Does childhood music education help build future audiences? Are orchestras taking the wrong direction in their efforts to connect with communities? In two controversial opinion columns this week, Washington Post classical music critic Anne Midgette grapples with these hot topics. Her conclusion: There is “a certain futility to orchestras putting all of their outreach eggs into the school education basket.”
The new issue of SymphonyNOW offers an open forum for your views on Midgette’s columns. Have your say by clicking on the SymphonyNOW banner on The Hub. Also new this week on SymphonyNOW: we catch up with some of the more than 1,000 musicians who performed free public outdoor concerts during Make Music New York—and we hear from a music critic who thinks that there’s just too much music on city streets. Plus, Ed Sanders, one of the masterminds behind the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, which attracted 33 million viewers online, talks about why YouTube supports classical music, and League President and CEO Jesse Rosen tells you how to access the many League resources that can help orchestras in tough times.
SymphonyNOW is the League’s new, online-only publication that provides timely stories about orchestras on a weekly basis. You’ll find SymphonyNOW on the right-hand side of the Hub homepage.
Posted June 30, 2011
