Can technology keep an audience engaged?
Frank Zappa once said, “All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff.” We know what he meant, but that’s not really true.
Artists will always create new and beautiful, soul- stirring music. But what will it look like, years from now when this crisis is a memory? What forms will it take?
Michael Stern, who begins his tenure as music director of the Stamford Symphony in September, has pondered such questions. “Anybody who tells you they know what’s going to happen, or what music and its role will be like, myself included, is only guessing,” he says, “because nobody knows.”
The only clear thing is that technology will continue to be part of the mix, says Stern, who lives with his family in Old Greenwich, and is music director of the Kansas City Symphony.
For years now, technology has played roles in the creation and presentation of music. It’s how the Stamford Symphony was recently able to produce and share a moving rendition of “Amazing Grace.” Each member’s recording, done solo, was edited into a sublime video showing people performing from home, but with the music stitched together as if they were in the same room.
The video, which includes contributions from three soloists scheduled to perform during the 2020/ 21 season, is dedicated to local health workers. You can check it out on the Stamford Symphony Channel, a free hub of classical music and entertainment at stamfordsymphony. org.
“Here is what I really believe,” Stern says. “I don’t know that it’s productive to rail against how things are right now, because they are what they are, and it’s wasted energy, in a way, to get upset over things you cannot control.
“However, we can imagine the world the way we want it to be when we are looking back at this, and on the one hand try to shape what getting there may look like, and on the other hand, simply be prepared for anything that does come forth that maybe we haven’t shaped.”
The April 18 “One World: Together at Home” virtual concert, a benefit for health care workers, offered a glimpse of the world as we want it to be — with music continuing its role as a force for good, inspiring and uniting us.
The technology that made it possible, with performances by artists from Lady Gaga and Paul McCartney to Billie Eilish, will certainly continue to develop. But it will be in addition to, not instead of, live music.
One question will be: Are we willing to pay for livestream concerts in our homes? A report from Billboard and Nielsen Music/ MRC Data, suggests the answer may be yes. The March study showed people are spending 60 percent more time with music and other remotely accessed entertainment. Almost a quarter of the population has added new subscription services and 79 percent said they intend to keep those services.
“I don’t think technology is going to replace, ever, the need for and the desire for live performance, because that communication is what art is all about,” Stern says. “But I think it is folly to believe that with all the investments people are making now using technology to reach out to one another, that that would go away.”
On the contrary, he says, “I think people are being so creative that we are actually learning in a powerful way about new ways that we can communicate, which, if we do it right, will only enhance what will hopefully be a return to a time when social distancing doesn’t determine our everyday routines.”
For now, though, as it does determine our routines, more of us are learning how to use it. At the Jewish Cultural Center ( JCC) in Sherman there’s a virtual song swap. It began as an in- person open mic night, but went virtual when the pandemic hit. Henry Cooperman, who is president there, started it with some help from his tech- savvy friend, computer- scientist- turned- songwriter Al Burgasser.
“I love jazz and all forms of music, so in order to have this connection, I thought of using Zoom as a way to keep the music alive, and so musicians can connect with each other,” Cooperman says. “We have a group on Facebook called Open Mic Thursday at JCC in Sherman. “It’s a fun evening of music and friendship.”
During a recent session, participants shared everything from folk tunes to rap. There were satiric takes on quarantine living and songs of love and peace. Some folks sang solo; others accompanied themselves on a guitar or piano. People want entertainment, Cooperman says, and “the desire to connect is only human nature.” Going forward he sees a hybrid situation, where music continues in a virtual format until it’s safe for people to gather again.
It’s going to take time for people to feel comfortable, and until there’s a vaccine, there are some who won’t go to concerts, movies and sporting events, Cooperman says. Things such as Zoom and pay- per- view concerts and movies will help bridge the gap.
Burgasser says the biggest changes he sees coming involve the ways in which music is sold and marketed. “We’re already into that,” he says. “A lot more people are self- publishing and selling music online through Spotify or iTunes.
“It used to be that you got a contract with a music company and they took the majority of the profit; the rest was divided between everybody else. Now with online self- publishing the artist gets the vast majority of the money; the rest goes to providers of the service. Out of the majority the artist gets, payment is shared with those who helped produce the music. It’s a much more public, community- oriented methodology for marketing music, and it greatly broadens the spectrum of what music can be available, which is wonderful.”
Of course technology is impacting children’s exploration of music, as well. Stern says his own kids are in the midst of a new project. “They’re not professional musicians, one is in fifth grade and the other is in eighth grade, but they’re working on a music video.” They covered a song, he says. It’s a parody about the lockdown.