To begin, I'm posting this entry from over 10,000 feet. If we're being completely honest with each other, I did start writing it at LaGuardia two days ago, but I finished it and am pressing 'Save' among the clouds. Raise your hand if you love living in 2009! The fact that $12.95 gets me internet in mid-air for my entire flight almost redeems Delta after having me land in Salt Lake City, de-board the plane for 35 minutes, get back on the same plane, sit in the same seat, and continue on to Boston. The one benefit, if we can call it that, of this … [Read more...]
Mile high club
I was very pleased to see that Hilary's Bach Concertos disc was part of Delta's in-flight entertainment offerings on my plane ride to San Francisco today. It was the second to last option, grumble grumble, but it was an option. I listened to it for the whole flight even though it's on my iPod in hopes that she'd get lots of hits and/or that the guy sitting next to me would notice and perhaps tune in himself. He only noticed when I started taking pictures. I did not feel the need to explain the blog to him. … [Read more...]
Flowers/hair/yada yada
I'm going to see Eric in the COMPLETELY SOLD-OUT San Francisco Opera production of Porgy and Bess next week, and SF-based indie publicist Karen Ames has generously organized a west coast Publicist Summit (i.e. happy hour).So, if you're in the San Francisco vicinity on Monday, June 8 and you ((heart)) PR, come on by:Publicist Bonding5 - 7pmArlequin384 Hayes StreetNo Journalistz A(backwards L)owd. … [Read more...]
Higdelina
I arrived via BoltBus in not-even-a-little-bit sunny Baltimore yesterday afternoon to see Hilary play Jennifer Higdon's concerto with the Baltimore Symphony. Before the concert began, Music Director Marin Alsop received a standing ovation when they announced that her contract had been extended, and also audibly exclaimed, "WHOA!!" at Hilary when the concerto ended. Love her without having ever met her. Even though Molly Sheridan - who also happened to be my date to last night's concert - was the only person who thought my Pitch Snitch/Gawker … [Read more...]
It’s hard to do a thing when you might fail
Last week, I spent money on two things I really did not like. The first was the movie The Brothers Bloom, and the second was the new musical Coraline at MCC. The movie was $12.50 (but I bought a ticket for my non-date date as well, so $25) and the musical was $49, (and God knows that ain't cheap.) I know you think I'm in-sane, I know it's not appealing, but my original idea for a blog post was to suggest money back guarantees; why should I have to pay for what I did not enjoy? Why aren't performing arts presenters 100% behind their product? Why … [Read more...]
I’m gonna give you candy
And now for some shameless self-promotion:If you're in Beantown next week, come say "'ello" at the Boston Early Music Festival bright and early (9 am) at the Radisson Hotel on Thursday, June 11. Here is the complete festival (the festival? the festival) schedule. I will be talking about period bows for an hour or so. And by "period bows" I actually mean "PR". … [Read more...]
Seeing you in summer, I never would go
Did you like the Publicist Parade? I learned many things, and here are two of them: 1. I send out press releases way too late and 2. I miss blogging when I don't get to do it. Decide for yourselves whether or not those two points are at all related. Here's what I didn't write about but wanted to this week:Is this black thing New York City Opera's new logo or is it just an image for the upcoming season?Because...And I mean...I also thought a lot about anticipation this week, which perhaps I will flesh out at a later point. I finally watched the … [Read more...]
Rebecca Davis, Rebecca Davis PR
Publicist Log, Day 4: Today we have Rebecca Davis, who I have known 4eva, 4eva-eva. Rebecca was Director of Publicity at Universal Music Classical when I was Publicity Manager at IMG Artists, and then we worked on Hilary's Schoenberg/Sibelius exploits together, and then I covered for her at Universal when she was on maternity leave last fall. She's since started her own firm, and here's what she has to say for herself:Rebecca Davis is a publicity, promotions and marketing consultant with over ten years of experience working with musicians on … [Read more...]
Steven Swartz, Dotdotdotmusic
It's Publicists Gone Wild this week on Life's a Pitch. Each day, we'll have answers to the same eleven questions from different New York City publicists. Today, we have Steven Swartz, who hails from the publishing (and apparently ukulele) world(s)! Steven and I met...actually, when did we meet?...but our paths cross early and often at cool-kid "new music" events throughout the city.Steven Swartz never set out to be a publicist. He studied music and philosophy at Swarthmore College and earned a PhD in composition from University at Buffalo … [Read more...]
Jennifer Wada
This week on Life's a Pitch, the royal "we" is talking to NYC-based classical music publicists. Everyone gets the same questions, and presumably no one has seen anyone else's answers! Here's Jennifer Wada, with whom I had the pleasure of working on the Hilary Hahn/Josh Ritter concert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art last spring.Jennifer Wada is a New York-based public relations consultant in the performing arts whose clients include the Metropolitan Museum Concerts series, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the George London Foundation for Singers, … [Read more...]
Christina Jensen, Christina Jensen PR
Since I'm going to try to keep my trap (fingers?) shut all week, I'll just say two quick things now: One. Last night at the bar Union Pool in Williamsburg, I received the best response yet to my response to the question, "So what do you do?" "So what do you do?" "I am a classical music publicist." "That sounds difficult." (The usual response is, "Oh. Cool. What does that mean?") This guy went on to ask what media opportunities there are for classical musicians, and of the outlets that do exist, how many of those translate to concert … [Read more...]
En masse
Are you sick of me? If you are, then next week on Life's a Pitch is just for you! All week long, I'll post interviews with other NYC-based classical musical publicists. Each independant publicist or firm has been asked the same set of questions, and hopefully no one cheated and shared answers (ahem). All your (well, at least my) publicity questions are sure to be answered, and by New York City's finest, so tune in starting Monday! … [Read more...]
Talk to me about alcohol, aka art and commerce
And now for something completely different. I got into an argument with a web designer once about whether a site should be in orange or green tones. He liked the orange, but the client liked the green. He then went behind my back and talked the client into the orange which made me furious because 1. the green was better and 2. this wasn't art for art's sake; the client was paying him and me to promote their product (in this case, themselves), not to win this designer awards or get him a spot in a gallery. (Are there physical galleries of … [Read more...]
Now, I didn’t go to biz-ness school or anything, but…
It's no small wonder magazines are folding. Here's what happened yesterday: I filled out an application to join MediaBistro and it asked me whether I wanted a free subscription to New York, Wired, Gourmet or W magazines. Erm...Wired?And then I thought, speaking of magazines, where the Murray Perahia have my New Yorkers and Vanity Fairs gone off to? And why didn't I get the last two issues of my beloved Domino, may she rest in peace. So I got on the horn with Conde Nast, only to learn that they had removed a "3" from my address for no apparent … [Read more...]