Life's A Pitch

First, I must footnote playwright Jason Grote for that phrase. He mentioned it in an e mail exchange, and I warned him that I would be claiming it as my own in the future. The future is now. Hilary (Hahn) was in The NY Times Crossword last Thursday. 54 down. The clue was "violin virtuoso", the answer: Hahn. Really? People got that? I started to count letters on my fingers...I-T-Z-H-A-K...B-E-L-L...At this point, I have lost all perspective on who's "famous" and who's "classical music famous". Hilary is clearly classical music-famous, but … [Read more...]

I saw [title of show] on Saturday, and it exceeded all expectations by combining my two great loves: musical theatre and viral marketing. SPOILER ALERT After finding out that their show is moving to Broad-way, writers/stars Hunter and Jeff are faced with the Sophie's Choice of changing their show to appease Broadway audiences, or sticking to the original, scrappy plan. There's a number, "Nine People's Favorite Thing", just before the finale that contains the lyrics, I'd rather be nine people's favorite thing Than a hundred people's ninth … [Read more...]

I have to go to work tomorrow for the first time in over a year. If you think I'm not picking out my outfit tonight and making sure I have push-pencils and a calculator, you are mistaken.So I'm going to work to begin my limited engagement as director of publicity for a record label (cue obligatory "boo's" and "hisses") while the current director is on maternity leave, which means I have to sneak in a post about classical music album art today. What I Hate About You, Classical Album Coversby Amanda Ameer1. Instruments. If an album says "Hilary … [Read more...]

Each week, I'll post an interview with someone far more knowledgeable than myself on specific marketing and publicity subjects. This week, publicist Marisa Handren on trends in viral marketing, music sites to read, and why the indie rock world is obsessed with felines. Marisa Handren runs Four Paws Media, an arts and music pr company in Jersey City, NJ. Before starting Four Paws, Marisa spent three years at Blue Ghost Publicity working with inspiring and accomplished artists such as Deerhoof, The Locust, Xiu Xiu and Grammy nominees Yeah Yeah … [Read more...]

More good marketing stuff via In the News! Is this a challenge for Life's a Pitch? It is so on, "Ian VanderMeulen".In an article in today's (7/31) Atlanta Journal-Constitution about Alliance Theatre's upcoming experiments with audience text-messaging, Kirsten Tagami writes, "This summer, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has used audience text messaging at its new venue in Alpharetta, the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park. Concert-goers are encouraged to text questions before intermission, ASO spokeswoman Melissa Sanders said. Selected … [Read more...]

I think I am the only member of The League of American Orchestras who joined solely so I could receive their daily In the News e mails. They're somehow comforting to me, even though some of the headlines are ripe for parody (there was one about classical music and improvising once that was a real gem). Yesterday, In the News alerted me to this initiative by The Philadelphia Orchestra. Here is the blurb:In today's (7/30) Philadelphia Inquirer, Peter Dobrin writes about the ways the Philadelphia Orchestra is trying to deal with "subscriber … [Read more...]

This was on the homepage of CNN.com today. The tagline: "Animal control officials had to put a stray 44-pound cat into foster care because they didn't have a big enough cage." What I wouldn't give to have footage of my artists on the homepage of CNN.com. Surely this is just as interesting as the chubster cat? Apples and oranges, yes, but when I think about The Mainstream Media being the brass ring of most performing arts' publicists' lives, and then I actually look at what is covered by CNN.com, etc., I just have to wonder: why do we care so … [Read more...]

I've been revising bios for the upcoming season, and I find myself doing a curious thing: pigeonholing my artists through quirky labels. Last summer, I was content to write "American bass-baritone Eric Owens" or "Grammy Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn", but this year, I find myself pushing the epithet envelope: "Genre-bending bass-baritone", "Demographic-defying violinist". Now, those barely make sense, but here I am, racking my brain to come up with something catchy. Confusing, and catchy. The more confusing the catchier? I'm using labels … [Read more...]

This made me think of this, which led me to wonder if the organizers of the upcoming Bernstein Festival are exploring cross-marketing opportunities with the 2009 Broadway West Side Story revival. … [Read more...]

According to Nails Magazine as reported by The New York Times in August 2007, there are 3,800 nail salons in New York City. I will only go to one of them. I'd like to tell you that's because I appreciate the good service, personal care and attention to returning customers, but it's none of those things. They have a frequent visit card: after 10 visits, you get a free manicure. At $7 per manicure, that's not exactly the deal of the century (what's another $7 when you're $70-deep in hand care), but it's the idea of getting something, anything, … [Read more...]

Formerly belonging to the fair country of Montenegro, the domain extension .ME will now be sold by GoDaddy. The GoDaddy press release is hilarious:Imagine the possibilities. After all, .ME translates to a wide range of catchy words throughout the world - including the obvious English translations, such as "about me." Others include "amar.me," which means "love me" in Spanish, and "secondo.me," which is Italian for "in my opinion.""Amar.me". Yes, that's exactly where my mind went.Actually my mind went one (or two) other place(s) and then right … [Read more...]

This reminds me of a press release I once received from a top NYC venue with their name misspelled in the heading. Fortunately, they (ahem, I) caught it before the release went out. I'm sure I've made plenty of spelling errors in my day, but it never ceases to amaze me when press releases are filled with mistakes. If publicists don't take the time to really check their own work, how can we expect the press to write thoughtfully and thoroughly about our clients? This goes for press kits and bios as well; I think people often underestimate the … [Read more...]

Each week, I'll post an interview with someone far more knowledgeable than myself on specific marketing and publicity subjects. This week, rock photographer Christopher Owyoung on classical music clichés, getting the proverbial "perfect shot", and what makes great live music photography.Chris Owyoung is an NYC-based photographer specializing in live music coverage, promotional and event photography. His portfolio includes members of The Metropolitan Opera alongside artists like Erykah Badu, The Cure and Kanye West. His work has been featured … [Read more...]

A quick note about what's going on to your right: Stuff about the blog, stuff about me, Contact. Subscribe to the newsletter, for a newsletter that I have yet to write because I haven't decided on the format yet. I plan on including a list of the longer posts, a recap of the Friday interviews, and - as any good newsletter-sender should have - exclusive content. To be determined exclusive content, but it will be exclusive, don't you worry. I'll send this out once a month.Subscribe to this blog's feed, see RSS Feeds. Archives, I think this is … [Read more...]