“There was a disconnect to Mercury Soul that couldn’t be solved, no matter how clean the cross-fade between DJ and orchestra. The audience was entreated to dance to standard-issue house music and pedestrian pop fare (“Billie Jean,” Prince’s “Controversy”), but only for 15 minutes at a time. Meanwhile, Roumain shredded on his violin — impressive and novel, certainly, but not particularly conducive to dancing. There were also conflicting codes of conduct — the audience didn’t know exactly when to applaud, clap along to the beat or talk among themselves.”
Category: AUDIENCE
Philadelphia Orchestra Launches On-Demand Streaming Audio
Orchestra on Demand “offers a sprinkling of concerts from current and past seasons, dating back to Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s inaugural 2012-13 season as music director. Additional content includes concerts by former music director Wolfgang Sawallisch.”
Sacking Of Shakespeare’s Globe Director Is *Not* About Lighting And Decor She Chose
Matt Trueman: “She’s clearly been pushed, but it’s the speed that’s so shocking. The decision comes at the end of her very first season … Rice has challenged a hell of a lot in a short space of time – too much, too soon it now seems.”
Diversity Might Be Good For Canada. But Will It Translate To The Theatre Box Office?
In a much-shared speech last year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: “We know that Canada has succeeded – culturally, politically, economically – because of our diversity, not in spite of it.” But it’s still not known whether greater diversity and inclusion are good for the bottom line in the arts.
How The UK’s Video Game Industry Demonstrated Its Impact To Policy-Makers
“For many, feeling forced to demonstrate evidence of the impact of something as personal as art can be more than unsettling. Concerns that any attempt to measure impacts may not sufficiently capture the work’s full effects is understandable. But with art there is always an impact.”
Report: Fear Is The Biggest Barrier To Diversity In the Arts
The third and final report on the survey, which was published this week, revealed that the sector is split on whether or not audiences actually resist ‘more diverse artistic product’, but this appears to be enough to put organisations off programming, producing and exhibiting it. Respondents indicated that these fears are compounded by ‘inadequate funding’. One respondent said: “When you are struggling to survive, your priorities and passions focus on playing to the paying gallery! We become risk-averse and for us, this means programming rich old white acts for a rich old white audience.”
Canada Will Be 150 Years Old Next Year And There Will Be Big Celebrations. But What Culture Are We Celebrating?
“What effect will all this well-meaning cultural, environmental and athletic activity produce? As the optimistic descriptions washed over me, I had to remind myself that public celebrations of a national birthday can indeed be transformative: just look at centennial year. To author and historian Pierre Berton, it may have been “the last good year,” as he would subtitle his history of 1967 published in 1997, but to those of us who were very young in the Summer of Love, the centennial celebrations shone a warm light into our childhoods that we have carried with us through life.”
What We Learned About Audiences This Week: An Uber For Classical Music? Threats To Our Attention Spans
This Week: Live classical music on demand, in your living room!… Is being always connected killing our ability to follow complex art?… The Smithsonian Wants your money to preserve Wizard of Oz ruby slippers… Researchers say it’s probably alright to let babies play with screens… Alvin Ailey company engages audiences in its second home in a charged way.
Making Streaming More Accessible – And Interesting
“Something of a radical step forward for film accessibility is the ‘enhanced soundtrack version,’ which all but disregards the film’s visuals and instead constructs an entirely new version of the film through purely sonic means. Expressionistic sound design is used to create aural reconstructions of key episodes from Hull’s life, while additional excerpts from his diaries fill in any narrative gaps.”
How Do You Get The Attention Of A Nation Binge-Watching The Presidential Election?
“At BookPeople in Austin, Texas, summertime sales of general fiction titles fell 12% from last year, while science fiction took a 26% hit. ‘I guess they don’t need science fiction because they’re getting so much in politics,’ says Steve Bercu, who is co-owner of the 46-year-old store. Sales of books about politics and current events, he said, surged 45% during the same period.”