Reaching New Audiences

I’m the Man­ag­ing Direc­tor of a com­posers col­lec­tive called the New York Com­posers Cir­cle. For our con­certs this year, we’ve decided that each com­poser should say a word or two about our piece, in an effort to bet­ter com­mu­ni­cate with audi­ences. On the one hand, I think the music should speak for itself. On the other hand, audi­ences have been scared away from clas­si­cal music for decades. If say­ing a few words now and then makes our art more acces­si­ble, then by all means we should do it. We have a respon­si­bil­ity to build new audi­ences for our music. And after all, pop­u­lar musi­cians from Mick Jag­ger, Kanye West, and Dolly Par­ton are always asked to give inter­views about their new albums.

Any­way, here’s a pic of me at last night’s NYCC con­cert at Sym­phony Space in New York, where Three Ele­gies was per­formed. (Click images for larger size.)