LA Philharmonic World Music Series Begins Tonight
Thursday February 21, 2008
As many major concert halls around the world (including Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall) have done, the LA Philharmonic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall is presenting a world music series, which begins tonight. Their four-concert series includes performances by Irish Music legends The Chieftains (2/21), Afro-Peruvian chanteuse Eva Ayllon (3/7), Bollywood diva Asha Bhosle (4/27), and early music innovators the Kronos Quartet (5/3).
While these sorts of series generally don't program much cutting-edge world music, generally sticking with better-known classic or crossover acts who'll appeal to a classical music audience, I do think that as a general rule, it's great to see classical venues embracing ethnic music. I think it's an important trend, and one that bodes well for the world music industry in general, in terms of financials. However, I think it does cause some issues in terms of public perception - it does tend to perpetuate the number one world music myth, which is that world music is for old people and nerds. These major music centers have much larger marketing budgets than smaller clubs or halls that might program world music more regularly (let's face it - four concerts in a season really ain't much), and therefore can eclipse these smaller venues' schedules.
So... it's great to see world music artists getting these wonderful high-end gigs, where they play to new, large crowds and (hopefully) get equally large fees, but are these high-end shows eclipsing the equally alluring lineups of smaller venues who make their bread-and-butter off of world music, and therefore devaluing it on a whole? What do you think? Leave us a comment!
While these sorts of series generally don't program much cutting-edge world music, generally sticking with better-known classic or crossover acts who'll appeal to a classical music audience, I do think that as a general rule, it's great to see classical venues embracing ethnic music. I think it's an important trend, and one that bodes well for the world music industry in general, in terms of financials. However, I think it does cause some issues in terms of public perception - it does tend to perpetuate the number one world music myth, which is that world music is for old people and nerds. These major music centers have much larger marketing budgets than smaller clubs or halls that might program world music more regularly (let's face it - four concerts in a season really ain't much), and therefore can eclipse these smaller venues' schedules.
So... it's great to see world music artists getting these wonderful high-end gigs, where they play to new, large crowds and (hopefully) get equally large fees, but are these high-end shows eclipsing the equally alluring lineups of smaller venues who make their bread-and-butter off of world music, and therefore devaluing it on a whole? What do you think? Leave us a comment!
Comments
I just can’t resist….I think it’s always a good idea when world music is put out in front of a new audience, even old people and nerds (I’m part of both those demographics! We need good music, too.) We all had to be introduced to world music, someone else had to show us the way, it’s just too hard to find on its own.
Hurray for the LA Philharmonic and all those people in nice clothes and good jewellery sitting in the audience.