How I ended my last post, about a terrible CD cover from Telarc, on a recording of Zuill Bailey playing the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Indianapolis Symphony: To erase the big fail here, Telarc, Bailey, and the Indianapolis Symphony should take one of my branding workshops. Seriously! I don't say that just to toot my horn, but because the kind of exercise we do in these workshops would really have helped. I'll explain that in my next post. So now it's the next post, and here's what I mean. In my branding workshops, we try to connect how we … [Read more...]
How to talk and write about music
That's what my Juilliard course this semester is about. And it's what the course should be called, though this year we adopted a title that's a hybrid of what the course used to be and what it is now: "Music Criticism: How to Talk About Music." Because for many years this was a course about music criticism. But then two things happened. First, fewer and fewer students seemed interested in criticism. I might guess that's because they — like so many people under 40 — don't read newspapers, and thus don't encounter music reviews. But as my … [Read more...]
My newsletter — plus a photo of Rafa
(A digression from the posts I've been doing.] Last week, I sent out a summer issue of my newsletter -- and I've realized, with a shock, how little I talk about my newsletter here. [Pause while Greg communes with himself about how he might improve his way of doing business.] You can read my latest newsletter here. And if you'd like to subscribe and get it by email, here's where you do that. What's in the newsletter? A terrific photo of my little son, nine months old. (And crawling at light-speed, though that's not in the photo.) A … [Read more...]
Branding workshop success
I've blogged a lot here about the online workshops on branding I was going to teach. But now the first one has happened, and it was an enormous success, more so than I'd ever dreamed. I worked with six people, from various walks of classical music life, and by the end of the third and last session, all of them felt they'd made enormous strides in their branding. I thought they did, too. It was heartening, for instance, to see someone with an impenetrable website emerge as a vibrant, irresistible musician and storyteller. And to see him (once … [Read more...]
Branding my students
This was one of the happiest times I've ever had as a teacher -- an exercise in my Juilliard course on the future of classical music, in which my students took some first steps in branding themselves. This worked so well that I have great hopes for the branding workshop I'll be teaching next week for professionals. (And -- by the way -- I've got enough interest to make a second workshop possible, if just a few more people sign up. Email me!) Here's what happened. Of course we're not talking about commercial branding -- slick slogans, snappy … [Read more...]
My branding workshop is happening
I'd blogged awhile ago about teaching an online workshop, about branding for classical musicians. And administrators, if someone wants to brand an institution. The response was terrific. I needed six people to make the workshop possible, and got them easily. Plus more who'd love to do it. Plus some in Australia, whom I'll count separately, because -- thanks to the time difference -- I'd have to teach them as a separate group. It's hard enough scheduling six busy people in the US, but to also include one or two from such a radically different … [Read more...]
My branding workshop — filling up fast
Four people have already said they're seriously interested in the branding workshop I'll teach online. So now they and I need just two more people, at $200 each. Email me if you'd like to be one of them. To learn more, follow the link to read my announcement of the workshop. In an entrepreneurial world, everyone going into the market -- including classical musicians or ensembles or institutions looking for an audience -- needs a brand. Which simply means words and images -- or things that you regularly do -- that tell the world how you … [Read more...]
Learn branding with me
I'm ready to teach an online workshop on branding for musicians, if six people sign up at $200 each. More below, but here's the backstory. A while ago I blogged about an entrepreneurship retreat -- the Road to Creativity retreat -- where I'd be teaching this workshop in June. But, sadly, the ROC retreat won't be happening this year. ROC's founder, my friend Connie Frigo, knows that there's demand there is for something like this. So she and her cosponors -- D'Addario (the musical instrument company) and Tayloe Harding, dean of the School … [Read more...]