not your average concert July 14, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : appreciation/criticism, bloggers, chamber music, summer festivals, add a comment
James Bash, one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet, met up with a patron at a recent Chamber Music Northwest concert who contributed in a significant way to his concert experience - by vomiting all over his back! Yech!
Maybe CMNW should have air sick bags tucked into their seats for upcoming concerts?
You can read all about it (and about how the concert went) by clicking here.
the critical diaspora July 9, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : News, appreciation/criticism, bloggers, music, portland, the orchestra world, 9commentsThere’s been a lot of coverage lately of the dismissal/downsizing of some of the nation’s top print classical music critics. And there should have been. Newspapers are one of the primary ways that orchestras communicate and market to their target audiences. Check out these statistics, courtesy of the Newspaper Association of America (NAA):
- 74% of newspaper readers are 45 years of age or older
- 51% of newspaper subscribers earn more than $50K
- 53% of newspaper subscribers have attended college and/or have earned advanced degrees
Sounds a lot like the average symphony attendee, doesn’t it?
Plus, with orchestras being in such a fragile state financially, having trained journalists with long experience (and the accountability that should go with a position at a daily or weekly paper) covering their beats is essential.
As a blogger who makes no claims to being a journalist, either in an amateur or professional capacity, I’m concerned about rumor-mongering and innuendo that could place livelihoods and the health of entire organizations in danger.
That’s not to say that there aren’t some excellent arts bloggers out there, but I find that I put a lot more faith in those who have either had a print journalism background or those who are currently active in the field of print journalism.
I’m not sure why the newspapers are shooting themselves in the foot (or other, less strategically desirable body parts), but I hope that our hometown daily, the Oregonian, keeps their one full-time classical music critic around for years to come.
Seattle loses long-time music critic - is Portland next? May 12, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : appreciation/criticism, music, portland, seattle, add a commentMelinda Bargreen, classical music critic in Seattle for the past 30 years, has accepted a buy-out from the Seattle Times as part of a restructuring of the paper’s staff. You can read her last column here.
Now read this blog entry by our lone full-time classical music critic here in Portland, David Stabler of the Oregonian. I’d be tempted to say that it sounds like we might lose our classical music critic sooner rather than later, too. The question to be asked might be, is the paper cutting staff or has Stabler just burned out on covering a growing music scene? Every critic has his/her own supporters and detractors, and that’s certainly the case with Stabler, but he has, until lately, done an excellent job of writing articles that keep the arts front and center in the consciousness of the city, and which have provoked a lot of lively discussion.
I hope that it’s just a moment of end-of-season ennui on his part, because Portland’s arts organizations are struggling enough as it is without having to worry about losing coverage in the state’s largest daily newspaper.
alex ross - rockstar January 29, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : News, appreciation/criticism, music, add a comment
Alex Ross, classical music critic for the New Yorker, and critically-acclaimed author of the critically-acclaimed book The Rest is Noise, and bloggie-nominated-finalist blogger, will appear on the Colbert Report tonight, Tuesday January 29, 2008 (guest subject to change, would be the required caveat). Go figure!
