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I like the idea of the CSO live stream; I live about an hour from music hall and never find the time to get to a concert. I don't think it is nessicary to offer students free streams, rather give it at a discount rate. The CSO could give it a trial offer for one season, advertise it online, WGUC, etc.
If I choose to be a private music educator, I'd find oppertunity to go to schools and attend the schools music teacher's class'; young elementry children would love the experience and would leave excited about classical music.
If I become a performer I'm not sure what I'd do.

CSO tour

To the questions "Why should the Cincinnati Symphony tour? Do you think they should? Why is it worth it?" Besides the obvious need to put yourself in front of an audience so as to sell yourself; a tour puts you in front of different faces which could help build up popularity. This might give the audience a chance to hear a different interpretation of a work than what their home symphony offers. Without such performances an artist ability to make a living is limited, they need venues to meet customers. I am concerned whether or not our symphony should tour. There is also the potential for a negative backlash from touring. If they can't have a good showing at home how can we expect them to do any better on the road? They may be well received in a city that is more culture centered such as New York or Los Angeles; but if they try to go to cities like Kansas City or Little Rock the reception may be like that of home. Also, if they perform at a larger venue, can they perform to the level of difficulty that the audience is accustomed to? I don't doubt that the CSO is a great group, but they are no New York Philharmonic or the Boston Pops. Our symphony can be compared financially to that of our baseball team. If the Reds want the best players, they must have the money to compete with the teams of the big cities. They can't afford to pay one player fourteen million dollars, they can barely afford three million. The same goes for the symphony, the big city groups have the money to buy the best musicians and carry the prestige to keep them. As far as touring goes, I believe that they should improve the situation here before they travel. I was taught that before you go out to play, make sure that you have your room cleaned.
mrbortlein

Go blog yourself!!!

Since the assignment is to blog about my last entry, I will try to not argue with myself.
As far as making live feeds via the Internet available to the public, I agree with myself about having them. The difficult part is making money off of it. The CSO currently has many sponsors, those sponsors would still have a place to advertise on that web page. Internet ads are growing ever popular to businesses as a viable way to attract customers. Also, the CSO already broadcasts on PBS and public radio, so this might be another off-shoot of that type of broadcasting. Also, just because the feed is on-line doesn't mean that has to be free. If the hall still sells season tickets, this could be an option for those patrons. There are certain marketing techniques that offer free items in order to get customers attracted to their product with just the hope that the customer will eventually buy into their product. So in this case, at first there may be fewer people coming to the hall, but the "virtual attendance" might out number the actual number of people in the hall. With the hope that one day some of these customers will come to the hall and see a concert first hand. How many people first buy a CD or hear songs on the radio of a group before they see a live performance? What ever the hall decides to do to attract more people to the CSO, they must do it soon. That's a fact.
mrbortlein

Tasmin Little

For this blog assignment I downloaded Paul Patterson's
Luslawice Variations op.50 for violin. This was a very interesting piece with several sections where Tasmine is plucking the violin. I liked the piece enough to play it twice, so as to hear some of the more intricate sections. The basis of the website is that of good faith. It's a lot like trying out a new pair of shoes; if you like them, keep them. Then the next time you need shoes, you know where to get them. I think that it's great that someone out there wants so desperately for everyone to not only hear classical music, but also what's us to appreciate that music. If there was a live feed of music hall for performances, I would be more likely to be a part of the experience though not in the hall. It's not hard to do, the internet is there and just waiting for us to use it. They could charge a membership fee for access, and give students free access through their schools like how we have access through the Steely library. It's a hard question to face; whether musicians should donate their abilities to allow free downloads to their music. Wasn't there a writers strike that dealt with similar issues? One of the most important aspects of sales is making the product as valuable or more valuable than its' cost. If the classical music was free, then is there any value in it? I feel that not all classical music should be free. We must consider all of the other people involved in the music making process; there's just too many variables. The issue boils down to this: No matter what the cost, if people don't want to listen to classical music, they won't. I think that people would be more likely to give the IRS extra money than to give up listening to what they call music and listen to Bach.
mrbortlein