Life's a Pitch loves WDH

I recently read an inspiring post in a blog that, as a result of my enrollment in a Journalism/PR class, has proven to be quite interesting. Amanda Ameer, writer of Life's a Pitch, is a publicist for well known classical artists through her own company, First Chair Promotions. The blog discusses the questions that lie on every classical music-lover's mind: Is the audience dying? Whose fault is it? Her solution is proper marketing and publicity--a completely logical answer in the modern world.

"Why don't we apply the successful marketing and publicity campaigns we see in our everyday lives to the performing arts? Great ideas are right there, ripe for the emulating. And who's responsible for the wide-reaching problems in ticket sales and audience development? Boring artists? Greedy managers? Overstretched marketing departments? We're beyond debating who owns the problem. Let's fix this thing."

On a coincidental, yet completely useful note, I'm currently taking a class called "Public Relations in the Entertainment Industry." Usually, I feel like the curriculum in the class regarding PR in film, TV and the celebrity world does not apply to me. Even when music PR is discussed, the genres of topic generally didn't go beyond pop and rock--until I asked.

I mentioned the obvious publicity stunt surrounding the Hollywood Bowl opening of Gustavo Dudamel as the new music director of the LA Phil. My professor, whose day job consists of being a senior publicist for a major TV network, revealed to me that publicity in classical music is a huge career venue. It differs from TV and film since the funding is generally non-profit, but it continues to be an area of publicity that has not at all diminished with time. She said that the LA Phil, historically, has had the most creative and successful PR team, along with teams at all major professional orchestras in the country (i.e. Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco, New York).

This revealed a new side of classical music I had not been acquainted with--one that, unlike the competition of performance, might have a long-lasting, successful career within it for more than five percent of those who pursue it.

My reasons for reading the blog aside, I was pleasantly surprised by Ameer's Oct. 21 post about her visit to Los Angeles and to Walt Disney Hall. She admits her skepticism of the LA Phil's shameless promotion of Dudamel throughout the city, earlier in her blog, but in visiting the city and especially Walt Disney Hall, she discovered a city of classical music and art that she had never expected to exist.

Her review of Dudamel, the Hall and the LA Phil musicians were all raving. Her first visit to Walt Disney Hall, her reaction was one more sincere than the average Angelino:

"When we drove by I started grinning and then, oh no, here it comes - crying! If you don't know me, you probably think "crying" means a few tears running down my face dragging clumps of mineral make-up along with them, but sadly no: I really cry. "Wait, are you CRYING?" my friend asked. "Should we pull over??""

Her reaction was almost comical, but the sincerity of her reaction was the most refreshing--especially in a LA world of disillusionment. At the end of her post she pointed out something silly, but almost poignant. Her picture points out a street name on the perimeter of the hall: Hope St. As an Angelino, it's hard to imagine LA as a city of hope. The demographics are so vast, and the impoverished often seem hopeless. Ameer points out, though, that perhaps with the help of music, a beautiful hall and a new inspiring music director, "hope" shall be held for the Los Angeles community.