Opera is often labeled as elitist but I’ve seen people of all ages & of any income in the audience everywhere. So much for being elitist

— Erwin Schrott (@erwin_schrott) December 12, 2011

1. Communication. This is a broken-record sort of thing. There are eleventy billion PR and social media and marketing pros talking about communication on their blogs. It can’t be underscored enough. If you have expectations of what your consultant/publicist/social media guru should accomplish, communicate. If you’re not sure what they are doing with your money, communicate. If you think that a comma is out of place, communicate. If you want to know who they are talking to, communicate. If they didn’t ask you enough questions at the beginning, communicate. It’s pretty simple. I hope.

2. Define your goals and expectations. Before you can communicate, you need to know what you’re trying to accomplish. Publicists (and marketing consultants and social media gurus and whatever else people call themselves) are not mind-readers. Especially if you don’t know what you want out of the project. If you want to be “surprised” by their results, it’s probably not going to be a good surprise. There are a lot of different ways to promote projects, and unless you know what you want, you might not get much.

This is not to say that you have to know exactly which publications you want coverage in, or the ins and outs of how PR works. Sometimes goals can be “we want 50 people to buy our album,” or “we want 25 clicks on twitter,” or “we want 3 stories in print” and the consultant can say “here are some ways to do that.”

3. Know how your project is different. In today’s flooded media landscape, just putting on a concert is not enough to attract an audience. No one will buy tickets “just because.” Extra perks can help, but more important is having a central theme or purpose to your work. Know why you are putting on a performance, or recording an album, and be objective and clear in communicating this to your marketing/PR consultant/team. The best and most effective marketing materials or pitches are driven by an authentic understanding of the core art and what makes it special. Consumers are smart, and they want to know what makes your offering different from something else. If you can’t articulate this, you aren’t ready to promote your work.

Sometimes a PR or marketing consultant can help you with that. This is called “brand strategy,” and usually entails a process of interviews, research, and questions to help define and refine the mission/intent (sometimes called “competitive advantage” by fancy corporate marketing types) and how it’s communicated. This involves a great deal of work, often because the people involved don’t know how to share their ideas or expectations with the consultant leading this sort of work. It’s very easy to burn hours (and money!) when you don’t communicate. I often put a little bit of brand strategy thinking and Q&A into the beginning of every project I work on, because I want to make sure I’m communicating something meaningful to the target audience.

4. Don’t spend money that you can’t afford. Working with any new consultant involves an element of risk. The personality fit may not be right, acts of God may interfere, and sometimes, no matter how good the communication, product, and brand strategy are, the audience might not bite. Maintaining your composure when things go wrong, remembering that your consultant is a human being just like you, and taking your experience as an opportunity to learn all help to create a more positive experience for everyone involved.

Happy music-making!

Steve Jobs gave us the tools with which to create the social media bubble, and the power to create anything we can dream of. One tweet going around the internet right now says “For ten years, Steve Jobs was the smartest person in the music business, even though he wasn’t in the music business.” Apple’s innovation and the way they outpace all of their competitors has been at the core of our transformed economy and creation process. My Safari browser always loads their page first, and while I roll my eyes at some of the press releases posted, the stories about creative professionals using Apple tools to change the world always catch my attention.

It turns out that Steve and I have more in common than I realized. I haven’t given him much thought recently – I take my Apple products (just 1 laptop at the moment) for granted, and only really paid attention to him specifically when he was written up in some gossipy SF blog for eating at a passé restaurant or whatever. But The Washington Post’s headline about his passing included this summary of his life’s work: Jobs “designed computers for people who are more interested in what technology could do rather than how it was done.”

I have no idea what my computer does. I think at one point, my dad, who refurbished cast-off government computers for the local elementary schools and always had bits in our basement, explained how various pieces of some desktop computers worked, and maybe the name “Silicon Valley” might give me a clue about what is going on. But I don’t really think about it these days, because I don’t need to. I’m too busy creating stuff with the products that Steve put in my hands, and solving problems in a completely different space.

Twitter made it OK for me to lose my job. I am typing this sentence on my Apple laptop, using a web browser and applications that are optimized for Macs (let’s not forget the fact that Steve created his own vernacular). I can instantly access information that took hours to download when I was in high school. If Silicon Valley is where the Internet lives, there’s no doubt that Apple is the engine that drives it.

Apple’s case study is a lesson for everyone, regardless of your field, which is good, because sometimes classical musicians forget that they’re in the *business* of art. The core of the idea that people are more interested in what your product can do, rather than how it does so, is incredibly powerful – it’s the old “What do *I* get out of it?” message. I look forward to finding the next creative answer to that question in the classical music space, now that we are all empowered by our Apple gear and the tools they run.

A memorable Jobs quote on Twitter: ”It’s hard for customers to tell you what they want when they’ve never seen anything remotely like it.” That may be so, but we can start by observing what other things they like, and connecting the dots.

The most obvious place to start is with San Francisco Opera’s Heart of a Soldier, from Christopher Theofanidis and Donna DiNovelli, based on the book of the same title. The first act chronicles Rick Rescorla’s backstory – falling in love with the US Army division camped in his small town in Cornwall as a boy, serving with British troops in Rhodesia where he meets his best friend Dan Hill, the two men teaming up to train as officers for the US Army and serve in Vietnam, Rescorla saving Hill’s division in battle, and then the men returning from war, with the final scene depicting Rescorla’s wedding. Along the way, we learn what kind of man Rescorla is – his love of singing, his attachment to the men who serve with him, his distaste for authority that doesn’t live up to his standards, and his confident belief in just war.

The jam-packed first act includes a secondary thread about the women who love and support the soldiers in each scene – from Rescorla’s mother who has to keep him from marching off with the men to D-Day at the beginning, to the girlfriends writing perfume-sprayed love letters during Vietnam, to the saucy, sardonic advice given to the bride about being the wife of a soldier in the final scene.

The second act, depicting Rescorla’s work as head of security for Morgan Stanley at the Twin Towers, meeting and falling in love with his second wife Susan, and the events of 9/11, almost pales in comparison to the intensity of the first. Success of the production will rely on the singers’ (Thomas Hampson, Melody Moore, Bill Burden, and four Adleri: Nadine Sierra, Maya Lahyani, Susannah Biller, and Sarah Gartland) ability to deliver charismatic, emotional performances that are intense enough to distract the audience from the fact that there are less moving bits, set changes, and emotional content crammed into the shorter final act than the first. It really drives home the message that this piece is about more than just 9/11.

Underlining the message about everyday heroes with Heart of a Soldier are the host of community events, outreach, and benefits being offered to veterans, firefighters, and other rescue workers, to honor their public service and make the production more accessible to a community demographic that might not otherwise attend the opera. Last night’s final dress rehearsal hosted 1,200 veterans and their families, welcomed by David Gockley and War Memorial Trustee and SF Veterans Memorial Working Committee Co-Chairman MajGen J. Michael Myatt (Ret), who made remarks at the opening about the veterans, their service, and the importance of honoring them through telling Rescorla’s story. The Opera orchestra played “The Star Spangled Banner” before the performance began, which I understand will happen at most performances. Special deals are being offered to different groups of civil and rescue workers, including the veterans, for select performances.

At San Francisco Symphony, whose opening night gala and 100th Birthday Party celebration took place this week, the story, for me, is about the members of the orchestra and the history of the people who’ve served the organization. At an early press conference to announce details of the season, the organization emphasized some new initiatives that put the focus on some of the “heroes” who have served the Symphony and community in sometimes thankless positions: Music for a City, Music for the World, by historian Larry Rothe, chronicles the first 100 years of the SF Symphony, and is getting special press attention in a city that loves its history. In the community, the Symphony is expanding its music education programs, making instrument training more easily available for public school students and helping amateur musicians and singers to get involved in making music.

2011 marks the 10th anniversary for Alexander Barantschik, who is getting extra press, dedicated concerts and recitals, and has been working with MTT since his days at the London Symphony Orchestra. It’s worth checking out this profile from the San Francisco Chronicle, to hear Sasha talk about his relationship with MTT, his family, and his artistic goals for the organization. So refreshing to talk about something besides Mahler for a change.

Speaking of changing things up: Volti (full disclosure: client of mine), a new music vocal ensemble (aka chamber choir), 6-time winner of the ASCAP/Chorus America Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music, has a program all about ordinary heroes in December, which includes Stacy Garrop’s Songs of Lowly Life, which was commissioned for the group and will be included on the final concert at the conclusion of their Choral Institute for High School Singers. Also on the program is Shawn Crouch’s Garden of Paradise (Chanticleer commission), Mark Winges’ Canticles of Rumi (premiere), and Season by Ian Freebairn-Smith, who wrote the theme song to Magnum P.I. If you want something that’s not holiday-themed or saccharine, you can check out my beautiful writing here: Volti Fall 2011 Concerts Celebrate Everyday Heroes.

I can’t mention new music without a nod towards Kronos and WTC 9/11. Here’s hoping the piece delivers and rises above all the noise around the Nonesuch album cover.

Thanks to YBCA, a frequent home of Kronos, we have Big Art Group bringing The People: San Francisco, a multi-media installation at Z Space, “constructed from interviews with members of the local community who voice their thoughts about democracy, war, terrorism and justice as it relates to their personal histories, {and} loosely recreates the story of Aeschylus’ Oresteia.” 

The People: San Francisco is part of a “larger cross-cultural work in which the video choruses from each location will be combined to create a window into the cultural understanding and variation of democratic public expression.” The People—Italy took place in Polverigi, Italy with the participation and support of Inteatro Polverigi in 2007, The People—Germany was presented at Theatre der Welt 2008 in Halle, Germany, and The People—Austria at Szene Salzburg in 2010. The People: NYC will be presented in October, 2011.

I love this emphasis that the Bay Area is bringing to celebrating the normal people – maybe there’s something in the water?

What should one realistically expect in terms of results, especially in the area of media placement? In other words, is there a point where the client should say “Surely by now, you should have been able to get something placed?” Even though there are no guarantees, should there be an underlying unspoken guarantee?

This is tricky – there are a lot of consultants out there, and different people have different styles and expectations. I’m putting on an event in a couple of weeks to address these questions, called “How to Choose the Right PR Solution in a Crowded Market” (I’ll be moderating, and some really experienced speakers that I lovingly call “The Big Boys of PR” will be on the panel: https://www.mogotix.com/events/1882)

With PR, marketing and social media consultants that you want to look at two things as a client: first, what is this person’s track record, and, second, what is the process by which they communicate your message, pursue coverage, and create buzz? Some PR folks “spray and pray” – i.e. send the pitch or press release to lots of journalists, hoping that someone will pick up on the story. Others take the time to find the interesting angles on the story, and share that with a hand-picked list of reporters, based on knowledge of the publication and the value they hope to communicate to their audiences (this is my approach).

There are also different styles of follow-up. Some PR folks will keep pressing the journalist, emailing or calling to “drive the message home.” Others prefer to offer some new detail about the story if they follow-up at all.

You want to trust that your partner/consultant understands both what is important to you and what is timely/relevant to the press, media, and/or target audiences, so that, even if they are not producing results immediately, the work over time will build awareness around the right message. One thing to look for is a publicist whose own “voice” and internet presence reflects the same spirit you hope to communicate. I always prefer to work with clients whose message and core product/personality aligns with my values and beliefs as a consumer.

Measuring PR and communicating value is very tricky, but there are some accepted industry-best practices for managing these concerns (for a quick look at this issue, check out #measurePR on twitter). Even if you don’t see immediate results, you should definitely be getting regular updates and clear communication from your consultant, so that you feel confident your message is in the right hands.

Finding the right publicist can be tricky, but knowing your goals, trusting your instincts, and a little bit of love are the best way to avoid entering into a relationship that may not be right for you.

Mitsuko Uchida and Hahn Bin get name-checked, which is interesting – something about Asian artists? And then we have this gem of a comment:

My high school piano teacher often said, rather shrewdly, that “fifty percent of what an audience thinks they hear, they actually see.” She even had her teenaged students wear short skirts when playing for auditions or competitions if there were male judges! (She was the most successful piano teacher in our large metropolitan area, by the way.)…Someone could write a dissertation on the recent phenomenon of provocatively-dressed young Asian women performing on the piano or violin…This sort of thing – concert artist as geisha – demeans and objectifies the performer and does nothing to enhance the music.

A geisha is a fantastical creature, offering a window into another world: “It is still said that geisha inhabit a separate reality which they call the karyūkai or ‘the flower and willow world.’” Performers, like geishas, offer audiences a glimpse of something other. A brand is a promise, and the promise must offer something that consumers want.

For performers, that promise can span from “you can be as cool as me,” to sexual desire, to something fantastical and ethereal. The traditional promise of classical music performers hearkens back to the Romantic Cult of the Conductor, in which the Genius Performer is elevated on a pedestal above mere mortals. Toscannini, Wagner, and the Beethoven Cult drove this deep into our collective consciousness.Bringing sex into the picture sullies this narrative and provides a jarring reality check that may offend more traditionally-minded audience members, especially given the reverence and worshipful atmosphere that the concert hall can create.

However, as Anne Midgette points out, the idea of a young woman dressing to show her body is common in other kinds of music and entertainment, and has been for many years. It’s amazing how the traditional promise remains ingrained in the expectations of many classical audiences – it reflects a lack of awareness of mainstream culture. This can be especially problematic for traveling performers, whose promise to local audiences may not reflect that of the presenting organization.

On the flip side, when the hip performer is unable to live up to the promise, it turns off once-loyal fans. Some re-invent themselves or find new projects, others drop off the map. It’s important to take the time to define an audience, know who you’re trying to reach, and know what they value and want from their favorite performers. When the promise aligns with their values, then you can wear whatever you want, regardless of what the critics think.

Silicon Valley knows intimately that you can’t prevent creative people from doing something they love: whether it’s an entrepreneur or an artist, or just a lone ranger unwilling to work in institutional structures, the drive to create something can’t be turned off, and the supply can’t be diminished. Simply put, you can’t stop people from being creative (*ahem* Rocco Landesman).

Since people are going to do what they love, one way or another, it is in our communal best interest to provide them with the support they need to dedicate themselves to it full-time: for one thing, just like with a startup, it allows them to create better art. For another, and this is the most important and universal truth in every community in the United States, it allows the artist to give up the side job or public benefits they are collecting to support the core thing they are passionate about.

As a community at large, we don’t need to impose our idea of what a “real job” or what “quality entertainment” looks like on artists or entrepreneurs: if they can find an audience and a userbase for their product, they should have the opportunity and resources to pursue that path. There are hundreds of thousands of unemployed people who may not have the creative drive, and don’t have other options or resources besides those service jobs or public benefits. Allowing artists and entrepreneurs to devote themselves to their core work full-time enables a host of benefits to the community, especially the opportunity for the unemployed to pick up those extra jobs and provide for their families.

Essentially, cutting arts funding is cutting off the government’s nose to spite it’s face: by reducing resources for this community, the federal government will create a new group of creative professionals who don’t have the resources to pay their bills, who will add to our collective debt, who will take away jobs from other unemployed workers, and who will collect more public benefits, from unemployment security to welfare and Medicaid.

The GOP-controlled congress, regardless of individual members’ or the party’s vision on “quality art,” cannot seriously think that cutting the programs designed to provide protection and a support system for these people is a good idea.

How does your classical background affect the music you write and play?
Zoe Keating: I’m very fixated on perfection. It’s not enough for me to just improvise; I care about subtlety and phrasing . I still love classical music, but I feel really boxed in by it and I want to interpret it my own way. I play one classical piece live, which is the 2nd movement of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony. But I always say that my piece is a cover of Beethoven.
Kate Campbell (REDSHIFT, piano): I think you definitely need the technical training with a lot of the pieces — they’re written for a classically-trained musician. I also have a certain loyalty to the score and want to do it perfectly , versus a band which may be a more casual or collaborative situation.

Taken out of context, these comments could express some snobbery or condescension on the part of classically-trained musicians, which is sort of where my friend was going with his criticism.

This pushed a button for me: what IS it about classical music? What is it about all these different kinds of music that we lump under this huge umbrella term? Maybe if we can talk about what makes it special, then we can solve the labeling problem that has plagued our craft (with a hat-tip to Alex Ross).

So, I challenge you people who spend your time thinking about and creating and sharing this music: what distinguishes Steve Reich’s Electric Guitar Phase from Jimi Hendrix’s All Along the Watchtower? What makes a reviewer of a pop or country song call it “symphonic” or a pitchfork reviewer draw comparisons to one of Reich’s contemporaries?

There is clearly a noticeable thing that creates a distinction – otherwise, why would we spend our time banging our heads against the wall? The problem is that we’ve lost/buried the conversation under discussions about pedigree and classiness and tuxes, rather than talking about what makes music good, and why all of the composers that eighth blackbird collaborates with are distinct from the new music that Arcade Fire performs.

I welcome your comments and input – let’s dig into this sensibility. A couple things to throw out: there’s something about the way classical forms hang together and tell a story over the course of a piece, sonically, whether or not it has words. I don’t want to talk about obvious distinctions like instrumentations or musician/composer backgrounds – they don’t always matter, as evidenced by Zoe Keating (sidenote: should I use the umlaut with her name? what are guidelines on this?). I also don’t want to talk about source material, because the new composers/creation trends in our urban centers have music coming from source material/inspiration that traditionally would never have been considered acceptable.

Let’s tackle this issue: why should a random average Joe Schmoe come hear REDSHIFT on Thursday night, bringing a classical sensibility to their work, versus the competing show across the Bay, booked by the same owner? If someone knew nothing about music, why should they care?

Why do leaders of cities around the country think of arts and culture as important priorities? Because when creative activity is happening in large and small ways throughout an area, it creates surprising ripple effects of benefits, even for those who don’t participate directly. The arts ripple effect creates at least two kinds of benefits: 1) in the economic vitality of an area, and 2) in how communities come together and understand each other. In economic terms, theaters, galleries, concerts and so on mean more energy and life in a community, more tourists, more renovated buildings, more people and businesses moving to an appealing place. A vibrant arts environment with music, storytelling, and community art centers also means more people coming together to share experiences and ideas, connecting with each other and understanding each other in new ways. Our city has historically supported the arts and enjoyed the benefits of these ripple effects. We should be proud of what we’ve built, and take responsibility for keeping our investment going.

My newest love is ArtsWave, formerly the Fine Arts Fund of Cincinnati, which has engaged the most sophisticated, forward-looking research and framing science to provide the arts and music community with the language and data we need to build broad support for our work in our local communities. The results are positive, forward-looking, present to the needs of our communities nationally, and the results of these sophisticated research efforts and tools are being shared for free for anyone to access.

The arts have a unique ability to lift individuals and communities to a higher and better state, yet many in the performing disciplines are so focused on other issues, and take this truth for granted, or don’t give it the privileged position it deserves in advocacy, publicity and outreach.

“I think that these days, as a member of the arts community, we have to prove a little more to people why the arts are worth it. It’s become more about proving the legitimacy of things. You can’t just say anymore this is great, go see it . . . I mean, even in terms of arts education. Arts education is becoming more about how can you use the arts to promote normal or regular subjects.”

25-year-old woman, arts educator

Many citizens treasure particular arts and culture experiences very highly, and virtually all acknowledge their value. However, there is often no single category that organizes these thoughts, memories, feelings, etc. into one coherent topic in their minds. The research tells us that, “for insiders, ‘the arts’ is a clear and important category (even if it might be a bit fuzzy at the edges).”

In my experience, this category is breaking down even for insiders, especially as the media landscape is burgeoning with so many “arts” options. “The Arts” has traditionally referred to some kind of “classy” work that we’ve put on a pedestal that quickly became a ghetto from the rest of society. “The specific components that all fall under a single heading for insiders are associated with a variety of distinct topics that are not necessarily closely connected to each other.” Why does classical music get a separate category within “the arts” when any other kind of music is subject to market forces, unless booked under the auspices of a “performing arts center”?

“Since entertainment, particularly professional entertainment, shapes people’s understanding of and relationship to the issue, the arts are subject to the economic thinking that people bring to other products. For example, supply and demand comes up fairly frequently, e.g., if enough people want it, they will pay and it will succeed.”

People who aren’t used to thinking about the arts tend to think in terms of art as a school subject. “Art class,” “art teacher,” etc. are familiar phrases, and discussions of the arts easily trigger such associations. Art and music are not perceived as core subjects, so using arts education as a reason to advocate for your organization simply reinforces the secondary status that these products enjoy in the marketplace and arena of public support.

We have a responsibility to our children, grandchildren and future generations to make this city safer; it isn’t going to make any difference if we have the best museums, etc., in the world if you’re going to get mugged or shot while going to or from them. If we do not clean up the city, no one will go to the museums, etc.

39-year-old man, electrical engineer, Cincinnati

Visit theartswave.org for full details of the research methodology, my new favorite geek term “framing science,” and the re-defined mission and funding priorities that came out of this much-needed work. The report is available for download here. Follow @margyartgrrl, the incredibly sophisticated, brilliant woman who headed up the project and advocates for the use of this approach in all areas of arts advocacy, on Twitter.