Revolution Is a Work in Progress
Having begun the Knight Project to expand our Classical Revolution Detroit series in January, we’ve again witnessed the usual results: several people thanking us for sharing classical and symphonic music where they …
Classicism vs. Classism
I took part in a place-making workshop last week in Detroit. Despite the usual negative reports, my hometown is actually receiving huge private investments from billionaires, local corporations, and major …
Beyond Dumbing Down
This post is the speech I delivered at SphinxCon last week. (Video) Yes, it’s long at 15-minutes… but I’ll bring in some of the more interesting pictures from the slideshow. …
Getting Real with Classical Music, Part 2
So I left off here writing about the need for our major institutions to go beyond dumbing down to reach the casual community. In support of that statement, I was at a …
Knight Project Blogpost II – Let Me Count the Ways
I am in New York City for annual booking conferences with the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) and Chamber Music America (CMA). APAP is the largest such conference in North …
What Did You Learn Playing Classical in Bars, Rick?
I was recently asked in a meeting what I had been learning by sight-reading (unrehearsed) and performing (rehearsed) classical in bars, clubs and restaurants. Where do I start? I learned …
Why Is Your Music Neo-Romantic, Rick?
I only began composing in 1999, about 5 years after I started transcribing symphonic music for my mixed octet CutTime Players (CTP). It started when I had this extremely vivid waking …