{"id":1526,"date":"2008-12-11T12:22:01","date_gmt":"2008-12-11T20:22:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=1526"},"modified":"2008-12-11T12:22:01","modified_gmt":"2008-12-11T20:22:01","slug":"orchestral-hustle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/11\/orchestral-hustle\/","title":{"rendered":"orchestral hustle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Levine writes a great response<\/a> (as usual) to Holly Mulcahy’s article on how to alienate your audience, and address in particular the issue of musicians not smiling during performances.<\/p>\n

Here’s what he says:<\/p>\n

But two of her points were not as well taken, I thought.<\/p>\n

1) Never smile. You are a serious musician who has spent hours honing your craft. Indeed, most concertgoers aren’t likely to understand the full depth of your artistic understanding. In order to make sure they understand this, it is best to project a brooding manner at all times. This is best accomplished by maintaining stoic expressions at all time, even onstage or when the audience responds to a truly triumphant performance with enthusiastic applause.<\/p>\n

Granted, it is impossible to maintain a smile at all times during periods of intense concentration but an appreciative audience likes to know you are not pissed at them for showing up and enjoying a concert when they are applauding. It never hurts to remember that no one likes a martyr and you should respond to sincere applause with affirmative body language (yes, even a smile).<\/p>\n

To some extent, she corrects herself with the line about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153intense concentration,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but I still believe she misses the point. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect pitchers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or batters \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to smile while they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re at work. We do expect them to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hustle.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It may be that what Holly is asking for is the orchestral equivalent of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hustle.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Go about 1\u00e2\u20ac\u212250\u00e2\u20ac\u009d into this video<\/a> and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see a pretty good example. No one smiles during this performance (except the conductor, and he shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t). But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pretty compelling nonetheless.<\/p>\n

I wrote more about this subject a few months ago here<\/a>, if you want a more detailed exposition of why I think American orchestras should look more like Berlin when they play.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s the video that he references:<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Levine writes a great response (as usual) to Holly Mulcahy’s article on how to alienate your audience, and address in particular the issue of musicians not smiling during performances. Here’s what he says: But two of her points were not as well taken, I thought. 1) Never smile. You are a serious musician who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[225,848,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bloggers","category-outreach-music","category-the-orchestra-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-oC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1478,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/01\/a-couple-good-music-articles-on-the-web\/","url_meta":{"origin":1526,"position":0},"title":"a couple good music articles on the web","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"First, violinist Holly Mulcahy over at The Partial Observer writes an amusing (but very serious) article about behaviors which musicians are apt to endulge in (but shouldn't), entitled How to Alienate Your Audience in 10 Easy Steps: Musicians. Here's a teaser: An engaged, enthusiastic, and diverse audience is one of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3206,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/10\/06\/context-is-good\/","url_meta":{"origin":1526,"position":1},"title":"context is good","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I've heard from quite a few audience members that they were perplexed by David Stabler's pan of the Oregon Symphony's season opening classical series concert.\u00a0 There has also been the usual grumbling from within the orchestra about the review - not just in its conclusions, but also its tone and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4413,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/04\/12\/zukermans-taut-thighs\/","url_meta":{"origin":1526,"position":2},"title":"zukerman’s taut thighs","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A colleague in the orchestra sent me quite possibly the most bizarre music review that I've ever read.\u00a0 It was written in 1983 for the Nevada newspaper Desert Aria by Lisa Coffey, when Zukerman was married to a previous wife (not Amanda Forsyth).\u00a0 Bear that in mind when you read\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "soloists & recitals"","block_context":{"text":"soloists & recitals","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/soloists-recitals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1656,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/29\/early-reaction-to-berlin-video-experiment\/","url_meta":{"origin":1526,"position":3},"title":"early reaction to berlin video experiment","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Ilkka Talvi Ilkka Talvi, former concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony, writes a nice blog (Of Music & Men) as well as doing a lot of high level teaching in the Seattle area.\u00c2\u00a0 He recently signed up for the new Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall series of concerts, and here's what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"talvi","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/talvi-139x200.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":925,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/04\/12\/concert-decorum\/","url_meta":{"origin":1526,"position":4},"title":"concert decorum","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 12, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Tonight was our first Portland performance of the current classical series (we had a run-out concert last night in Newberg). \u00c2\u00a0As usual, OSO president Elaine Calder came out to welcome the audience and to give nods to the major sponsors for the evening's concert, and to reiterate the announcement of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "fundraising"","block_context":{"text":"fundraising","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/fundraising\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3283,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/10\/21\/new-cellist-joins-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":1526,"position":5},"title":"new cellist joins symphony","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Marilyn de Oliveira We know that we're lucky to have Marilyn de Oliveira join us as our new Assistant principal (or as one dubious friend of mine likes to say \"ass prince\") cellist this season. She's a vital and sensitive artist, but also brings a brilliant smile and equally brilliant\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Marilyn at concert.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/voices.mysanantonio.com\/jackfishman\/assets_c\/2009\/08\/Marilyn%20at%20concert-thumb-225x300-1609.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}