Earlier this week, I was sitting on the terrace of a café, slowly drinking a cup of the black coffee I needed and enjoying the sun. The older man at the table next to me was alone too and started to chat with me. After a few minutes, he asked me what is my job. I thus answered I am a pianist and he instantly expressed his surprise saying, I quote, “I thought you work in a bank or insurance company, something like that. You don’t look like a pianist at all“. I didn’t take offense, even if I admit I hated him for a few seconds and thought that a guy working in one of these fields would certainly not be sitting on a terrace in the middle of a weekday afternoon. Anyway, it was not the first time someone told me this and I started a great thinking session about what is a musician supposed to look like and who I am.

The classical musical world is nowadays obsessed with a new goal : Reaching new audiences. Everyone is giving his take on the subject, from playing in uncommon venues to playing with an unexpected outfit or a new concept of concerts as well as crossover concerts to reach a new audience. Well, my first question is : what’s wrong with the current audience?

We all know the dutch fiddler and his orchestra dressed à la mode of XVIII^th century, but would his name be associated to a psychiatric disorder? Not yet officially, but it won’t be long coming. I noticed that many musicians and artistic directors were subject to the same symptoms that I have been regrouping under the “Andre Rieux syndrome”.

But what is it? To understand, we must first review Rieux’ recipe :

SIf you are an independent musician, contacting presenters is a part of your daily life. Apparently, it sounds as easy as calling someone and introducing yourself. But in fact, it is much more complicated than it looks. Contacting an institution or a festival to book a concert is often an obstacle course we, musicians, are not accustomed to. I will try here to give you some tips to imrpove your approach with presenters

Today, in order to attract young audiences all efforts are oriented in the same direction: to show you that classical music is not boring nor rigid, and that you, too, are likely to appreciate it. Shortened concerts, lunchtime concerts, concert programs with two doses of film music for one of classical, standardization of programs so the audience does not feel “lost”, and so on.
Well, I’m telling you, this is all wrong: classical music is not cool.

Helene Grimaud’s wolves, Kennedy’s faux hawk, Lang Lang’s facial expression, etc, the image of classical music is progressively changing. Democratization or simple marketing tool?

Some time ago, the famous ice cream brand Häagen-Dazs organized a two days event called “Dolce Heavenly Concert” in Tokyo. The “revolutionary” idea was to replace the hall seats with beds. The guests were therefore stretched out on luxury beds and had as much ice cream as they desired…