Audience Engagement
Submitted by Jim Hirsch on Tue, 04/29/2008 - 7:19am.
A couple of strange things have crossed my computer screen this week and I would really love to get your opinion about them.
Earlier this week a friend emailed me an article about a robot conducting an orchestra. Okay, hold the jokes about conductors for a second. Honda’s ASIMO humanoid robot will take command of the baton in Detroit on May 13 and will conduct the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as it performs Impossible Dream to open a concert performance featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
I think we can all agree that robots are unlikely to replace humans on the podium anytime soon. What’s interesting about this is that Honda is a major donor to DSO, and one gets the feeling that putting ASIMO on the podium might somehow be tied to the sponsorship. I’m all for acknowledging the wonderful corporate partners who support our work, but does this go too far?
Another item that caught my eye was from the League of American Orchestra’s newsletter. Apparently classical composers and folk musicians are collaborating on creating new music for orchestras. Not exactly a new idea given the use of folk music themes throughout classical music history, but up until recently, using folk influences was considered déclassé. How do you feel about this renewed interest in vernacular music?
Finally, speaking of traditional music, the Chicago Sinfonietta will be presenting the world premiere of Three Songs for Blues Singer and Orchestra created by composer/arranger Larry Hoffman on May 11th and 12th featuring Muddy Water’s long-time guitarist, John Primer. We are pleased to offer registered users of this site a “hot deal” to attend this concert that will also feature pianist Leon Bates performing Rhapsody in Blue and Pictures at an Exhibition performed with a never-before-seen video created by astronomer and video artist José Francisco Salgado.
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Submitted by Jim Hirsch on Thu, 04/17/2008 - 11:13am.
I haven’t posted for a while but I do have a good excuse. In the last few weeks the Chicago Sinfonietta presented it’s Celebration of Women in Classical Music concerts that generated one of the best reviews we’ve ever received, Paul Freeman and I traveled to San Francisco to participate in a meeting convened by the Wallace Foundation, and last weekend, we hosted our Annual Ball that featured a scintillating performance by international superstar, Denyce Graves. Today feels like the first time I’ve been able to take a breath for weeks!
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Last Saturday (April 5) marked the premiere of Introductions, a brand-new weekly program on 98.7 WFMT (Saturdays from 11:00am-12:00pm) which features Chicago-area pre-collegiate musicians doing what they love most; playing classical music.
"It's important to reach out specifically to this younger audience which is enthusiastic about classical music, that we hadn't tried to explicitly attract until now," said David Polk, the show's producer. "I'm excited that I get to expand WFMT's reach and pioneer new ways to connect with audiences via the airwaves and also the internet."
Read more about Introductions and Polk in this article in the recent TimeOut! Magazine.
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Social network services on the Internet come and go; a while ago MySpace was the dominant service, now it is equaled, and soon undoubtedly surpassed, by Facebook in traffic. There are dozens of other popular services, such as Orkut and Friendster, and probably thousands of small, niche-market sites.
What’s an arts organization to do with all this new media? Jason Heath
talks about it in a video (in which he mentions Chicago Classical Music as an excellent example). In the last section, he talks about Facebook (“more and more Facebook over Myspace,” according to Jason).
Facebook didn’t start out very business friendly, but there have always been ways for fans of different organizations to express their love. The most commonly used way was Facebook Groups. Some of CCM’s Participating Organizations have these groups (I’m not sure which were started by fans and which were started by the organization:
Ars Antiqua;
Chicago Chamber Musicians;
Grand Park Music Festival;
Ravinia Festival). The CSO has several, all started by fans.
Then in November of last year, Facebook launched Facebook Pages. Two CCM organizations have already established a presence:
Chicago Opera Theater and
WFMT. Today, we launched
our own Facebook page. There are obvious marketing benefits to having a page for your own organization, but I believe the main strength is building a community and participate (just like CCM aims to do).
So go explore Facebook and if you have an account, be sure to
become a fan of the CSO. If you do so before this Friday, April 11, you enter for a chance to win the latest recording from our new CSO Resound label,
Mahler’s Symphony No. 6,
signed by Principal Conductor Bernard Haitink.
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Okay, the annual ritual of program selection is done. Another year is set for Chicago a cappella. Woo hoo!
What are we going to sing? I want to tell you about the research part, and I'll give you a sneak peek in the process.
In the fall of 2008, we're doing a new program called The British are Coming! -- a celebration of the finest English a cappella choral music, reaching all the way back to the 15th century and going to the present day. Actually, we'll start with recent music, work our way backwards in time, and then return to the present.
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Submitted by Jim Hirsch on Tue, 03/18/2008 - 4:10pm.
I was driving to work one morning a few weeks ago and NPR ran a story about violinist Tasmin Little. The story was about a 
series of recordings she has made that feature solo, or naked violin, if you will, that she is offering as free downloads on her website. Check out the NPR broadcast and then hit Tasmin’s site for some wonderful music – at no charge!
Speaking of wonderful music made by talented women, the Sinfonietta’s March 30-31 concerts are dedicated to music made, conducted, and composed by women. Chicagoclassicalmusic.org has a “hot deal” listed for this concert that you can access if you are a registered user of this site.
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Submitted by Jim Hirsch on Thu, 03/06/2008 - 11:10am.
I have a favor to ask of you. In November 2008 The Chicago Sinfonietta will partner with the Chicago Humanities Festival in musically exploring the year’s Festival theme, “THINK BIG”. We invite you to help us realize our 'big idea" for a concert by joining us in selecting the most transformative classical music compositions ever written -- works from various eras that truly changed the rules and affected everything that came after. We will perform two of the selections at Chicago's Symphony Center on Monday, November 10th at 7:30 p.m. And to "change the game" even more, we hope to either present a live streaming broadcast that evening (so you can hear the winning selections regardless of where you are) or post the performance as a downloadable video file on our website.
Let your voice be heard! A panel of experts has shared its ideas for “game-changing” nominees and you can vote right now at the
Chicago Sinfonietta’s website. Make your selection from the experts' list, or if you disagree, feel free to write in your own.
Thanks for voting – and please pass this link on to others!
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Submitted by Jim Hirsch on Tue, 02/26/2008 - 9:00am.
I don’t know how many of you saw Gustavo Dudamel’s recent appearance on 60 Minutes. If you didn’t see it, use the link enclosed in this post. It takes about 13 minutes and is well worth the time.
It seems to me that Dudamel is the type of charismatic artist who will attract people to the concert hall, get people to purchase recordings/downloads, and make the concert experience attractive and exciting for diverse audiences. I predict that the Los Angeles Philharmonic will be seeing some new faces in the seats when he begins his tenure as their music director. He may be the Bernstein of our time.
Kudos to the very smart people at the Los Angeles Philharmonic for hiring this budding superstar. I’m guessing that a fair number of orchestras who are looking for music directors will end up wishing they had gotten Gustavo.
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Submitted by Jim Hirsch on Mon, 02/18/2008 - 2:41pm.
As most of you know, we made some changes to this website in December. We now offer registered users free music downloads thanks to our member organizations, NAXOS, and Music Giants, access to some special offers from member organizations under the “Hot Deals” section, and a few other enhancements. We would love to hear how feel about these changes. At some point I’m sure we will ask you to provide more detailed information via a survey, but as a quick check-in, I’m hoping that some of you will share some anecdotal feedback right now.
Please hit the reply link and let us know if you like the free downloads, the “Hot Deals”, the periodic emails, and be sure to mention anything you think is missing. Thanks for the feedback!!
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Thanks to everyone who logged in to ChicagoClassicalMusic.org during our relaunch for the last couple of weeks. Below is the list of randomly selected winners of our free ticket and subscription giveaway. If you are a user on this list, please expect an email from me with more information on how to claim your prize. If you haven't won a prize, keep checking back on ChicagoClassicalMusic.org for future giveaways and more!
| User |
Prize |
Donated by |
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| hautbois614 |
4 full length CDS |
Cedille Records |
| ghalsell |
4 full length CDS |
Cedille Records |
| Jeff_Turk |
4 full length CDS |
Cedille Records |
| fuerzamaya |
4 full length CDS |
Cedille Records |
| victor408 |
4 full length CDS |
Cedille Records |
| |
|
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| flyingpickle |
2 tickets - Romanticism and Rock n Roll |
Chicago a cappella |
| sdixon17 |
2 tickets - Romanticism and Rock n Roll |
Chicago a cappella |
| lmissitzis |
2 tickets - Romanticism and Rock n Roll |
Chicago a cappella |
| joycemcgreevy |
2 tickets - Romanticism and Rock n Roll |
Chicago a cappella |
| hwebb82 |
2 tickets - Romanticism and Rock n Roll |
Chicago a cappella |
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| Charles R Mattenson |
A Level Subscription for 2008 season |
Chicago Opera Theater |
| |
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| Mary Prindiville |
Front Balcony Subscriptions (3 concerts) |
Chicago Philharmonic |
| heidilevin |
Front Balcony Subscriptions (3 concerts) |
Chicago Philharmonic |
| Frank Lee |
Front Balcony Subscriptions (3 concerts) |
Chicago Philharmonic |
| |
|
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| debrav |
Three Concert Subscription |
Chicago Sinfonietta |
| chapulin |
Three Concert Subscription |
Chicago Sinfonietta |
| |
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| Norm Raidl |
2 tickets |
Chicago Symphony Orchestra |
| myoirene |
2 tickets |
Chicago Symphony Orchestra |
| lmaloney |
2 tickets |
Chicago Symphony Orchestra |
| Edie Fitts |
2 tickets |
Chicago Symphony Orchestra |
| Impressionist |
2 tickets |
Chicago Symphony Orchestra |
| |
|
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| Jeremy Kazan |
1 season ticket |
Fulcrum Point |
| Natalie Holden |
1 season ticket |
Fulcrum Point |
| Robbie Dee |
1 season ticket |
Fulcrum Point |
| devlinm |
1 season ticket |
Fulcrum Point |
| |
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| JimInLoganSquare |
pair of season tickets - 8 concerts |
Grant Park Music Festival |
| tgraham |
pair of season tickets - 8 concerts |
Grant Park Music Festival |
| dontrombone |
pair of season tickets - 8 concerts |
Grant Park Music Festival |
| Robert E. Zeitner |
pair of season tickets - 8 concerts |
Grant Park Music Festival |
| hrhtina |
pair of season tickets - 8 concerts |
Grant Park Music Festival |
| Chicago Girl |
pair of season tickets - 8 concerts |
Grant Park Music Festival |
| Boo Radley |
pair of season tickets - 8 concerts |
Grant Park Music Festival |
| bruno_fasat |
pair of season tickets - 8 concerts |
Grant Park Music Festival |
| Adrianm |
pair of season tickets - 8 concerts |
Grant Park Music Festival |
| lmatnip |
pair of season tickets - 8 concerts |
Grant Park Music Festival |
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| Behty Harrison |
two section a seats for GIGI |
Light Opera Works |
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| watsons |
2 tickets |
Rembrandt Chamber Players |
| Christopher.doherty@gmail.com |
2 tickets |
Rembrandt Chamber Players |
| elyse |
2 tickets |
Rembrandt Chamber Players |
| ebseifert |
2 tickets |
Rembrandt Chamber Players |
| Carole29a |
2 tickets |
Rembrandt Chamber Players |
| internalmethods |
2 tickets |
Rembrandt Chamber Players |
| dennyg309 |
2 tickets |
Rembrandt Chamber Players |
| tom cusick |
2 tickets |
Rembrandt Chamber Players |
| Linda Rosencranz |
2 tickets |
Rembrandt Chamber Players |
| KatyK |
2 tickets |
Rembrandt Chamber Players |
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