Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Greg Sandow and the future of classical music

This is an email I sent out to the grad students at UNT:
I may have mentioned Greg Sandow's blog before, but he's been in the process of writing a book about the future of classical music and has been doing regular seminars or classes at a number of universities.

While for Dr. McCoy and me, we're nearer (ahem! maybe I should just speak for myself!) the end of our careers than the beginnings, all of YOU are at the beginnings of yours, and these issues may be paramount for you.

Where is classical music going? Within that broad category, where is choral music going? How will it be different 10, 20, or 30 years from now? Who will be the leaders, gurus, wizards of this new world?

We've all seen many of the choral icons of the past (Robert Shaw, Roger Wagner, Eric Ericson, etc.) finish their careers. Who will be the icons of the future? Where will they take us? What will happen to the audience? How will professional, volunteer, and university programs be the same or different? How will choral music be presented & programmed?

Will YOU be one of those leaders?

Sandow's "riffs" on this, which will become the first chapter of his upcoming book can be gotten in a pdf link on his site.

It's a lot to get through, but has provocative and interesting ideas.

There are such great questions about where we're going . . .

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