Success Beyond The Score

We know what you first thought was: Is there someone campaigning in favour of female mediocrity?! What's that supposed to mean?!

 In an article posted by the Musicians' Union as part of their guest blogs, Christine Anderson explains her point. This viola player, who's a member of Her Ensemble, as well as an orchestral and chamber musician, shares her experiences and thoughts on women and diversity within the classical music industry in a thought provoking article that starts like this:

The classical music industry is changing. Admittedly, the pace could generously be described as glacial: according to Donne - Women in Music, in the 2021-22 season, across 111 orchestras in 31 countries, just 7.7% of pieces played were by women, of which 5.5% were white (while 27.5% of pieces were by the same ten historical, white European men).

But this is at least a slight improvement on the previous year, where just 5% of compositions were by women. And out with the big, established...

We all have heard about tap dancing, and we also know beatboxing. But have you ever thought about how these two arts could sound together? Well, American dancer Savion Glover and Barbados-born rapper Doug E. Fresh show us how:

This performance happened almost ten years ago, but it's as wonderful as it was the first day. Some times, combinations that should be rather obvious are the ones that surprise us the most. Kudos to the artists!

The COVID-19 pandemic forced artistic venues to close down and all artists across the world face the scary question of how to keep doing our thing when we couldn't even meet with our audiences. After three months of inactivity, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona came up with a solution. On June 2020, they offered a performance to an attentive public that needed no social distancing:

 

 

 

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Shared by im just culture (@imjustculture)

The string quartet in charge of the performance played Giacomo Puccini's "Crisantemi" for a full auditorium of potted plants plus human audiences connected via livestream. Later, the plants were donated, along with a certificate of attendance, to over 2000 healthcare professionals attending the COVID-19 emergency.

The event, a call to reconnect with nature in times of crisis, was the prelude to the Liceu's 2020-2021 season, during which the Spanish authorities permitted the operation of artistic...

Following intense discussions with the Musicians' Union over several weeks, the BBC announced on March 24th that they will not be closing the BBC Singers on September 30th of this year. While these are positive news, the futures of BBC Singers and the BBC Concert, Philharmonic and Symphony orchestras are still at risk.

In order to protect these musicians, and keep the British music community stable and healthy as consequence, the MU is calling us to write to the BBC with the following suggestions:

1. Maintain the BBC Singers as a full-time employed BBC Performing Group with a bright future.
2. Withdraw proposals to make 20% cuts to jobs in the BBC Concert, Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestras.
3. Commit to maintaining all six Performing Groups as an essential part of the BBC’s public service remit.

If you want to learn more before taking action, or need a template to know how to write your petition, you can find resources on this post by the MU. Consider...

After two successful online concerts in 2021 and 2022, the women of Time For My Music are ready for a bigger challenge. We have been discussing the format and features of our next performance for some time now, and we would deeply value your input!

If you have attended any T4MM concert, or you have watched the videos afterwards, please answer this short survey for us. It will be open until tomorrow midnight, UK time.

If you haven't seen any of our work yet, here are the highlights of the first concert:

And here's the second concert in full:

The Musicians’ Census is a joint project by the Musicians’ Union and Help Musicians to get a deeper understanding of what it’s like to be a musician in 2023. The more participants there are in this census, the better these institutions will understand the work and life conditions of musicians in the UK. This will allow them to take more precise action to address our concerns and talk with the government in order to be able to offer:

-Organised support for musicians, regardless of their background.
-Information, advise and training on pay conditions.
-Union services.
-Promotion of equality, diversity and inclusion.
-A steady campaign for a fairer and safer industry.
-Social and legal recognition of musicians' work and importance within the industry.

You can participate following this link: https://www.musicianscensus.co.uk/

Don't forget to share this information with your musician friends in the United Kingdom!

Here is the transcription of episode 3 of season 3 of the podcast "Success Beyond The Score". Happy reading!

- Watch the video of the episode here: YouTube

- Listen to the audio of the episode here: Kajabi

PODCAST INTRO:

It's kind of a strange title, really: "killed by sound". But in my experience going through music and watching other people, the sound system, the PA (public address) system, microphone, stuff like that, really gets in the way of our playing. And let's face it, you put in a lot of time practising. You learn the notes, you learn the chords, you learn the rhythm, you learn what you're gonna say, all that kind of thing. And then, it's just time to go and deliver. And when it's time to deliver, what lets you down is a PA system. 

EARLY EXPERIENCES:

Well, my experience —oh gosh, going back a few years— I sort of started playing, um, certainly for my sax, I was in my late teens, early twenties when I started. And that's sort of back in the...

One year ago today, the talented women from Time For My Music got together for their second online concert on YouTube. They showcased their fantastic skills, old and new, and raised money for charity. We also paid tribute to our dear former member Carlene, who sadly passed away a few weeks before the concert.

It was a great experience and we definitely want to go back to the stage in 2023. In order to improve our show, we have put together a quick survey. If you have attended or watched a Time For My Music concert before, we’d be very thankful if you could take a few minutes to fill it out:

Click here to start the survey

Remember that you can revisit the concert on YouTube at any time:

Thank you so much for your input. We hope to see you in our next big show!

Creating content for social media is a lot of work, but if you know your tools and platforms, it becomes way easier. To help with that, the course "Mastering YouTube for Musicians" teaches you exactly what is available in YouTube and how to use it.

Guided by Millicent Stephenson, who speaks from experience and in an accessible way, you'll learn:

• How to create your login.
• What is where in your YouTube channel.
• How to upload your videos.
• Security tips.
• What to type in the boxes of the form for your uploaded videos.
• Things to say at your performance or post for attracting subscribers.
• 3 tips for maintaining your channel.
• 9 tips for sharing your videos and getting views.
• 6 tips for growing your subscribers organically.
• 6 ways to get work through your YouTube channel.
• Why some videos are in the thousands and others not so.
• A challenge to help you set up your channel and gain views and subscribers.

Get your course following this link and see how you get a...

The Harvard Opportunes is an all genders a-cappella group associated with the University of Harvard. During one of their performances, vocalist Devon Gates knocked it out of the park singing extremely high notes with fantastic accuracy for the song "Hard Place". You can watch the full performance on YouTube, but this Instagram video has a helpful guide of the specific notes she hits:

 

 

 

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Post by I post singers who are underrated. (@underratedsingersvocal)

When we encounter a moment that highlights so well the skill of one member of a group, we tend to focus only on what that person is doing and even feel a bit discouraged, thinking that if we aren't like that, we'll never get to where we want in music. However, there's no need to be an operatic soprano or Mariah Carey to be a great vocalist: everybody has their role. Just pay attention to the other voices of the Opportunes, and how they work together to carry the song and...