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Self-promotion? By a classical pianist? Oh, the horror!

The classical musician's greatest phobia

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6 minute read
How can I get anyone to buy this CD?
How can I get anyone to buy this CD?
Over the years, when people have suggested that I record a disc of hymns, my initial reaction was to reply facetiously, "Great idea!" After all, I didn't earn a doctorate from Juilliard to play hymns, except at church on Sunday.

Over time, though, the idea began to appeal to me. I've been a church pianist and organist since I was 14, and having dealt with life's ups and downs since then, I now find playing hymns spiritually nurturing. When one of my friends suggested the idea again earlier this year, I decided to take the plunge and record a CD of Christmas carols. I chose a number of arrangements that make me feel peaceful, asked some talented associates to participate, and booked studio time. The result is Of the Father's Love Begotten: A Contemplative Christmas.

In many respects, creating a CD was a surprisingly simple matter. I already knew how to play the piano. Collaborating with people I love to work with was easy as well. Soliciting support from my immediate family was also far from taxing, especially since I plan to give them free copies.

Interesting everyone else in North America, however, is a wee bit of a challenge. That's especially true if you've grown up, as I did, in a family where self-aggrandizement was instinctively disparaged. "Pride goeth before a fall" is something I memorized as a child, and "She thinks she's arrived" was always uttered scornfully. The most admirable course of action, my parents taught me, is to let others sing our praises— "tooting your own horn" is something to avoid.

I was squeamish

There's great value in humility, of course, but it isn't particularly helpful when you decide to market a CD. It took me two attempts just to write an e-mail message telling my contacts what I'd done. Despite my excitement about the CD, I was squeamish about asking people for their money.

It's not as if this was my first CD: I have four others in circulation. The difference is that previously I wasn't responsible for their promotion: Naxos, Albany and composer Sy Brandon, of the independent label Emeritus Records, were. My primary responsibility as an artist, in my eyes, was to keep practicing so I could play as well as possible, not hawk my wares wherever I went.

This attitude is common among classical musicians. If classical music doesn't sell (compared to other music genres), maybe that's partially because we don't sell it. Certainly, classical musicians make efforts to fund music education in schools or expose young children to high-caliber classical performances— Midori and Friends comes to mind, and so do two friends I've written about previously in BSR: my polymath musician friend David Cohen, who sponsors a food bank fund-raising concert in Ocean City every January; and Jade Simmons, the classical pianist and former beauty queen.

Flying below the radar

But most classical musicians seem incapable of promoting themselves. Our inclinations and expertise lie elsewhere. So we cling to the hope that one or two CD's will "catch fire," whereas in practical terms most of us remain below the public radar screen without an extraordinary investment of time and money.

Jade Simmons, for example, has come up with two successful strategies: marketing to non-classical stations (she added beats to some pieces by Daniel Bernard Roumain, and has received airplay on jazz stations) and staging an elaborate, expensive, self-funded concert— an event that sold 86 copies of her CD. "If my label or management could put on concerts like this, set up a tour," she insists, "we'd sell tons of CDs."

Many classical musicians see time spent on marketing as time away from much-needed practice. There's more to marketing than just finding time, however. Many of us simply don't know how to proceed. When I attended Juilliard in the '90s, the course work was all about music, aside from one loosely structured course called "The Business of Music." I think we students all assumed we'd get agents who would take care of the business side— a notion that's not only mistaken but also dangerous. My agent has given me valuable advice about marketing my CD, but ultimately an artist today must be the driving force behind his or her own career.

The power of capital invested

How, then, did I overcome my fear of self-promotion? Rather easily, actually. Investing my own money in the venture radically transformed my persona. I knew something had changed when my first words of introduction became, "I have a doctorate in piano performance from Juilliard" rather than my name.

The Composer Sy Brandon, who records his own works as well as some others he believes in on his label Emeritus Records, kindly gave me a few tips. First, sending materials to music journals and colleges is expensive, time-consuming and generally fruitless. Mailing CD's to classical radio stations is similarly expensive and doesn't necessarily translate into sales.

Far better to send to a few places where you enjoy personal contacts who are sure to play your recording and then invest in the website CD Baby, where anyone can instantly download whatever portions of your disc are of interest. With a listing on CD Baby comes distribution on iTunes. CD Baby is relatively affordable, depending on whether or not you have to pay for the rights to the downloads (next time, I'll either be using more original arrangements or seeking out more material that's in the public domain).

Sy also suggested placing announcements in newsgroups and listservs, although not all of these allow advertising. Amazon.com is a possibility, but Amazon takes a hefty share of the profits. Still, the visibility is extremely valuable, so I'm seriously considering this option.

If Bach could do it….

A very interesting performance I heard about recently took place at a local Iron Hill Brewery, where members of the Pennsylvania Academy of Music performed for diners. Live instrumentalists in restaurants are not uncommon, but classical artists often stick to the concert rather than compete with the clatter of silverware on china. I read of something similar to the Iron Hill experiment in a recent New Yorker, called "Beer and Beethoven." The genius in these strategies is that they return classical music to its roots. After all, Bach was churning out tunes on demand, some of them definitely intended as background music.

Marketing begins with the conviction that what you're selling is valuable enough that everyone should want it, and it ends with tenacity and creativity. All music communicates the same emotions; so why should classical music die just because many people find it unfamiliar? Those of us who love classical music must stop treating it as too special for everyday use. We must remember that classical composers are human beings, not gods, whose work won't necessarily be debased if it reaches a mass audience.

Oh—BTW—if you want to hear me play, you can visit me on Myspace. How's that for shameless self-promotion?

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