The Real Truth about the Orchestra Crisis

I am afraid that it will be impossible outside of major cites to have orchestras in this country unless some radical change happens.

It is so obvious without getting artsy and philosophical.

You see a young teenager on the street and they have ZERO connections to orchestras.

Why ?

Well, they don't learn classical music in schools.

They don't see it on TV.

They don't hear it on the radio.

They certainly are not looking at it on FACEBOOK, MTV,etc.

And it is no longer our ontological cultural center.

Plain and simple, it is a total abstraction like Northern Tibetian Gungamuk Yak Music to them, completely off their radar.

So what makes any orchestra think they will some how wander into a concert hall ?

USA orchestras are pretty much fixated on the past and perpetuate 18th and 19th Century European Culture.

Pick another era ? Medieval, its all the same to these kids.

Did we ever bother to create and champion our own orchestral culture like we did in Jazz so there is come cultural bridge between generations ? In Latin country's young and old are at the same Salsa and Samba concerts. They pass their indigenous culture down, we don't, maybe because it was not ours to begin with.

The orchestra community has failed to keep classical music a living relevant art form. In my opinion they are guilty of cultural treason and they are walking the plank they created. When you see this new generation of VCs building Rock Museums in Seattle instead of championing orchestras, that says it all..............In the end we get the culture we deserve

Vienna

Vienna is now a caricature of itself.
You can buy Klimt scarfs, T shirts, shoes, handbags in any shop

The entire city is also sponsored by an electronics giant
You are badgered in the streets to go to the daily Mozart or Strauss concerts by people dressed up in traditional costumes.
Vienna survives on the exploits of its ancestors, what has it produced today ?
The Disneyfication of Vienna, cultural tourism at its lowest

The Carnegie Hall Prize

It seems to me that many of the visiting orchestras that come to Carnegie Hall tend to program a lot of the same repertoire.

I think there should be, in the spirit of good old American competition, a Carnegie Hall Prize for the best performance of a selected piece.

The orchestras would come and play their concerts and be judged by a jury.

At the end of the year all the votes will be tallied and the winning orchestra will get an all-paid free weekend vacation to Disney World in sunny Orlando Florida.

And yes of course, this will simultaneously be aired on television as a reality show, insuring our nation’s children are exposed to classical music.

David Chesky

Rage

When I am in the present I am only here 50 percent in the present.

The other 50 percent is consumed by a non stop rage that is only silenced when I sleep

Psychotic

That is what an artist has to be in today's world to be sane

There is no NY Philharmonic

There is no NY times

There is no MET

The only things that exists are what I choose to say exist

The rest don't count as they are illusions

illusion

I bought into the illusion of art ?
The illusion of immortality
The illusion of the possibility of one hearing our screams
The illusion of NOT living ones life in the present
The illusion of NOT living ones life in the world
Better to be like Rockefeller, Trump, or others like that see the world clearly
Live in the world and only for the present, the rest is just an illusion.

Artificial intelligence and the death of the modern orchestra

I am not commenting on whether I like this idea or not, I am just theorizing...

Once upon a time we had baroque orchestras and minstrels that wandered throughout the country side. These groups eventually became what is known as our modern orchestras that we hear in our sacred concert halls.

At the same time we go to hear these fine ensembles play, the computer age is rapidly developing. We now have music software programs such as Sibelius and Finale that can realize and perform scores on a somewhat primitive level, but good enough to use if you want to hear the music. Sample programs are getting more sophisticated as well. Gordon Moore's law at Intel states that computer power doubles every eighteen months. So it will only be a matter of time before computers with artificial intelligence will be able to read and realize a score, with feeling, as good if not better than any orchestra today.

This may sound like science fiction now, but when Jules Verne talked about going to the moon it was the same. I do not need to list all the other examples. The coming computer orchestras will not be limited by performing skill as the human being is. The range of instruments will be extended as well as the degree of performing skill. Composers will not be limited by the limitations of the human body trying to produce sounds from a physical instrument. I believe new computer sounds and instruments will emerge very quickly as this technology develops.

This will be the Golden age of the composer. Not being subservient to an orchestra to realize their art form. There will still a few orchestras that tour. They will be novelties like we go see early music groups. But the new way to hear serious music will be from a computer.

David Chesky