From: mgresham@dscatl.UUCP (Mark Gresham)
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Subject: Live Performances (was: Re: Beginning a classical collection)
Date: 6 Jan 93 15:46:32 GMT
Reply-To: mgresham@dscatl.UUCP (Mark Gresham)
Organization: Digital Systems Co,  Atlanta, Ga

In article <1993Jan2.010949.22900@noose.ecn.purdue.edu> lungtt@gus.ecn.purdue.edu (Terence T. Lung) writes:
>In article <Dec.30.01.14.07.1992.15387@pilot.njin.net> rhutchin@pilot.njin.net (Roland Hutchinson) writes:
>>But no one has yet mentioned one seemingly obvious thing to do: go to
>>some concerts!
>Wow!  I don't think so unless you know what you're doing.
>Do you have $$$ to spare for this?  Yes.  Live performances
>add the extra dimension of participation--audience-performer
>feedback and can, by all-means be an awesome experience and
>worth just about any $$$.  But if you don't know what you're
>doing, it'll drain more than your wallet.

Now you've touched a live wire!
To say, "Don't attend live performances" because you aren't
sure about what's out there is just plain STUPID.
As long as you only listen to "public radio" for classical music
because it seems FREE, then stations like KQED *will* go to
all news and talk formats!
And WHERE do you think all that FREE music on radio came from?
(The small amount that's considered "safe" enough for
broadcast according to market researchers :-))
From live performers, of course.  (Ignoring, for the moment, that
minority of electronic classical works.)
GO HEAR LIVE MUSIC!!!!
Certainly, tickets for a major symphony or opera company
production are generally going to be high.
Try some alternatives!
There are over 300 choruses in the Bay area alone!
There are plenty of chamber ensembles, too.
If you don't have $$$, then find those with quality products
with occasional low-priced tickets or even free concerts.
And nothing says you can't LEARN which music ensembles
produce fine concerts!
To simply sit back and have your "taste" fed to you
by radio like an electronic i.v. is not unlike looking at
a landscape through an unmoving mailing tube.
BUT GO HEAR LIVE MUSIC!!!
Don't knowwhere to start?  Ask a friend.
Call the local Arts Council.
Get on mailing lists for concert announcements.

Bay area... I have several names of choruses right in
front of me.

Baroque Arts Ensemble (Oakland)
Lesbian/Gay ChorusofSan Francisco (San Francisco)
Masterworks Chorale (San Mateo)
The McGilvray Chorale (San Francisco)
Oakland Symphony Chorus (Oakland)
Ragazzi, The Peninsula Boys Chorus (San Mateo)
San Francisco Bach Choir (S.F.)
San Francisco Chamber Singers (S.F.)
San Francisco Choral Artists (S.F.)
San Francisco Symphony Chorus (S.F.)
Schola Cantorum (Palo Alto)
Valley Choral Society (Livermore)

...and that's just a beginning, as I said there are
over 300 choruses of various types in the Bay area.

GO OUT AND SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC!

Like anything else, you've got to start sometime.
Don't avoid it just because you think you don't know where to
start; or worse because somebody else says don't do it if you
don't know what you're doing.  You can learn.
Not only can you find good music (and a variety of it)
but you will most likely also make new friends.

GO FOR IT!!!

Cheers,

--Mark Gresham
dscatl!mgresham@gatech.edu
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