a profile of Sandow

Is classical music dying? Greg Sandow presents us with an answer.

Sandow’s blog, “Greg Sandow on the future of classical music,” discusses just what its name suggests and, in doing so, explores societal opinions on classical music, its shrinking audience base, changes being made to classical ensembles and what we can expect of classical music in the future. A weighty topic, indeed, yet one which Sandow is well qualified to discuss. Greg Sandow is a music critic and consultant based in New York City. Sandow received a MM in Music Composition and, after working as a composer, became a music critic, writing for Entertainment Weekly and The Wall Street Journal.

Sandow began his blog in July 2003 and has since written over 700 entries, averaging around three posts a week. Sandow’s blog is an ArtsJournal weblog and seems to be fairly popular, as his posts consistently receive comments from other bloggers and he hosts numerous ongoing discussions on his site. Two posts I find worth mentioning are “Beyond Media” and “New Mission for orchestras?” “Beyond Media” questions what type of advertisement is needed, if not a form of media, to promote classical music concerts. “New Mission for orchestras?” discusses the conflict confronted when an attempt is made to make an orchestra more community-friendly at the cost of professionalism, musical worth, and musicians’ gratification. In a slowing economy that has a tendency to neglect the arts when times get tough, our approach toward advertising and performing classical music is very crucial.

I am pleased with the hospitable character of Sandow’s blog. While he offers insightful opinions and broaches controversial questions, he never adopts an authoritarian tone. Instead, as in his post “A shocking proposal,” Sandow will present the subject – “Everyone talks about covering classical music in a livelier, more accessible way. But while I think that's certainly a good thing to do, I don't think it's the main problem. I think the main problem is that classical music isn't covered at all,” defend his argument, and then ask his readers the most important question – “What do you think?” While his question can be answered by any internet blogger, Sandow’s targeted audience is people involved in the arts, whether it’s music or dance, classical or non-classical. Many of the bloggers who comment on his page are musicians themselves, meaning Sandow’s topics hit close to home, and these readers often have opinions to offer. In one of his posts labeled “Teaching,” Sandow portrays his personal experience as a professor at the Julliard School and Eastman School of Music. Naturally, many of the comments come from other professors who offer their own insights as to how to inspire classical music students to create their own paths and battle the shrinking classical music world.

In addition to its accepting, scholarly atmosphere, Sandow’s blog also includes a discussion on a variety of subjects. While his primary focus is on the future of classical music and classical composers, many of his posts talk about other art forms, political happenings, social sciences, education and even “quotations of the day.” Still, Sandow’s writing is always researched, well written, highly detailed and calculated. His experience as a music critic is evident in his writing style, and his blog is immediately recognizable as a credible site for scholarly discussions and bloggers of academia. As a classical musician, I can attest that the topics discussed on Sandow’s site are weighty issues in the music world. Composers and tuba players alike can see the decline in classical music popularity as professional orchestras go out of business, less new music is commissioned, and less orchestral jobs become available, and we are all anxiously awaiting the future of classical music and what that means for us.

I hope to echo the substance within Sandow’s blog posts, as well as his readiness to talk about subjects other than music in my own blog. The main focus of my blog will be much more concise than Sandow’s, however, and rather than discuss the future of a genre of music in the entire world, I will pinpoint only the music of Los Angeles. In my blog I will observe the variance among music performed in Los Angeles, identify what music thrives and what music is dying, find relationships between concert venues, performers and audience members, and foresee what the future of music will be for Los Angeles.