This one lit up the music writers’ blogs last week, for obvious reasons.
The New Statesman, in association with the Royal Academy of Music, is delighted to announce the launch of its Young Music Critic competition. We are looking for classical music writers under 30. If you have a passion for, and knowledge of, the canon, but are also interested in pop, jazz, politics or the wider culture, and if your love of music is equal to your love of the written word, submit your work to our distinguished panel of judges.
What I notice is the stark contrast between this endeavor’s encouragement of broad-minded and culturally relevant work in music writing and the almost complete lack thereof in standard conservatory curricula and competition guidelines for performers. [Found here on Tumblr via Yay, it’s Rob]
The real story in nonphysical goods is one of deflation. Value in once-scarce — well, once-controlled — commodities like news, information, and advertising decline as the internet explodes creation and competition. The internet also destroys the ability of many to control distribution and thus value. But at the same time, the internet drastically increases efficiency thanks to platforms and open distribution and the ability — no, the need — to specialize and collaborate.
This is why the old controllers of scarcity have such trouble rethinking and remaking themselves for the economy of abundance. Their reflex is to control more, when that only decreases value.
So stop selling scarcity. Scarcity has no value.
As Jarvis points out the theory holds true for performers, many of whom are finally beginning to understand that ‘putting our content and information out there is how it gets distributed, how we find new people, how we build new relationships, how we realize new value.’ [via Frank Chimero has a blog.]
Has the Waterloo Cedar Falls Symphony played Holst's The Planets recently?
Funny you should ask, since our most recent event was the second in a series of amazing collaborations that began with our presentation of the Planets two seasons ago. These concerts have been insanely well-received and, based on the feedback, we are looking into the possibility of bringing back the Planets production for an encore live performance with an accompanying video release.
So, the programmer in me wants to know – would you come to a concert like this?
My good friend Genadi Zagor joined us at the WCFSO a few weeks ago for a scintillating rendition of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, presented alongside a suite of indelible images created for the occasion by Gary Kelley. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at our rehearsal and performance, from photographer Noah Henscheid. [View the set on Flickr.]
And speaking of emerging musicians doing things differently, violist Nadia Sirota fits the bill better than most. Nadia is a superb player, committed genre-buster, and, I am honored to say, former orchestra student of mine at the Baltimore School for the Arts. Get to know her on Q2 internet radio; I especially like the concept behind her new segment on post-tonal music, Hope Springs Atonal.
