A few weeks ago, I sat down (digitally) with Jim Chute of the Union Tribune in San Diego to talk a little bit about my San Diego debut on the Fresh Sound series on October 1st.
We talked a lot about what I was going to play on the show (Akiho, Cage, Cerrone, Viñao and some new work by my good friend Tawnie Olson + more) but our conversation veered into a far more interesting direction.
He wanted to know why I do what I do, and how I do it. He also wanted to know why a so-called ‘classical’ musician like myself appeared on the popular reality show America’s Got Talent and how I qualified that with the other more ‘serious’ endeavors that I participate in. This is what I told him:
If any single person across this country watched us perform Taylor Swift on national TV and was inspired at all to check out an orchestra or a chorus the next time one came to town, or even was inspired to give classical music a chance, then it was worth it.
Because let’s be real here for a second. People aren’t going to see typical classical music performances in typical classical music venues anymore. They aren’t going to see the New York Philharmonic, but the Bang On a Can marathon had 10,000 audience members this year.
These days, folks are going to see classical music in alternative venues (look how many clubs and bars in NYC are hosting classical and contemporary music series: LPR, DROM, Galapagos Art Space, SubCulture, Cornelia Street Cafe, etc etc etc), they are going to see it when it’s presented in an interesting and engaging way (take the Ecstatic Music Festival, as just one example – all of their shows have been packed since the series launched a few years ago) and they are going to see it when it’s a full-on multimedia presentation (see VIA).
Anybody who says classical music is dead or dying didn’t go see the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center outside at the Naumburg Bandshell a month or so ago. There were thousands of people – many of them standing – packed into Central Park, and the crowds had begun to assemble hours before the concert began. That doesn’t look like death to me.
Classical music isn’t dead or dying – to the contrary, we’re participating in a classical music revolution. There is so much music being written right now, and there are so many people and interesting ensembles who want to play it. The sheer variety of genres is staggering. The trouble is getting people to listen to it. And this was my other point to Jim.
In the case of my show in San Diego, a solo percussion program can actually be a really great way to introduce someone to classical music who doesn’t particularly like it. Banging on objects is fun (trust me, it is), and it’s a nice way to draw someone in. That’s because performing percussion music is a very physical act and watching a percussion performance is as much a visual experience as it is an aural one. New listeners always come up to me after shows to tell me that a) they think percussion music is really fun to listen to and b) they had no idea that classical music included things like this.
This is pretty much why I do what I do. I really, really believe that this is good music that makes people feel things. And I really, really want to share it with as many people as possible.
If you need any more convincing, check out this beautiful article that an audience member at one of my recent shows with Sandbox Percussion wrote about her experience.
Here’s the article about the San Diego show that all of this was about, and I hope you’ll join me on October 1st if you’re in town.
P.S. if you’ve got an hour, check out Bang On a Can founder and my good friend David Lang talk about his take on where we’re headed.