Thursday, August 16, 2007
And now, an explanation
Now that you understand a bit more about where I'm coming from, let me try to describe how I'd like this blog to function.
As I said, I've lived in NYC for the past two years. In the interest of full disclosure, most of my friends (both here and elsewhere) are musicians of all persuasions: the greatest percentage are classical players/composers/scholars, followed closely by jazz and rock/folk/pop types, and a smaller percentage is made up of those involved with musical theatre. Most of the new people I meet are also musicians, because the most common settings in which I encounter new folks are concerts or shows.
Furthermore, these people I'm surrounded by are in various stages of their musical careers. They run the gamut from students to those with very active (although perhaps not necessarily high-profile and/or financially lucrative) careers. Despite the extremely different practical worries of these individuals--being able to pay your rent differs greatly from deciding which brand of case you should choose to cradle your new $100,000 string instrument--I have also repeatedly heard many common philosophical and existential concerns about how one should exist within the NYC musical community.
Community.
What does "community" even mean? Is there a coherent musical community in NYC? Are there multiple communities? How are they delineated? And furthermore, what are the implications for musicians trying to survive in a city which isn't necessarily conducive to our existence? These questions are important, and the answers will vary widely based on who you are and what your life experiences have been.
I intend for this space to function as a place where we can address our various concerns and issues as related to the musical community in NYC. If you live here now, if you want to live here, or if you ever lived here, your contribution is welcome. Anonymous comments are acceptable, but I encourage you to share your identity if it seems appropriate.
Oh yes, and all comments will be moderated by yours truly. If you are looking for a place to vent about your extreme hatred of the unfettered success of Cathy Composer or Peter Performer, you're in the wrong place--I'm looking for constructive comments only. That doesn't mean we should aim to avoid anything provocative, only that slanderous speech or meanspiritedness for the sake of it will be deleted.
More to come very soon. Put on your thinking hats, people.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
I think an introduction is in order
Greetings, all! Welcome to musicommunity, the awkwardly-named but hopefully thought-provoking blog dedicated to the broad purpose of discussing "musical life in New York City."
Perhaps before I explain why I started this blog, it would be good of me to properly introduce myself.
I am a musician. More specifically, a pianist amongst the kerbillion pianists living in New York. I have lived here since August of 2005, and am steadily becoming more involved in the musical workings of this city. I play primarily "new music," which means contemporary classical music, most of which was written after 1950. I play in my own group (shameless plug!) Yarn/Wire, and freelance around quite a bit. I also teach privately and coach chamber music at a very fine NYC institution. Before I moved to NYC, I lived on Long Island, where I was enrolled in (and just recently completed) a graduate (master's and doctoral) program in piano at SUNY-Stony Brook. Before my northeast residency, I was an undergraduate pianizer at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. And before THAT...I was just a run-of-the-mill music nerd in southeast Tennessee.
Outside of my professional musical shenanigans, I recently started singing and hitting things in an avant-pop rock band (shameless plug #2!), Hi Red Center. I am an avid fan of the confusing umbrella of "popular" music (meaning everything that is not "western classical" music to those in the classical world). I didn't really grow up in a home environment that was knowledgeable of classical music, but I did watch unhealthy amounts of MTV as a youth and spend equally unhealthy amounts of time with jazz musicians in my undergrad days. You'll thus find me at rock or jazz concerts/shows roughly as often as classical concerts. If I actually had an i-Pod, you would most likely NOT find me rocking out to Mahler on the subway, but you might very well later overhear me vigorously defending the brilliance of Mozart to a professed opera-hater. My education in classical music, my chosen career, is ongoing and imperfect.
I am also a recreational intellectual, which isn't meant to sound as self-deprecating as it does. I mean to say I have no degrees in humanities disciplines other than music, hence I don't earn any money simply from the workings of my brain. I've taken independent studies, lots of classes and taken a great amount of pleasure in the papers I wrote throughout my higher education. Further evidence is my bookshelf full of feminist theory, cultural theory, books on gender/sexuality, history, and musicology; most of these books were purchased outside of any course or pedagogical mandate.
As a wise person often says to me, "Sometimes, a person's just got thoughts." So here is my blog, the breeding ground for many thoughts. Welcome, and please make yourselves comfortable.
Perhaps before I explain why I started this blog, it would be good of me to properly introduce myself.
I am a musician. More specifically, a pianist amongst the kerbillion pianists living in New York. I have lived here since August of 2005, and am steadily becoming more involved in the musical workings of this city. I play primarily "new music," which means contemporary classical music, most of which was written after 1950. I play in my own group (shameless plug!) Yarn/Wire, and freelance around quite a bit. I also teach privately and coach chamber music at a very fine NYC institution. Before I moved to NYC, I lived on Long Island, where I was enrolled in (and just recently completed) a graduate (master's and doctoral) program in piano at SUNY-Stony Brook. Before my northeast residency, I was an undergraduate pianizer at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. And before THAT...I was just a run-of-the-mill music nerd in southeast Tennessee.
Outside of my professional musical shenanigans, I recently started singing and hitting things in an avant-pop rock band (shameless plug #2!), Hi Red Center. I am an avid fan of the confusing umbrella of "popular" music (meaning everything that is not "western classical" music to those in the classical world). I didn't really grow up in a home environment that was knowledgeable of classical music, but I did watch unhealthy amounts of MTV as a youth and spend equally unhealthy amounts of time with jazz musicians in my undergrad days. You'll thus find me at rock or jazz concerts/shows roughly as often as classical concerts. If I actually had an i-Pod, you would most likely NOT find me rocking out to Mahler on the subway, but you might very well later overhear me vigorously defending the brilliance of Mozart to a professed opera-hater. My education in classical music, my chosen career, is ongoing and imperfect.
I am also a recreational intellectual, which isn't meant to sound as self-deprecating as it does. I mean to say I have no degrees in humanities disciplines other than music, hence I don't earn any money simply from the workings of my brain. I've taken independent studies, lots of classes and taken a great amount of pleasure in the papers I wrote throughout my higher education. Further evidence is my bookshelf full of feminist theory, cultural theory, books on gender/sexuality, history, and musicology; most of these books were purchased outside of any course or pedagogical mandate.
As a wise person often says to me, "Sometimes, a person's just got thoughts." So here is my blog, the breeding ground for many thoughts. Welcome, and please make yourselves comfortable.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)