I find it very interesting that the title in the URL is "How Maria Schneider Reinvented the Classical Sound." (Italics mine.) The article itself is by the young NYT music write Zachary Wolfe, who writes primarily about classical music, and is not one of the Times's jazz/pop writers.
Schneider, who studied at mainline music schools (U of Minnesota, Eastman, U of Miami), has been best known as a jazz/big band arranger and leader. Her latest project? A collaboration with the top-of-the-classical-world soprano Dawn Upshaw, on a recording that uses the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the St. Paul (Minnesota) Chamber Orchestra. It's called Winter Morning Walks.
Is it jazz? Is it classical? There's probably no answer, because we have entered what Joe Horowitz terms a post-classical era, one in which not only has the hierarchy of musics (ie., musical genres) disintegrated, but also the very idea of distinct musical genres no longer has controlling force. For now, we (in this class) are just calling this "21st century music."
It used to be that most classical musicians looked down at jazz. Look at how different things are now. Dawn Upshaw asks a jazz composer to write for her.
She [Schneider] worked for years to flesh out the orchestral elements in her style of jazz, through her debut, “Evanescence” (1994), a combination of brassiness and lightness; “Allegresse” (2000), with its Brazilian accents; and her 2004 masterpiece, “Concert in the Garden,” whose pieces have the sweep and drama of tone poems. But what she had not done until recently was write for an actual orchestra, with its full complement of strings and its lack of improvisation. It was not long after “Concert in the Garden” that she met the soprano Dawn Upshaw, who came to prominence singing Mozart at the Metropolitan Opera in the 1980s and emerged as a bold advocate for contemporary music. Upshaw had gotten in the habit of attending Schneider’s band’s annual Thanksgiving-week performances at the Jazz Standard in Manhattan.“It was about the third year that I was there when I thought to myself, Wow, I wonder if she would ever consider writing anything for me.” Upshaw said. “I know that our worlds don’t collide typically, but what would happen if we tried to do something together?” Schneider had never incorporated lyrics before, and Upshaw sensed she was anxious. “But she was game,” she added. “And it’s one of the best musical experiences that I’ve ever had.”
Take a look at mariaschneider.com. There's the new album, on the landing page. (Somewhat surprisingly, Dawn doesn't have a website aimed at fans and followers, although there is a lot about her on her management's site and a smaller amount on her recording label's site.)
As the NYT article details, Schneider decided awhile back to dispense with a commercial recording label and work with ArtistShare. Her albums are funded by fans and backers, not by a label. You can only get the album from ArtistShare (you can buy it through Amazon, for example, but it's actually sold by ArtistShare).
Here's the important thing. For funders, there are a ton of videos in which they have been able to follow the creative process.
This is the age of personal connection. Justin Kantor says if you have a personal connection with 5000 people, you don't need to worry about finding a manager, a publicist, etc., because they will come find you.
How has Maria Schenieder been connecting?
She uses all the resource at ArtistShare, including the videos. (I just became a funder on your behalf, so we can watch some in class.)
She has an email list (there's a link on the home page of her site).
She has a Facebook page.
She has a Twitter feed.
And that brings us to the three most common social-media ways of staying connected with your professional friends, fans, and followers: video (usually YouTube), Facebook, and Twitter. Blogging used to be a big thing, but it has been overtaken by Facebook and Twitter.
In class we'll look at how some other "21c" artists are using video, FB, and Twitter to stay in touch.
(Update Thursday morning)
We'll use the versatile cellist and SoM alum Jon Silpayamanant as a case study.
- website
- YouTube
- Wordpress Blog
- Google+
- ReverbNation
- Songkick
- MySpace (which evidently still exists!)
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