Why don't arts organizations have critics in residence?
Lots of arts organizations have blogs on their websites. Most aren't very good, and they're difficult to maintain well. There are many out-of-work critics. And less and less arts coverage in local press. So why not critics-in-residence?
Yeah independence. But let's suspend for a moment the idea that criticism's highest calling is simply to inform consumer choice. If instead the idea is to promote informed and interesting commentary, then who has more of an interest in this than artists and arts organizations? If readers knew that a critic was in residence rather than being paid by a local news organization, they might read the commentary differently, but so what? Would you rather read PR boilerplate that nobody believes or the observations of someone trying to engage with the art, even if they're paid to do so by the institution?
Our ability to judge news sources is much more sophisticated now that it used to be. There is value in a Yelp or Amazon review even if it's not vetted. If the critic in residence was clearly labeled as such, the conflict is transparent and readers could make up their own minds.
There are critics in the traditional press who pander. A critic in residence who pandered wouldn't have much following. But what kind of statement would it make for an arts organization to invite a critic to be really critical and help spread that criticism? Maybe a festival with a beginning and end would be a good testing ground.
Of course there are big ethical issues. But art critics already write catalog essays for museums. Music critics write program notes. Newspapers take ads from arts organizations. Rules have been developed to define the ethics of each situation. Why couldn't there be a critic-in-residence protocol that helped promote intelligent discourse and didn't compromise the reader, the critic or the institution?
I'm not arguing that critics inside arts organizations (hmnnn... embedded critics?) is any kind of substitute for the Times review or NYRB essay. But the definitions, forms and conventions of journalism are being prodded, poked and reconsidered, and the idea maybe deserves some consideration before being dismissed. Currently there's no ethical standard for artsbloggers, yet some bloggers have big influence. If there were standards, who would set them?
While I'm on the topic of institutions criticizing themselves in public, I've always loved The Stranger's long-running Public Editor column, which trashes the contents of each week's issue. Not only is it fun reading, but it declares that The Stranger doesn't take itself too seriously.
Read the original entry here.
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In an era when newspapers are laying off critics, many classical music organizations are proving to be more innovative and resilient than ever. The critic's traditional role, on the other hand - to experience a performance and report on that experience - has not changed much since the 19th century.What should the purpose of a contemporary music critic be? Should he provide a context for the reader, placing the repertoire into a historical framework? Should she report on her own opinion of new work, and if so, what should her background be? What kind of expertise should we expect? And what is the overall purpose of a music review: to report on culture in the community, to drive audiences to (or away from) certain performances, to provide an outlet for the critic's erudition?
Camerata Pacifica wants your thoughts and input! Over the next 6 weeks, we'll be hosting a discussion here in the Listener Forum. On April 14, we'll be hosting a Martini Club event at Roy in Santa Barbara. The topic of the evening will be the same - what is the music critic's role in the 21st century? Moderated by board member David Robertson, panelists will include NancyBell Coe from Music Academy of the West, Andrea Moore from Camerata Pacifica, oboist Nicholas Daniel and Charles Donelan from the Santa Barbara Independent. We hope to see you there, and to hear from you in the meantime.
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Well, we're back on terra americana, and I'm happy to say the tour was a huge success.
We had great audiences who knew how to listen (starting with that fantastic LA horde on April 22); great musicians who, for the most part, took the vagaries of touring with a small group with grace and good humor; and responsive, engaged press.
While staff members took a few days off after our return (I slept quite a bit, having never really gotten over jetlag while on tour) some of the musicians went straight into rehearsal for other things the night they arrived in the US. By now I think we're all back to normal, whatever that is.
Now we're looking ahead a few days to the last concerts of the season! Hard to believe. These will be lovely shows, featuring the principal piano quartet in works by Schumann, Grieg and Mozart.
I will continue to post pictures from the tour from time to time; until then, it's been a pleasure bringing you the news and I hope to see you at a concert in the next week or so.
-Andrea
Brass on tour
The happy Mr. Spence!
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Time has gone by really quickly on this tour! We've played Dublin and London and have only Belfast to go.
Dublin, the city felt really familiar when we got back there on Wednesday, having wandered through its center on Sunday and Monday. The concert at the National Concert Hall Wednesday night was well-attended, and once again the audience was incredibly receptive. Ian Wilson has been at many of these concerts and the audiences seem especially happy to have a composer in their midst. I don't know what programming is like in Ireland and the UK, and I read about a lot of new music over here, but I don't think it's as prevalent as it is in the US, and I definitely don't think it's as integrated into mainstream chamber music programming.
The Dublin concert also yielded a pretty amazing review, which you can read above.
On Thursday, most of us piled into cabs and went to Áras an Uachtaráin, the official residence of the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese. (After a week in Ireland, I can almost pronounce the name of the place, but only by ear - not at all by looking at it on paper. Phonics, anyone??) Each of us shook hands with her and had our picture taken (those will post soon), followed by tea and coffee. It was a pretty unusual opportunity - meeting a head of state, through chamber music no less - and she was welcoming and gracious. As a total outsider to Irish culture (not a drop of Irish blood as far as I know), I've been amazed at the pride people here feel in the country and what it stands to produce and accomplish in the 21st century. It's a very nice thing to witness, actually, and I've found the idea of that pride infectious - where this country has been in comparison to where it is and where it's going, is something we can all take pride in.
So, tonight the ensemble played at Wigmore Hall. I've heard about this place for years, but now I understand why it really is one of the best chamber music halls in the world. I've been listening to this program for 10 days, and I felt tonight as though I was hearing something entirely new. When Warren came in for the first time in the Harbison, the sound was enormous - it reminded me of those old Memorex print ads, with the guy in the chair being blown backwards by the sound. You can hear absolutely everything in the hall. This was a pretty sophisticated audience, too, and they were very quiet (except for the guy with the endless rustling, who would not be deterred by fierce looks, even from Jordan Christoff), letting the musicians occupy the sonic space. The Harbison seemed especially energetic tonight, and I'd be surprised if many in the house had heard it before - fairly recent American music probably doesn't get a lot of play here. The audience seemed completely entranced by the Brahms as well. Warren took a lot of time at the end of the piece, letting the sound fade away, but also letting the feeling of the piece dissolve organically in time, rather than bolting from the bench (Warren never bolts from the bench, but some pianists do).
But it was the Wilson that really sounded new to me tonight. For the first time, I felt I was hearing how the piece goes together, hearing the different colors pop out of the brass and woodwinds, feeling the intensity of the strings, and also getting to feel the piece structurally. And the emotional impact, which the piece has been having on audiences throughout the tour, was especially great in a place where the musical impact could be entirely felt.
So that's it! We're off to Belfast in the early morning for our final concert, tomorrow night. Don't know that I'll check in here following that concert - we leave the next morning at 4:30 AM and I may just spend those last few Irish hours in the pub.
AM
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From the Irish Times:
Catherine Leonard, Camerata Pacifica
NCH, Dublin
Induce a dozen and more high-ranking soloists to take time out of their busy global schedules to give chamber-music concerts in California, and you have the miracle of modern artistic organisation that is Camerata Pacifica.
Three of its members happen to be Irish: clarinettist Carol McGonnell, principal violinist Catherine Leonard, and principal flautist and founding artistic director Adrian Spence. So too is the ensemble's associate composer, Ian Wilson. Though Camerata Pacifica is now in its 19th season, this is its first international tour, taking in the wider US, Ireland and England.
Wednesday's appearance at the National Concert Hall had also been billed as a Composer's Choice concert for Wilson. Yet, owing not least to the forcible idealism of Spence's programme notes and spoken introductions, it took on wider proportions.
It was a celebration of 10 years since the Good Friday Agreement, it was the fulfilment of lofty mission statements, and it was a powerful assertion of the relevance of contemporary composition.
Above all, it was music-making of the highest quality.
The programme, which totals barely an hour's listening, is calculated less to appeal than to challenge. John Harbison's relentlessly objective Piano Quintet (1981) creates an emotional hunger that's more than satisfied by Wilson's richly subjective Messenger (1999/2006).
Originally scored for full orchestra, this four-movement violin concerto was given its first performance by Leonard in 2001. Now condensed for 13 instruments, the latest version reduces the forces, but not their intense effectiveness.
It's a memorable piece for many reasons, but especially for strongly idiomatic solo writing that places the traditional virtuosities - gliding position changes, cantilenas, trills, double stops and dazzling passages - in newly poignant surroundings.
Wilson can be optimistic that it will be more widely taken up. How many violinists will bring the solo part nearer to perfection than Leonard does is harder to predict.
ANDREW JOHNSTONE
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