)) is suing the Brooklyn Philharmonic because they cut his piece and Allan Kozinn (consequently?) gave it a terrible review in the New York Times. This, apparently, had a "bad effect" on Currier "both psychologically and in a very direct, nuts-and-bolts way." It had a bad effect on Kozinn as well, who wondered during the performance if he had died and gone to hell, and reported feeling "liberated" when … [Read more...]
Did Cinderella even want to marry a prince?
I see my auto-posting didn't work out so well, but you got to look at Chase Brock's smiling face all week. There are worse things. More interviews in the coming weeks. I've spent the morning while I should be catching up on e mails, or at the very least unpacking, reading the YouTube Symphony fall-out. What the what?? Greg Sandow calls it an "orgy of self-congratulation" here; Anastasia Tsioulcas suggests that the project should have been about the journey and not the destination here; and Anne Midgette quotes YouTube marketing manager Ed … [Read more...]
Talk to me about running a dance company
In my absence, I'm going to post a couple bonus interviews this week. Here's choreographer and Artistic Director Chase Brock of The Chase Brock Experience on (not really) being from the theater world, the importance of having a brand beyond the stage, and critics crossing genres. Chase Brock is a 25-year old choreographer working in the areas of dance, theater, opera, television, film and music. Recently called "prolific" in The New Yorker, he is Artistic Director of The Chase Brock Experience, the New York City-based contemporary dance … [Read more...]
How could it be in spring-time?
No pitchin' this week, as I am out of our fair country. I have, however, (pre)prepared some lovely interviews to be automatically posted, so please keep stopping by. I should be able to approve comments every day, though perhaps not at the precise moment you submit them. … [Read more...]
Talk to me about life on YouTube
When the planets align, it's a Friday and I have my act together, I interview someone far more knowledgeable than I am about specific marketing and publicity topics. Today we have Ben Chan, who I e-met when he interviewed Hilary via video Skype about the YouTube Symphony. In the spirit of Ben's extremely successful and time-consuming hobby, he has answered my questions on YouTube. Ben Chan is a founder of ChamberHymns.com, a website dedicated to online instructional videos for violin, as well as the Music Chairman of WoogiWorld.com, a virtual … [Read more...]
You’ll never look at music the same way again
The Site Formerly Known as YouTube, now called "Google's YouTube", and the Universal Music Group (now and forever) are launching a joint music video site called "Vevo":Google's YouTube and Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company, said on Thursday they will launch a premium music video website as they bid to increase revenue from YouTube's huge usage. The new advertiser-supported site, featuring professional videos, will be called Vevo and is expected to launch in coming months, the companies said. The deal is a boost for … [Read more...]
The Classical Tweet
It appears New York Times writer and Time Out New York music editor Steve Smith is the latest victim of the Siren Twitter's call.But what is this? My heart be still: it looks like he's going to Tweet about receiving CDs in the mail and getting off the phone with interviewees! Does it make me the Biggest Publicity Nerd in the Land if that's the best news I've heard all week? Showered with beauty by today's mail: new CDs from Christopher Tignor, Peter Garland, John Luther Adams, Choir of St. Ignatius Loyola.12:30 PM Apr 6th from web Just off the … [Read more...]
Tintillating
(From Tyler Green's Modern Art Notes blog)Take a gander at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston's rockin' "Rivals in Renaissance Venice" microsite:Intriguing, informative, and aesthetically-pleasing. Triple-threat!Will Schirmer's new SchirmerOnDemand have cool e-musicologists - or perhaps even e-versions of the composers themselves?? - guiding us through their scores? My registration is pending, but Molly Sheridan has her review of the site here. … [Read more...]
Bette Davis is probably lying
I'm on a use-me-and-abuse-me kick. I want to be pitched more when I'm inside venues, in case you didn't get the message here and here. I saw the movie Sunshine Cleaning two weekends ago, and for the first time was interested in every single film that was previewed. They were, in order, Sleep Dealer, Brothers Bloom, Cheri, Adventureland, 500 Days of Summer, The Soloist (but only because I spotted the back of Esa-Pekka Salonen's head in the preview and got excited), and The Limits of Control. I anticipated that the "Feature Presentation" would be … [Read more...]
After Eight
I roll my eyes at myself when I write about manicures, facials, etc. on this blog, so I can only imagine how you all react. That said, there's no use pretending I'm something I'm not, so, onward...I got a facial at a lovely little shop called Ling on the Upper West Side a couple weeks back. Turns out, the place was a hotbed (hot...compress?) of good marketing ideas. At one point during the facial, the woman Wendy asked how I'd heard about Ling. "New York Magazine", I said. A listing in New York Magazine? "No, a friend-of-a-friend works there … [Read more...]
In which ‘The Guardian’ is as usual my hero
From The Guardian today: Consolidating its position at the cutting edge of new media technology, the Guardian today announces that it will become the first newspaper in the world to be published exclusively via Twitter, the sensationally popular social networking service that has transformed online communication...A mammoth project is also under way to rewrite the whole of the newspaper's archive, stretching back to 1821, in the form of tweets. Major stories already completed include "1832 Reform Act gives voting rights to one in five adult … [Read more...]
Going the other way
In a time when nearly every classical music writer has a personal or publication blog, Parterre Box's James Jorden has started reviewing for The New York Post, an honest-to-goodness newspaper. His first review, of The Metropolitan Opera's La Sonnambula, was printed on March 4, 2009. Click here for his next review, of Rusalka, also at The Met, and then here for his coverage of The Met's 125th Anniversary Gala. Having an extremely popular opera blogger write for a print paper - that we'll just safely assume is in trouble - is shrewd. Jorden has a … [Read more...]
Everybody’s doing it
There's a Family Guy episode where Peter, Lois, Chris, Stewie and Brian are drowning and, certain they are all about to die, Peter admits to not liking The Godfather. "It insists upon itself, Lois," he explains. "It insists upon itself."It may actually be impossible not to stand at the end of the Broadway revival of Hair. Whether you like the musical, or even like musicals at all, the cast of and the creative team behind this production - transferred from The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park last summer - simply demand you to buy into … [Read more...]