Audrey Bergauer has been appointed as director of the Center for Innovative Leadership at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in late 2019. She published a very powerful message the other day on twitter @AubreyBergauer in which she talked about what is important to bring orchestra’s through the current crisis. Chasing artistic quality as a singular goal will not bring our organizations through this pandemic. Finding ways to offer community and belonging to our constituents absoultely will. pic.twitter.com/YnO5swRPj0 — Aubrey Bergauer (@AubreyBergauer) July 5, 2020 This message is part o ..read more

The Maastricht Centre for the Innovation of Classical Music (MCICM) is organizing an online space to share and discuss ideas and challenges during times of corona. The first three Conversations are now available on the MCICM’s website. The first conversation raised a key question in corona times: “How will symphony orchestra’s connect with online audiences?” I have been moderating a conversation with Elena Kountidou from Konzerthaus Berlin; Simon Highfield and Beth Wells from BBC Philharmonic and Folkert Uhde, concert designer and director of several music festivals in Germany and Austria. He ..read more

For the third time the German ‘Orchesterstiftung’ is about to give a away an award for Germany’s ‘Most Innovative Orchestra’ . This year seven orchestras have been shortlisted. In alphabetical order: Anhaltische Philharmonie Dessau for the programming of their youth-series. Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin for their Symphonic Mobs. Filmorchester Babelsberg for an new educational format using digital technology: Film Orchester 360°. Magdeburgische Philharmonie for their programming of the season 2019-2020 presenting female composers. Staatsorchester Braunschweig for their Audiowalk “Inside ..read more

I am happy to announce that my blog has been chosen to be one of the top 25 Orchestra blogs on the web in 2019 by @_feedspot. Other winners include The London Symphony Orchestra Blog or the Inside the Orchestra Blog. Feedspot says about their selection procedure: “The Best Orchestra Blogs from thousands of Orchestra blogs on the web using search and social metrics. Subscribe to these websites because they are actively working to educate, inspire, and empower their readers with frequent updates and high-quality information. These blogs are ranked based on following criteria Goo ..read more

Last weekend the first symposium of the Maastricht Centre for the Innovation of Classical Music took place. More than 90 scientists and practitioners from around the world including Israel and Australia discussed topics of innovation for the orchestra. The program also included an experiment to find out whether the participation of a public at rehearsals can possibly enhance the deepening of the musical experience for that public and lead to a different result of the rehearsal at the same time for the players. This experiment was carried out by the South Netherlands Philharmonic. A clip with ..read more

You know who it is, don’t you? We see that young people today are looking for a ever wider variety of experiences. For inspiration they are searching for a range of offers from very different social and cultural contexts, unknown to earlier generations. One one condition: The experience has to be authentic. It must be the real treat. This insight triggered the introduction of the Bucketlist Concerts at philharmonie zuidnederland. This new series aims at a young public between 20 and 30 in the region Maastricht and Eindhoven/ The Netherlands. It offers the young individual a place to find out h ..read more

Vanessa Thorp wrote an article in the Guardian recently titled ‘ Young turn to classical music to escape noise of modern life‘. According to Thorp research in the UK has shown “clear indications of new listening trends, with almost half (45%) of young people saying they see classical music as an escape from the noise of modern life.” A selection of Scala Radio’s presenters As it turns out this was a decisive reason to start @Scala Radio a radio channel that will offer classical music to a young audience. Scala Radio will be launched on March 4, 2019. The channel “promises to provide thelistene ..read more

The deadline for applications ends on February 28th, 2019! The interdisciplinary MozartLab is a central element of every Mozartfest in Würzburg/ Germany, lead by Evelyn Meining. This lab brings musicians, scientists, managers and media-experts together every year. In 2019 the festival offers 5 young people the opportunity to discuss and develop innovative concert-formats. The workshops in the period will be led by Folkert Uhde a Berlin/ Potsdam based barock-violinist who developed quite a number of interesting formats for classical music for promoters, ensembles and tv-stations in recent year ..read more

How to attract a young public for classical music? Adam Szabo @Mr_Szabo, co-founder and CEO of the Manchester Collective @manc_collective, has started a blog titled ‘A younger audience for classical music’. Pierrot Lunaire by Manchester Collective for a young audience You can learn how important it is to have a fancy twitter adres. And that only 2% (!) of UK’s classical going public in 2017 was under 25. Adam finally suggests that there are 7 aspects of importance that matter when creating classical experiences for a younger audience: brand, digital communication, diversity of venues, the narr ..read more

The program for the first symposium of the Maastricht Centre for the Innovation of Classical Music has been announced. It looks fascinating and offers of mix of interesting speakers, panels and – an orchestral rehearsal with a unique proposal. Two intense days are planned for March 29 and 30, 2019. There is a maximum of attendees allowed. Be fast! The full program can be found here ..read more