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Tooting Your Own Horn

Thursday, October 13th, 2011

by Edna Landau

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

Hi, Edna. My name is Caitlin Mehrtens and I’m a first year harp student at the Oberlin Conservatory. I have a question about being humble and marketing oneself as a musician. I have struggled in part with balancing being humble and writing a bio or practicing my “elevator speech”. I feel like one can completely turn someone off from themselves by being too forward or boisterous in an introduction. What do you recommend in this situation? Where is the balance between sparking someone’s interest and being overpowering in listing impressive accomplishments? Thank you so much for your time.  —Caitlin Mehrtens

Dear Ms. Mehrtens:

Thank you for writing with such an interesting question. It struck a chord with me because I was brought up to be humble and perhaps even self-effacing about my accomplishments. As an artist, you are joining a community in which it is expected that musicians will have a current bio summarizing their accomplishments. Nothing about such a bio would appear boastful unless the writer employed superlatives that could be considered questionable. An artist who is described as “in great demand throughout North America” had better truly have a busy schedule. An artist whose bio states that they “captivated audiences with their compelling performances” should have some concrete critical acclaim that attests to that. The people who will matter in your performance career will generally disregard vague, unsubstantiated verbiage and focus on the actual achievements enumerated in the bio. They will look for signs that the artist is an interesting individual and performer. Musical signs might include choice of repertoire, commissioned works, construction of programs or interesting collaborations with fellow musicians. If you have been entrepreneurial in your activities to date, perhaps having started your own festival, brought concerts to seniors who couldn’t leave their residences or established a harp and poetry series at a local bookstore on weekends, it will tell them more about you than some vague unsubstantiated adjectives. Although bios don’t usually contain quotes in them, it is all right to start a bio with a phrase such as “hailed by the Cleveland Plain Dealer as a most accomplished and riveting artist” (their words, not yours!). However, bios that are dotted with phrases or sentences in quotes are cumbersome to read and also frustrating, when the reader is simply trying to get at the facts. Such review quotes are better left to a page of review excerpts or the acclaim section of a website. As to your “elevator speech” or chance encounter with anyone who might prove helpful to you some day, the key element is your naturalness and ability to genuinely convey enthusiasm for something that is very important to you. If you say “a year ago, I never thought I would have an opportunity to make a recording but now, thanks to Kickstarter.com, I was able to raise $8000 and I’m excited that it will be available for sale next week,” no one will find that boastful. They will admire your initiative. If you enter a competition and you triumph over 50 other contestants, you would be justified to feel proud of your accomplishment. If you say “I just returned from Israel where I spent a week participating in a harp competition; I would have been happy to even get into the Finals but I’m so excited that I won,” you share an accomplishment with a touch of humility that almost anyone would find admirable.

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

© Edna Landau 2011

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Suggestions for Managing Your Image on YouTube

Thursday, September 29th, 2011

by Edna Landau

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

I am grateful to several colleagues who assisted me in preparing my response to the following question: the distinguished entertainment attorney, Donald Franzen, and his associate, Mark Robertson; Jaime Campbell Morton, who is a viral marketing and social networking expert and who founded Artspromo, and Lacey Huszcza, director of advancement at the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and a social media expert in her own right. I encourage our readers to contribute their comments on this subject since I am sure there is considerably more to be said and a good deal to be learned from their own experiences.

Dear Edna:

I have a question that I hope will be of interest to other people as well as myself. I am a 15-year-old aspiring musician and am fortunate to have already had some wonderful opportunities to perform publicly. My question regards what I should do when people in the audience video my performances and then upload them to YouTube without first checking with me to see if this is ok. I am coming to realize that via YouTube, a performance that I give can extend far beyond the four walls of the venue in which I play. I may have been very happy with the performance I gave but the video that I discover on YouTube may be significantly less favorable in quality from the point of view of the recorded sound or visual images. I don’t want to have to track down everyone who posts something without my consent. Is the only other alternative to just sit back and accept that this is a phenomenon of our times? I could take the attitude that many YouTube videos don’t attract attention anyway, but I see that some of mine have generated a good number of comments. I have responded to some, because I don’t want to appear ungracious, but I realize that this might encourage a practice that I’m not sure I want. I am caught between wanting to be cautious about how I am represented in the media but also wanting to express gratitude to a potentially growing fan base. Do you have any suggestions?—Grateful Young Artist

Dear Grateful Young Artist:

In all my years of involvement in the arts, I have never met an artist who wasn’t deeply concerned about how they came across in the media, especially in situations over which they had little or no control. This concern prevails even in the big wide world of YouTube. While most people look at it as a wonderful form of free international publicity, they obviously want it to reflect well on them. In researching this answer, I learned that the Copyright Code does address this issue and considers it a copyright violation to record a live performance without a performer’s consent. However, enforcing this is not a very simple matter. People do have recourse to getting things taken down from YouTube in cases of copyright infringement, subject to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, but this doesn’t apply to you since you don’t own the copyrights of the pieces you perform. The simplest thing, which you alluded to, is to contact the person who uploaded the video and ask if they would please remove it. (As you probably know, once you are logged in, you can message people.) There is also the possibility of flagging a video, but this is mostly used in cases that are seriously inappropriate or inflammatory. YouTube reviews flagged videos and if they think they violate their “Community Guidelines,” they will take them down. This, too, is not applicable to your case. It seems to me that everyone who uses YouTube knows that the variety in the quality of the posted videos is quite vast. If a presenter is looking at a performance of yours, they can usually tell whether it was posted by a fan, or whether it is a more professional, accurate representation of how you play. If you have a more professional representation of the same performance that has been posted, you might want to upload it yourself. Another avenue might be to enlist the help of the venue in which you performed to see if they might have recourse to get the video taken down if they feel it is in violation of their stated policy. Backing up a little, you could probably discuss with someone at the venue prior to your future concerts that you would be most appreciative if they could be proactive in discouraging unauthorized recordings of your performance, should they see anyone in action. As for whether to answer the comments you receive, there seems little question that answering will help to encourage more such videos. However, if your objections to the videos aren’t strenuous, your fans will greatly appreciate you taking the time to connect with them and it will make them and their friends like you even more.

Your questions are important to me and can be about anything! Please write Ask Edna.

© Edna Landau 2011

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Getting to Know You (writing a good bio)

Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

by Edna Landau

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

Please note that in the months of June, July and August, I will be posting new entries to this blog on a bi-weekly basis. I am grateful to all of you for your interest in “Ask Edna” and wish you a very pleasant summer.

Dear Edna:

What do you think makes for a good bio these days (from an artist management point of view)? I’m sick of reading bios that are either A. Boring (laundry lists of accolades, credits, quotes and not conveying something distinctive) OR B. Overly chatty/personal (some non-classical bios are like this, as are musical theatre bios typically). —a management colleague

Dear management colleague:

I think a good bio is one that provides only as much information as is necessary to capture the attention of the reader and keep them engrossed until the end. It should come across as professional, be well written and well organized. It should find a good balance between sharing important factual information and also giving the reader a glimpse of what is special about the person it spotlights. It should whet the appetite of the reader to experience the subject’s artistry and to get to know them better, either by presenting them, hearing them or listening to their music making.

The first sentence and paragraph of a bio should help place the artist among their peers and highlight some recent significant accomplishments. This is not achieved by the all too typical introduction that reads something like this: Joe Smith was born in Buffalo, New York in 1984 and began to study violin at the age of five with his father. The opening of the bio should also avoid any grandiose statement that is out of proportion to the artist’s career. As Ellen Highstein has written in her book Making Music in Looking Glass Land, “ the expression ‘one of the foremost pianists of our day’ is only appropriate for someone who is undeniably one of the foremost pianists of our day.”

Here are some opening sentences that grabbed my attention when I surveyed a sampling of bios of young artists with burgeoning careers:

“Internationally renowned as a brilliant innovator of the classical guitar, Paul Galbraith has been working since the 1980’s towards expanding the technical limits of his instrument, besides augmenting the quantity and quality of its repertoire.”

“Born in Los Angeles in 1981, composer and performer Gabriel Kahane is a peerless musical polymath, invested in the worlds of concert, theater and popular music.”

“Formed in 1984 by four prize-winning graduates of the Conservatoire National Superieur de Paris, the Parisii Quartet won early acclaim with its triumphs at three major international competitions: Banff (1986), Munich (1987) and Evian (1987). Invitations followed from the major concert halls and festivals of Europe, and the Parisii has since toured regularly throughout Europe and the United Kingdom.”

“An accomplished young conductor and pianist, Kelly Kuo has had tremendous success working with both singers and instrumentalists in the United States and abroad in a broad spectrum of repertoire including nearly 60 operas spanning the 17th through 21st centuries. He is the recipient of a 2009 Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award for young conductors.

“Dubbed a ‘Classical Rock Star’ by the press, cellist Joshua Roman has earned a national reputation for performing a wide range of repertoire with an absolute commitment to communicating the essence of the music at its most organic level. For his ongoing creative initiatives on behalf of classical music, he has been selected as a 2011 TED Fellow, joining a select group of Next Generation innovators who have shown unusual accomplishments and the potential to positively affect the world.”

You are totally correct that nothing is more boring than to wade through a laundry list of endless credits until one’s eyes glaze over. Performance credits should be limited to significant debuts and tours, recent and upcoming engagements, recent recordings, commissioned works, and perhaps some mention of associations with other artists, especially conductors, who may have played an important role in an artist’s career. They might also include examples of an artist engaging in outreach or charitable activities. The artist’s achievements should always be summarized in reverse chronological order so that the reader doesn’t have to navigate through several seasons to get to the most recent and significant accomplishments.

It is important to include dates of various performances and milestones in the artist’s career. I read a bio of a soprano which began: “Most recently heard worldwide in the Sirius Satellite Metropolitan Opera broadcast of Puccini’s Tosca…” None of the artist’s numerous accomplishments were associated with dates anywhere in the remainder of the bio. A quick visit to YouTube showed significant clips from 3-4 years ago so I could deduce that the artist was still quite active. This was reinforced by a vist to Ask.Com that indicated that satellite radio was introduced around 2004. However, this is far more research than should be expected from the reader of an artist’s bio.

The bios of all of the artists mentioned above remained compelling and informative to the end. They never became “chatty” but I enjoyed learning that Gabriel Kahane makes his home in Brooklyn, New York, “in close company with a century-old piano and many books” and that conductor/pianist/vocal coach, Kelly Kuo, began his musical studies on the violin at the age of five, made his debut as a pianist five years later, but also later trained as a clarinetist. Today he has become a champion of contemporary music and has edited scores for two of Jake Heggie’s operas. None of the bios mentioned family members, as musical theatre bios so often do. I have no problem with a bio that does include such information, especially if the artist feels that their family is a major source of support to them in their career and that they bring balance and meaning to a life that can often involve long stretches of lonely time on the road.

The bottom line is that interesting artists have interesting bios. They don’t need to create heft in their bio by citing long lists of engagements. Artists who are still pretty young in their careers can prudently include brief quotes or phrases that pay tribute to their gifts and should focus on sharing with the reader their intense dedication to their chosen profession, the efforts they are expending to share their love of performing with new audiences, their joy in helping to expand the repertoire for their instrument (if applicable), and the other aspects of their lives that are important to them and that contribute to the persona they bring with them when they walk out on stage. If their bio conveys both humility and ambition, and reflects a sense of excitement and privilege at being able to pursue life as a performer, the reader will want to embark on the journey with them and support them as they reach new heights and become better known.

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

© Edna Landau 2011

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There Is No Such Thing as Bad Publicity (or is there?)

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

by Edna Landau

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

From time to time, I receive questions from parents who want to help guide their children along a not very clearly defined career path, or who simply want to understand how things work. Since Mother’s Day was celebrated just a few days ago, I thought it would be fitting to share an important question from a caring mom.

Dear Edna:

I am writing from the position of a supportive mother of a daughter in her early teens who has passionate aspirations to be a world-class violinist. She studies with a prominent teacher and has already had opportunities to perform professionally, receiving very positive feedback. I have been wary of my position, never wanting to become the stereotypical “stage-mom,” yet nonetheless wanting to guide her as she avails herself of good opportunities for growth. Naturally, this includes engagements that will give her greater exposure. My question is: where does one draw the line between good and bad exposure? Does the aphorism “there is no such thing as bad publicity (exposure)” ring true in the classical music world as it does in other realms of (admittedly) popular and political culture? What guidelines should we follow when presented with opportunities that may yield great exposure but would not guarantee us the liberty to have input with regard to the nature of the exposure (for example, Reality TV shows)? Thanks in advance for your feedback. I look forward to your words of wisdom.  —Eager to Learn

Dear Eager to Learn:

From the way you have asked your question, I can tell that you are not only a supportive mother but also a wise and insightful one.

While it is true that opportunities for major exposure are few and far between in the classical music world, the one instance where the media comes knocking on the door is in the case of a young, prodigiously gifted and often physically attractive artist. At such a time, it is natural for a parent to be faced with very conflicting thoughts. If I say no to this, will anyone ever ask again? If I say yes, won’t the doors open wide, thereby assuring my child’s future success? In my experience, if a young musician possesses the genuine gifts that will earn him or her a major performing career, it is wise to develop these gifts out of the limelight. The media is likely to promote the artist as the latest “hot prodigy”; however, a young child or teenager, no matter how gifted, has a long career path ahead of them. They will not be young and adorable forever and once the “prodigy” label no longer applies to them, the popular media may lose interest in them and move on to the next young sensation—unless the attention afforded to them is backed up by extraordinary talent and accomplishment that is generally only achieved after years of hard work. If a news show wants to cover some significant development in the young artist’s career, there is no harm, provided the artist is properly coached and any on-air performance is carefully prepared and can be ensured to take place under acceptable conditions.

In the early years of a career, it is generally best to restrict media exposure to situations where it is not uncommon for a classical musician to perform (such as the BBC “Young Musician of the Year” telecast in the U.K., which is part of the prize), or where the conditions are maximized for a successful outcome. When violinist Hilary Hahn was fifteen and I was her manager, an opportunity presented itself for her to play the Beethoven concerto live on German television with Lorin Maazel and the Bavarian Radio Orchestra. Recognizing that this particular repertoire was usually performed by artists twice her age, her parents and I did not discourage her from accepting the offer because Maestro Maazel had mentored her in this particular piece and performed it with her on several occasions. It proved to be a wildly successful introduction for her to the European classical music world. Had she been offered the equivalent of a modern reality show at that stage, I am sure we would all have said no.

My advice to you is to surround yourself with qualified, experienced and insightful individuals who can help guide you in sorting through media opportunities that may present themselves. Your daughter’s teacher is an excellent starting point. Now that YouTube and mobile phones are part of our daily life, it is hard to exercise control over any performance once it has taken place. However, we can limit problems by having expert contractual advice from the start. You should never agree to any media offer without the counsel of an experienced manager and/or entertainment attorney. In most situations, they can help you in limiting the scope of the exposure, should you wish to do so, and in preventing unauthorized use of your daughter’s performance.

In this phase of your daughter’s career, “good exposure” is exposure that allows her to be presented favorably in a suitable context. Classical musicians often come across as odd when presented alongside pop music performers, athletes and the like. (This becomes less of a problem when the artist is already a celebrity.) In addition to the nature of exposure, you might also want to give some thought to frequency. While there may come a time when seemingly simultaneous exposure from different directions may be extremely effective in raising your daughter’s profile, that approach should be reserved for the moment when she has had ample chance to try things out, gain considerable performing experience and achieve a level of personal and artistic maturity that will help her grow from the spotlight centered on her. For now, nothing would be better than to say yes only to opportunities for healthy exposure and have her leave her growing audience hungry for more.

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

© Edna Landau 2011

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Here’s My Program—Where Do I Fit?

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

by Edna Landau

To ask a question please write Ask Edna.

Dear Edna:

So wonderful of you to take questions!

I run an ensemble called “Ljova and the Kontraband” which primarily performs its own original music. Its sound is informed by the classical, folk, jazz and world music traditions.

Whenever I hear an artist speak about music they’d like to perform or compose, the conversation often touches upon the concept of “genre” in music, and borders between musical genres (classical/jazz/opera/musical theatre, etc.). Artists feel confined and want to tear down these borders to create music that draws on a variety of influences and backgrounds. It seems that presenters have a similar mind. They just want to present that which is good and hope that the audiences will follow. How important is genre to an audience?—Lev Zhurbin

Dear Lev:

Thanks for your insightful and very interesting question.

One of the reasons that artists are so fortunate to be concertizing at this time is that boundaries separating various genres of music are, in fact, less defined than ever before. Presenters know more about their audiences than they did in the past and are more willing to take chances in order to grow those audiences. They are also communicating more personally and directly with them and, consequently, building greater trust that everything they are presenting is compelling and worth hearing, regardless of genre. The icing on the cake is that journalists who have spent a large part of their careers reviewing traditional classical music concerts seem ecstatic about reviewing programs that draw from various musical genres.

That said, I did a rather hasty, informal survey of some long-time concert presenters’ season offerings and found that they still divide their performances into series with the traditional titles you would expect, such as Chamber Series, Jazz Series, Orchestra Series, and the like. I smiled broadly when I saw the University of California Santa Barbara’s “Out of the Box Series”, which offered, among others, Kayhan Kalhor with Brooklyn Rider, and the Ornette Coleman Quartet. Many presenters put such groups on a “Special Events” series. What this underscores for me is that artists can be as adventurous as they like in their performances, “drawing on a variety of influences” (as you have written), but if their music can’t be easily classified and if it doesn’t fall into one of the usual categories, they may be competing with others for very limited spots. Presenters may be eager to widen the spectrum of their offerings but they don’t want to take their audience by surprise if they are expecting traditional fare. (This means that it may take a while before you see your group included on a Chamber Music Series alongside the Pacifica Quartet!). One solution that some have embraced is to list all presentations as single events and give ticket buyers the opportunity to create their own series.

It is inevitable that some concertgoers will not be interested in buying tickets for music with which they are unfamiliar. They might prefer to hear excellent performances of music they already know or which has been written by composers they recognize. To those people, genre is all-important.  For the others, what matters most is the promise of a fresh, entertaining, enlightening (you choose the adjective) experience. If a group or its programming is new to a city, it is probably beneficial for the presenter and the artists (or their manager) to speak in advance about how to advertise the event and communicate directly about it to subscribers, perhaps in the artists’ own words. If they receive such a letter in the months or weeks prior to an event, they are likely to enter the concert hall already feeling a bond with the artists and anticipating how their words will come alive on stage. It might also be beneficial for the artists to offer their own program notes or to consider giving brief introductions to at least some of the works on the program, in lieu of program notes.

In the end, what matters most is the quality of the artists’ performance and their ability to communicate their excitement over the chosen program in an irresistible way. Once that happens, it ensures that audience and presenter alike will share news of their happy and stimulating experience with their friends and colleagues so that, eventually, substantial word of mouth has built up about your group and it hardly matters what genre describes you, or where you fit.

To ask a question please write Ask Edna.

© Edna Landau 2011

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Reflections on a Website

Thursday, February 17th, 2011

by Edna Landau

Dear Edna,

I know this is a very basic question but what should be included on an artist’s website? For an ensemble website, how much information should be included about the individual artists?—Wanting to Get it Right

Dear Wanting to Get it Right:

In 1975, shortly after the foundations of the Internet were first developed, Elliott Carter wrote a chamber work entitled “A Mirror on Which to Dwell.” Taken out of context, that title defines for me what a perfect artist website should be: a true reflection of yourself and your accomplishments which others will find compelling.

When I was a young artist manager, the typical marketing tool was a color flyer that had an artist’s name and photo, a brief bio, some review quotes, and maybe one or two record covers. It cost abut $3000 and was out of date within a few months after it was printed. Today a website offers an artist the opportunity to present themselves exactly as they wish to be seen at any given time and to keep the public current with up to the minute developments in their career.

The essential elements of an artist website are pretty standard and straightforward:

  1. An attractive home page that is not cluttered and draws the viewer in
  2. An electronic press kit (downloadable PDF) consisting of your bio, any feature articles, reviews, review quotes, or other quotes from notable individuals familiar with your work. If you are creating an ensemble website, it is perfectly appropriate to include short bios of the individual members, along with links to their websites.
  3. Photographs (JPEGS) suitable both for print and web use. (Don’t forget to credit the photographer.)
  4. A calendar of your performances (if there is sufficient activity to merit such a listing)
  5. Audio and/or video samples of your work, or links to other sites containing such samples or other information about you (e.g. YouTube, Facebook, Myspace, InstantEncore.com, iCadenza.com)
  6. Information about buying your recordings or compositions (if applicable) and joining your mailing list
  7. Contact information for you and others representing you (such as a manager or publicist

Optional:

  1. A list of repertoire you are ready to perform
  2. Sample programs
  3. Outreach experience
  4. A page about your teaching activities
  5. A blog

Think of all the above as the nuts and bolts of presenting yourself to the world. The ultimate challenge, however, is to create an Internet presence that is professional and attractive and that captures the essence of who you are and how you wish to be seen. Take proper care to ensure the accuracy of everything on your website (have someone else proofread the content) and to update it regularly.

Ultimately, originality and creativity may add a final touch that will personalize your website and make it memorable. Composer Alex Shapiro’s beautiful photographs add an extra dimension to her website that highlight her versatility and individuality (www.alexshapiro.org). Tubist Aubrey Foard’s “Study with Aubrey” page sends a reassuring message to a parent that he would be a very caring and nurturing teacher for their child (www.aubreyfoard.com). Brooklyn Rider’s whimsical home page compels you to open the doors and peek inside (www.brooklynrider.com).

Have fun with your website but also make sure it is interesting, genuine and thoroughly professional. Then it will truly be a mirror of yourself on which others will wish to dwell.

© Edna Landau 2011


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