Christopher Davis

This post is a result of working through The Savvy Musician, a great book about making a living in the art music world.

Yesterday’s post had me thinking of what my concerts should really be. Now the question is going to come to them.

The only people already passionate about classical guitar are other classical guitarists. And that’s great, I’d love for them to come one of my recitals, but I consider it my job to expand the audience.

Target: Non-classical guitarists.
Why? They are already interested in the instrument, but might have never heard of classical guitar. These are the fringe fans than Seth Godin talks about in Tribes, they don’t have well defined preferences. They just like the guitar.
Connecting: I think the connection method to read these students is already built in. Guitar teachers. Contact local guitar teachers where ever I go and offer them free or discounted tickets (preferably free). The real thing is getting them to talk with their students about it.
Something for the Audience? Offering a masterclass would also be a great way to connect with these people.
Programming for Guitarists: If young guitarists are anything like I was, they appreciate technically complex pieces, but not so much musicality. Meaning my programs would have to have a balance of flash and musicality. Smells like 19th century music to me, or some tonal 20C things.

That’s my main angle. Aside from the reason list above — the people are already interested in guitar — converting guitarists into fans that go to my website(s) means that I have a chance of selling them information products.

Other Targets

1. Art Music Fans- obvious choice. Play some concerts for artist series type things (churches, chamber music societies, etc).
2. College Music Majors- have to get recitals on campus.
3. Classical Guitarists- work with guitar societies. It’d be very cool to do an artist in residency with a guitar society. Just come for a week. In exchange for a place to stay offer cheap or free lessons to society members.

After the Concert

After a concert, I want people to go home and connect with me online or via email so I can reach them again. In short, I want a better conversion from casual fan into true fan.

To that end, giving away a nicely done CD-Rom would be great. On it would be 5-10 nicely recorded mp3s, and an interactive webpage that people just click to open. It would have images and links for people to connect with me on social media. No typing in URLs required!

I’d also like to give away stickers than say, “I (heart) Classical Guitar” with my website URL on there as well.

This post is a result of working through The Savvy Musician, a great book about making a living in the art music world.

Today I’ve been brainstorming about concerts and recitals, and what my ideal product would look like.

I don’t think that programming, outside of choosing good repertoire, is really that big of a deal. I strive to choose repertoire that’s not overplayed. There’s plenty of recordings of the classics for guitar, and plenty of concerts only feature them. I want something different.

The real thing is in presentation. I want to look like I’m having fun on stage. I want to smile, and give the audience a sense that I’m really enjoying myself. I want this because I do enjoy myself. And I’m tired of going to concerts where the performer looks terrified. So there’s that aspect of presentation: I want to project an abundance of enthusiasm for the guitar combined with quiet confidence and a solid performance.

That other stuff…

My encounters and opinions of the art music world can largely be summarized by having a knowing irreverence for tradition. That is, I’m not terribly interested in the traditional benchmarks of success (competition wins, etc.) nor am I particularly in love with the formality of art music concerts. In short, I think the stuffiness puts an unacceptable distance between the performer and the audience.

Here’s the thing, the stuffiness is not a result of the repertoire. It’s a result of the attitudes of the musicians. I want to avoid that at all costs. If there were some way I could project my irreverence on stage, I would do it. Maybe there’s something to be said for choosing the right concert clothing to project this.

What I want

1. Play good, semi-obscure (but likable!) repertoire
2. Project my enjoyment on stage
3. Project a sense of quiet confidence
4. Display my irreverence for the art music world’s stuffy formality

When you go to an orchestra concert or an opera performance or a chamber music recital the real value is the experience of the event. The feeling of being in the seat — of experiencing profoundly moving works first hand — is really what you pay for.

This is exactly the same reason for attending a rock concert or going to an open mic night. We go because we like the way it feels to see live music. When Metallica came to Iowa while I was a freshman, I had to go — I had to see the band that had had such a huge influence on me live. I was not disappointed.

If the fundamental reason why people attend any sort of concert is the same, it’s no wonder why art music concerts seemed to be attended by an older generation. Music organizations cater to that age group’s tastes and likes and dislikes.

It’s not as if a night at the orchestra is any more or less expensive than a ticket to a rock concert. Cheap or free tickets for young people is not going to inspire a new generation of art music lovers. Changing the way we think and present concerts might. Maybe arts organizations can take some lessons from rock concerts.

Music fans are assaulted with thousands of musical tidbits every day. And it’s become less of the listeners job to find music, and more of the artists job to reach fans.

Art musicians and ensembles are stuck in the past. You make a CD, you sell some. But mostly you perform. You tour around the country, playing gigs for universities and various civic music organizations. And the whole time you play to the same people: that same demographic that listens to art music and has forever.

It seems to me that most of the people who listen to art music are those who play an instrument involved in it now a days.

Then there’s everyone else. It’s hard to be offended by Beethoven or Mozart or Copland. It’s easy to misunderstand it, and not really “get it” at first. Almost everyone in the world would sit through a short piece of art music and go, “Yeah, that was okay.”

Those are the people I want to talk to. If art music is going to remain viable, musicians need to start reaching out and trying to connect with those people on the fringes — the people who would sit through a piece, but don’t love art music yet.

But Who?

The real question is who is going to lead. I have no idea. It would be incredibly easy for a chamber ensemble to reach out to fans. Start posting videos on youtube, find peope on twitter interested in what you do, connect, create someone who knows about the ensemble. A committed string quartet or some other similar chamber ensemble could easily divide up the duties and create some great fan interaction.

Bigger ensembles get more tricky. There’s still this cult-like following around conductors, so it seems that a conductor or music director would be the logical choice to lead for bigger ensembles. Of course, that would mean the director has to step down from his cultural aloofness.

I think the real potential is in the composer. Many people tend to identify with certain composers. If you like a work in one genre or instrumentation by a composer, chances are that composer’s musical language will appeal to you in different genres. That’s powerful. Composers need only to reach out. Just today I stumbled across a guitarist/composer named Gyan Riley (Terry Riley’s son) who writes great music. I’d never heard of him, and he’s released two albums of original music. Imagine if would have found me on twitter or youtube! Instead I stumbled upon a video of him posted by a random guitar society.

Smart programming combined with outreach can convert those people on the fringe. That’s what I’m interested in: turning those people on the fringe into active listeners who appreciate art music and go to concerts and recitals. Most importantly, I want to turn those people into the fans who bring their friends to recitals!

The first step of all this is for musicians to take a step back from the insane ego they seem to develop. I know professional guitarists who believe they are above interacting with their fans online. Yet they happily nod and smile and talk when a random audience member walks up to them after the concert. Some strange things going on there.

Now, who wants to hold casual Friday concerts at the symphony? Seriously. $2 beers and you can come in a t-shirt. The only catch is that you have to listen to some orchestral music. Now that’s a concert I’d attend.