After surviving the chat wars accompanying the 24-hour live stream of »Music Never Sleeps DMF«, here’s my letter to the pianist Tiffany Poon.
A few days ago, with the help of much white wine, I sat through most of a 24-hour internet streaming event which featured small living room concerts from all over the world. Jan Vogler, the artistic director of the Dresden Music Festival, had invited you to join – meaning that some time into the stream, he broadcasted a recording you had done at your piano at home. By not revealing which time the clips were broadcasted, Jan’s team tried to keep up the audience’s attention through the night, and maybe also let the interest for big names rub off a little on some of the lesser known whose talents nevertheless deserved every bit of attention.
This strategy produced – mixed results, let’s call it that. More precisely, for hours and hours, the live chat was dominated by your loving (and impatient) fans. Hundreds of messages. Thousands of heart emojis. For music lovers, including the musicians who played during the stream, this basically felt like a chicken run on the wrong kind of pheromones. Soon, the over-excited fans were told off, reprimanded and ridiculed. Suddenly, this whole thing was not about the music anymore. It was a battlefield. I closed the chat.
After all, you had done what you were expected to: playing the piano at a live-stream event and bringing along a young, dedicated, new media-affiliated audience. Your fans did what they were expected to do: actively engaging in the event, interacting via live-chat, sharing the event further down into their respective networks, creating a wide range of attention and coverage. And, eventually, the critics also did what they were paid for: reviewing your musical performance, measuring your artistic achievement against that of others.
But by mixing different interest spheres, expectations were missed on all sides. And a disappointingly flat aftertaste remained. At some point, you must have realized that over those last years, you actually have created a monster. You had to come to terms with what we, the „conservative“ audience, had witnessed first hand that day: namely, that a part of your fanbase was rather interested in seeing you, TIFFANY, appear than in what you, the pianist, or any of the other artists of the event were performing.
So today, you tried to do damage control – by uploading a video on your Instagram account, and asking everyone to „be kind“. Your main argument: fanatical fandom can very easily backfire, your „career depended on these critics in the classical music industry“, and „please don’t be mean, otherwise other people will be mean to me“.
Your Instagram video mentions a certain critic’s „mean line targeted at me“, sparking new furor among that very fanbase. Immediately, that critic (who happens to also work for »Musik in Dresden«) was scorned and ridiculed by your followers – in the comments of that very video about „being kind“ to other people.
For me, that whole matter appears to be a curious case of reverse victim blaming. You are exploring new career opportunities in a very conservative work environment, combining your musical abilities with actively building a strong, dedicated fanbase – which actually might be a model for many future artists.
That, by the way, might be the reason why Alexander called you an „influencer-pianist“: not as a snarky remark, but as a rightful categorization of a person who has built a large online followership by posting personal messages, vlogs etc.
Who are these people who leave their comments, smiles, emojis and declarations of love under your videos? Are they a significant aim group as a future classical audience? Are they potential CD buyers, potential concertgoers, potential buyers of Steinway pianos? Are they „worth“ the effort of building up and maintaining that customer relationship?
A big question remains. What is their commercial impact beyond your personal Patreon page, and beyond your #Covid19 fundraising efforts? Are they really the concert audience of tomorrow, or will their loyalty fade away again after a certain age, with new trends and crazes, with „the next big thing“?
Marketing strategists will rule out nothing, and are certainly happy to let some test balloons fly. Little is known about the mechanisms of the new classical music market yet. Can we apply rules and strategies from other, more profane branches like the beauty culture? Are brands / protagonists like Lang Lang or Valentina Lisitsa influential enough to have a sustainable market impact in general?
And while talking about beauty. Yes, what about looks? In the ideal world of classical music, looks should be irrelevant. We could leave it at that – but then we would ignore the obvious. As in every other part of society, looks are relevant in the world of classical music.
Selling numbers are pushed with salacious PR photos, careers are built (and also destroyed) by and through inappropriate behavior. Some of the most prominent #metoo exposures and revelations were related to classical musicians. Even so, talking about looks in the classical music world is a demeaning thing in itself.
Talking about beauty. Yes, what about looks? In the ideal world of classical music, looks should be irrelevant. We could leave it at that – but then we would ignore the obvious. As in every other part of society, looks are relevant in the world of classical music.
You, Tiffany, could be a new role model in that movement. You could point out and condemn obviously sexist comments in your social media channels. You could help working towards a kinder online world by helping others to recognize their carelessness and ignorance regarding the matter.
Please, by any means, also point out discriminatory remarks in music reviews. There are plenty. However, please do not confuse kindness with fairness. Critics, unlike social media followers, are not there to „be kind“. They should be allowed to point out unpleasant truths, fair and square.
After all, I thought your Chopin was a little shallow.
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