The Ambassador Programme is a one-year career enhancement programme for promising young classical musicians, ready for a performance career at the highest level. Starting this year we are opening one place on the programme per season, to young artists looking to pursue an international career as a performer, via an application process. 

The programme is open to all instrumentalists holding a Bachelor of Music or equivalent. Applicants must be aged 30 or under on August 1, 2022. 

 page to find out more about the programme and how to apply. 

Classeek Ambassador Programme 2022-23

Applications now open!

Last night saw a memorable concert here at Classeek with a performance by Ambassador Programme artist and pianist Kim Bernard, joined on stage by our Ambassador, Gautier Capuçon.

Kim Bernard performed a lyrical and sensitive interpretation of Chopin's Ballade in F minor Op.52 and a spirited selection from Debussy. Joined by Gautier Capuçon for the latter half of the concert, the pair united to perform Grieg's Cello Sonata in A minor, followed by four captivating encores. 

Our season opened with a chamber concert by violinist Filipe Johnson, violist Dor Sperber, pianist Natalia Morozova, and composer/Classeek Ambassador Nimrod Borenstein. The season continued with artists of our Ambassador Programme, such as pianists Shir Semmel, Nathalia Milstein and Kiana Reid (nominated by Sir Andràs Schiff) and cellists Caroline Sypniewski and Anouchka Hack. 

We continue to collaborate with the Conservatoire de Lausanne in our pre concerts, offering the students a valuable platform to perform. We're looking forward to bringing you a whole new season of concerts with emerging young classical artists. Stay tuned for news on our upcoming season. 

Season 2021-22

Looking back on Classeek's season highlights

The most celebrated virtuoso of all time had a unique instrument with very peculiar characteristics which made it different from all the other violins. Because of its incredible volume projection, Paganini himself named the violin “Il Cannone”, which he received as a gift from an amateur violinist who was an admirer of Paganini. Since then it became a natural extension of himself upon which his ability became legendary. It set a new standard of virtuosity that often cost him the title of "demonic" among his contemporaries. Paganini in fact had an exceptional extension of his left hand fingers’ that allowed him to perform very technical passages.

As stated on the label at the inside (Joseph Guarnerius Fecit ˜ Cremone Anno 1742 I.H.S.) the violin was crafted by the Italian luthier Giuseppe Antonio Guarneri in the 17th century in Cremona.

Compared to other violins, this incredible instrument has some substantial constructive differences: the belly is in fact thicker compared to other violins and the tailpiece is one centimetre shorter than the standard as well as the neck length (128.5mm instead of 130mm). At that time the chinrest was not yet in use and Paganini played the violin resting his chin directly on the sound box; because of that a slight abrasion of the paint is now visible in the lower left part of the instrument. As other scratches and marks on the body suggest, it looks like Paganini used to move the bridge in order to adjust the string length according to his playing needs. 

Since 1851 the instrument has been housed in Genova, Paganini’s birthplace, inside Palazzo Doria Tursi.It is exhibited in a dedicated room, the ‘Paganini Room’, inside the museum where visitors can also compare it with a fine copy made by the french luthier Jean Baptiste Vuillaume in 1834. It was donated to the city by Achille Paganini, the son of the musician himself, as declared by his testament.

As of today, The ‘Cannone’ is still in excellent overall condition: it retains its original neck and the varnish has never been polished. Of course strings have been changed over time and it is now fitted with a set of plain gut strings, as the great virtuoso would have played it. To preserve its integrity and check the conservative status, a team of scientists is constantly monitoring the environmental condition of the room and checking the conservative status of the instrument. Recently a pool of experts valued this instrument over 80 million euros, making it one of the most expensive violins on the planet alongside several Stradivari’s and other Guarneri’s.

Every year players come to Genova from all over the world to perform at Paganini Competition where the main prize is the privilege to play a whole concert on the "Cannone" by Paganini himself.

The Cannon

The secrets behind Paganini’s secret weapon

ClasseekLink brings together musicians and professionals to better promote talent in the digital age. 

- Launch of a digital platform dedicated to the professional classical music community that allows artists to present themselves in a dynamic and interactive way

- Music professionals have unprecedented access to young artists around the world

- Innovative digital tools help professionals and artists guide their choices

- ClasseekLink signs a partnership with HEMU Haute École de Musique, Switzerland and counts many prestigious ambassadors

How to enable young classical music artists to better blossom and develop the best artistic opportunities? How can professionals be helped to acutely find talent? How to give access to all those who would like to be discovered and live far from the main world stages? How can technology help bring tomorrow's virtuosos into the digital age? Launched by the technology company Classeek, the ClasseekLink platform brings together artists, presenters and other classical music professionals under one roof, with the common goal of connecting the right people at the right time, and creating the ideal opportunities for the development of their respective careers. A godsend at a time when society is becoming increasingly digital, and the music scene needs to reinvent itself.

ClasseekLink acts as a real platform for exchange and interactive presentation for the classical world scene. The profiles allow artists to present themselves, increase their visibility, facilitate exchanges, share their news and achievements and stay in touch with the professional circuit. The platform includes various tools, such as a digital press kit that provides in one click all the necessary and complete information, ready for distribution or printing - biographies, videos and high-resolution photos. For all professionals, ClasseekLink provides unprecedented global access to emerging artists from around the world.

The ClasseekLink platform also gives access to Classeek Analytics, a data analysis tool developed by Classeek. Compiling a large database and a sharp analysis of global trends in classical music, this tool offers a practical mapping that serves as a decision support for artists and other professionals. In a world hitherto more driven by instinct, Classeek Analytics allows, for example, a foundation, that lends instruments, to examine emerging talent, an agent to detail the career of an artist she or he is considering hiring, and an artist to make a rational analysis of her or his choices. Classeek opens up new opportunities for young classical music talents in an era of digitalization of society and their professional environment.

ClasseekLink is also developing a partnership with HEMU - Haute École de Musique Vaud Valais Fribourg, in Lausanne, Switzerland. Bachelor and Master students of HEMU register and create their Premium account on the platform free of charge. They create their digital press kit and publish it on the platform in order to become visible and accessible.

The prestigious ambassadors of Classeek, among them the pianist Sir András Schiff, the flutist Emmanuel Pahud, and the brothers Gautier and Renaud Capuçon (cello and violin) actively support this initiative.

Catarina Amon, founder and CEO of Classeek, said "With ClasseekLink, we want to help young classical music talents find their way to success and professionals find the best. Above all, we want to give the same chance to all those who aspire to a career in classical music, wherever they live, on all five continents. ClasseekLink wants to bring all talents under one roof, accessible and interconnected, creating more opportunities for everyone. We want to give all artists a new breath, a new life, using the technologies of today and tomorrow."

ClasseekLink launch

Promoting talent in the digital age

Many sectors are impacted by the COVID crisis. Some of them express louder than others the economic disaster it is leading to.

The sudden urgency to adapt to the new rules, had a tremendous percussion on priorities and turned lives upside-down. In these circumstances, consumers tend to go back to their basic needs of survival and sometimes forget about spiritual health.

The Classical music community is one of the sectors which remains relatively discrete about what it is going through at this moment. All concerts and festivals being cancelled, many young and even established and internationally renown musicians are facing open ended uncertainty…

One of the best known and most respected artist managers in the international field of classical music R. Douglas Sheldon recently reflected 

“The pandemic is likely to cause a shift in the public’s attitude and habits about attending live music events”.

The truth is that live events are less relevant to pop artists who are omnipresent by other means like albums, movie soundtracks, Music TV clips, TV shows etc…and sometimes are even more successful without live interaction with the public. But what about classical music performers where the soul of the performance is their physical and spiritual presence?

There is an overwhelming amount of classical music concerts streamed at this moment. Most of them for free. Artists are sharing their virtuosity and emotions unconditionally with the public.

Public embracing of the artists solidarity movement has been remarkable, the question is: is it sustainable post crisis and what’s the best way to support artists?

Again, Lady Gaga can perform online for free without much financial uncertainty, but what about young and talented pianists, cellists or opera singers?'

"Without leaving the comfort of home a violinist or an actor must be able to give a recital on the other side of the world and be paid for it. This implies the use of technologies that are available or will soon be available. There are already pioneers in the field such as the online platform Classeek." — Jacques Attali, author

At Classeek, our main mission is to Discover, Follow and Support talented artists. In the middle of this unprecedented crisis, we wish to make sure that they do not get discouraged and abandon their field by a simple lack of sustainability. Now that we are all adjusting to the social distancing but thrive for culture, beauty, comfort and connection it’s an unique opportunity for artists to show their ease to adapt and experiment new ways to create an audience.Since April this year, Classeek moved our Showroom in a virtual mode and we started to propose an innovative concept of a live performance: Virtual Recitals. It is not a fancy streaming or a TV show, but a live interaction with your classic performer, via Zoom, where the musician plays from his or her living room for a small group of people where an interactive Q&A session follows the performance. The success of this concept lies in the intimate character of such an event, where you feel closer to an artist than in any most prestigious concert hall. We do our best to optimise the sound quality, but the most important feature remains the human interaction and the unique possibility to get to know these artists personally.

At the beginning, we proposed these recitals to private clients whom we call our “Classeek community” for friends and family events. Today, we are also launching this concept for corporate clients who are searching for new ways of boosting their team’s motivation, awakening creativity or simply spending some quality time with co-workers after intensive brainstorming on “how to survive the crisis”.

“Humanity needs art to thrive, not to survive but to thrive” – R. Douglas Sheldon

Classeek online recitals

Joining efforts to support classical musicians in post lockdown disarray

This is probably the question of questions. Or actually, there are two important issues to consider: how far might the sponsor exert his influence on the work of art, and in what way should he benefit from it?

Concerning the first, I think that the sponsor or patron should have the right to outline what he is prepared to pay for and be informed as to use of his money as well as the design of the work.

He should however not interfere with the actual form or content, nor must he put the artist under pressure. Should van Gogh decide to paint sunflowers, the sponsor should not oblige him to paint water lilies. Should Beethoven choose to write a great symphony with soloists and orchestra, the sponsor should not demand a ballet instead. Svyatoslav Richter did presumably not require your advice as to how to employ the pedal in a Chopin prelude.

And of course there is always the difference between commissioning and sponsoring a work of art. To sponsor means to generously provide means that enable a project or a talent to emerge.

I suppose this requires a great amount of knowledge and common trust between the partners. It might be advisable to outline wishes, or even conditions of the sponsor before the work is actually commissioned or the artist begins to work. Maybe the sponsor needs some guidance in order to formulate his ideas and to find something that will give him pleasure to fund. True sponsorship is something very personal and involves not only finances but also enthusiasm, interest and an emotional attachment. This, by the way, is one of the ideas Classeek stands for: if you feel the urge to support the arts but do not know how to go about it or what to sponsor, we will try and give you individual advice. For one thing, on this platform you can find artists and projects that are recommended by experienced specialists and which you might normally not be aware of.

Many young talents simply require sponsorship for the great investment they need to make into their profession: make photos and create a website, buy a decent concert dress or an instrument, travel to auditions or take part in masterclasses. More often than not, they simply need to cover their living costs while studying, practising and rehearsing. In short, there are countless ways of sponsoring artists and new works of art, and any kind of sponsorship is always welcomed with deep gratitude.

How much you yourself might expect to benefit from your sponsorship is another philosophical question that will become the topic of another blog.

How much will you get out of it?

Sponsoring the arts

The author of Cinquante questions pour 50 ans de questionnement (Fifty Questions for 50 Years of Questioning), published last July, is without doubt one of the most prolific and one of the most frequently performed French composers. An inexhaustible curiosity for new discoveries and a fervent optimism nourishes this violin lover, particularly in what regards the use of modern technologies. As a proof, he will be the first composer in residence of Classeek for 2018 and 2019.

What does it mean to be composer in residence for a classical music platform? It is a virtual presence, which offers a large visibility to young musicians but also to myself. I still need to discover everything since it is a premiere for me! Those new technological tools bring about a lot of change in the music profession, the listening, distribution, and the way of acquiring music. For instance, Classeek helps brilliant young soloists, which have been selected for their artistic qualities foremostly, to develop their image and network. I think this is a sound idea. Thirty years ago, musicians embarked on a career because they were singular – but this is no longer the case. So it is important that by means of such a platform, singularity is reestablished and connects people amongst themselves. 

Do you know which shape your collaboration will take? 

We still have to work out the specifics. We will create a beautiful artistic content and find a resonance between the performers and composers on the platform. I suppose this will entail the execution of some of my works but in any case you cannot force musicians to play pieces for which they feel no affinity, just as I myself prefer to collaborate with people for whom I have an undiminished admiration. For instance, Alexandra Conounova, who is present on Classeek, is a highly unusual violinist. I only wish I could have played the violin like her once in my life! Those who play fast and loud do not interest me much. Listen to Ivry Gitlis: he places his bow on the string, and you cry. That’s all it is. Sokolov, Angelich, Levit, Rostropovich, Gastinel, the Capuçon brothers… There are many who produce the same effect. The important thing is to protect the poetry of your sound and of the music you are playing throughout your career. And this will guarantee you a life in music. At least that’s how I see it!

With the predominance in our times of the image and the necessity to „sell“ yourself this poetry of the sound is not always put in the first place by certain musicians of international renown… What do you think about this? If it serves an artistic goal, it does not worry me. At this time, a virtual presence is fundamental for propagating your work. Earlier, brilliant artists made a career, whereas now certain individuals become very popular even though they are not the most stunning ones. It is this that bothers me because I have always seen art as the priority. However, I always say that everything will be better after because everything becomes transformed. As someone who creates I cannot be nostalgic. Creation is an adventure that is always turned towards the future, a constant discovery. We must be delighted that young generations turn towards music. This is exciting.

Speaking about develoment, what have you noticed regarding the way contemporary music has developed among the wide public? I have seen the frequency with which it is presented on television melt like snow! It has become rare that a composer of contemporary music gives a television interview, whereas 25 years ago invitations were frequent: the programmes of Philippe Lefet, Frédéric Taddeï… With Renaud Capuçon we participated in one of the last broadcasts on French television of Jacques Chancel’s Le Grand Echiquier from Toulouse: Michel Plasson conducted the Orchestra of the Capitole. This television show was huge! And where is the Jacques Chancel of today? There are the Victoires de la musique, which are a showcase of what is going on in classical music. I myself have received them twice and they still make a big impact. But the rest has dwindled into nothing… It is new media that have become intermediaries.

Did you get used to the new technologies quickly? I am no longer a little boy so I had to learn to use these tools! About 10 years ago, I still had no email address. I am part of that generation which still has a strong attachment to objects, not only content. To leaf through a CD booklet is very important. These are ancient reflexes. Everything has become different but I think that life today also has a lot of qualities. I am pleased to be on Facebook: I have discovered extraordinary musicians of whom I had never heard talk, and to communicate with people all over the world relieves you from the solitude of travelling. Paradoxically, the virtual world brings people a lot more closer.

The encounters that launched your career took place at a time when this virtual connections did not exist. Could you talk to us about those great artists who gave you this initial impetus? The first was my encounter with music. I had the chance to be born into a family of music fanatics where we listened to everything. When I was still a small boy I fell in love with a record of the legendary Ivry Gitlis, and I began to study the violin. It was super to play those small pieces by Mozart and Vivaldi but soon I wanted to write my own music. This is a paradox! (laughs) And then there ensued a succession of magic encounters. Amongst my violin teachers, Rodrigue Milozi, the cousin of Radulescu, marked me profoundly. At about twelve I realized I wanted to go down the path of composers. At Caen, during Aspects des Musiques d’Aujourd’hui, a marvellous contemporary music festival, Rodrigue presented me to the composer Ivo Malec. He told me “Come to see me when you are ready.” And so I became a student in his class for two years, in 1988 at rue de Madrid, in 1989 at La Villette. And there were so many other magnificent encounters at the Conservatoire: Gérard Grisey, Betsy Jolas, Michel Philippot, Xavier Darasse, the ingenious director of the Conservatoire, who is unfortunately no longer with us…

Rome also plays a considerable part in your development…I was admitted to the Villa Medici in 1992 and lived in the Italian capital from 1993 to 1994. I was dazzled by this city, its history, the superposition of its architecture… and the works of Caravaggio. To live through this pictorial shock at 25 induced in me the desire to create a different music and to search for my roots as a musician and interpreter. I had gone far in my experimentations, and I think I had lost touch with instrumental reality. When I returned to Paris, this became a bit of a fight with contemporary music circles. But it was the classical sphere that launched me. Meaning? That my works were played by musicians of my generation, even great names such as Ozawa, Salonen, the Capuçon brothers, Angelich, Gastinel, Rostropovich, etc. With many of them, I was at the Conservatoire. We were all studying and continued our discussions at the coffee machine. And here we are, thirty years later. These are not easy journeys. You need to endure pressure, solitude, travelling, adversities. 

From the moment you produce a work of art – be it as a creator or interpreter – you meet people who support you and others for whom your work is a problem. This is how human beings are. Personally, I have always preferred those that do something to those that undo something. That is one of my rules.

A first virtual residence

What does it mean to be composer in residence for a classical music platform? 

I am presupposing, of course, that we all agree upon the fact that we actually

the arts - otherwise you would probably not be surfing around this site. And there is probably indeed a common consensus in most countries that the arts have a right to exist and must constantly develop.

The discord arises, however, upon the question as to how much the arts may cost and who should pay for them. In the capitalist world it is usually claimed that those who consume culture should also pay for it. But if we assume that culture has higher goals than simply providing entertainment and since to attain any standard of excellence requires an immense investment in time, effort and manpower, it very soon becomes clear that most cultural events can hardly ever cover their costs.

For instance: an average opera house has around 1000 seats. If you produce an opera like "Aida" there, you will require roughly 80 musicians in the pit, 6 specialist trumpet players who appear on stage for five crucial minutes, a harp player back stage, a chorus of 80, a corps de ballet of 20, a conductor, 8 soloists, 20-30 supernumeraries, a children's ballet, a large stage crew and artistic personnel. Really, only the employment of elephants and horses is at the producer’s discretion.

Even to perform the opera once, all these people will need to work full-time for four to five weeks. Carpenters, metal workers, painters, sculptors, props and armoury specialists, seamstresses and milliners turn the set and costume designs into reality. The performance needs to be publicized, marketed and put on sale. On performance day the theatre will provide box office and front of house personnel, someone controlling the supertitles (translated and programmed by the dramaturgy department), make-up artists and dressers, a backstage assistant conductor and at least one choirmaster in duty, stage hands and a lighting crew, cooks in the canteen.

Assuming that in a middle-sized European city you can sell 8 to 10 performances of "Aida" at an average price in a season, it quickly becomes clear that ticket sales will never meet the production costs.You might ask why there is such a contradiction? I think because it is the wrong way of reasoning and because arts were never supposed to. The point of a great artistic achievement is that it is unpayable. And to find the people who have the talent so create them, to educate them and provide conditions which stimulate their talent is also very expensive since often the process takes years and the result is zero.

But this has always been the case since the arts came about. Moreover, the higher standards rose, the more funds had to be invested. In fact, I would stipulate that once a work of art covers its costs it inevitably turns into a commercial enterprise: you either compromise on quality in order to make it affordable, or you exclude a large number of possible audiences by charging a "realistic" price, thereby abandoning much of the mission and intent of the arts.

Throughout history, great works of art were always commissioned and largely paid for by patrons, in earlier centuries particularly by the church and people of higher standing, later also by governments. They were thrilled about enabling the creation of wonderful new works, they felt an obligation to support the arts and obviously took pride if some of the success rubbed off on themselves.Today, the patronage of arts is no longer limited to cardinals, kings or ministries of education and culture. It is open to everyone and you are heartily invited to join.

Just imagine if thanks to you a new Mozart-Requiem could be written, a Sistine Chapel built and adorned, a Margot Fonteyn discovered, a "Carmen" rehabilitated, a Bach rediscovered.

Great art cannot exist without your support. But if you are honest, I think you will have to admit that neither will you find fulfilment in life without truly great art.

Strangely, I have not heard many voices claiming the same regarding sport although in that field too there exist a huge amount of public funding - and thereby by people who do not consume it - whereas the amount of money generated is far higher and consequently, one might as well wonder whether sports should be far less.

Your ticket didn't pay the opera star

How much would you pay?

The funny thing about social networks is that they are an oxymoron as ever there was one: They are totally unsocial because you communicate with a machine, not real people and therefore cut yourself off from interaction with the real world. And many of them no longer function as structures where communication works in two directions – between yourself and your partners. Social networks are becoming one-way channels for powerful advertisers while you turn into a helpless recipient, or an outlet for weirdos dumping their personal trash.

But the good news is that this is why we are here on Classeek, and yes, I do have a facebook page, and I am on linkedin and twitter.

Social networks are wonderful means of learning new things and keeping in touch, especially for those whose friends and families are far away. Naturally, this applies to musicians who have different working hours from most people, who travel and need to be alone a lot. Or to keep updated with what their artistic and business partners all over the world are doing. Or maybe you are a music student on a distant continent and would like to keep in touch with what goes on in, say, Europe.

But please remember to partake of the real world from time to time: go and talk to real people, give someone a call to hear their voice, go outside and look at the wonders of nature, take a book or a real score into your hands (have you ever touched an 18th century manuscript? Have you ever seen Bach’s, Mozart’s and Beethoven’s handwriting?? NOT in the internet but in the British Library, for instance).

Use the social networks, by all means, but do not clog them up with millions of holiday photos and the croissants you are just having for breakfast. Or at least decide which network you use for what: Instagram for croissants, Classeek for your music!

Most people have no time and patience… are you actually still reading this…? You see! Nowadays, we want to be sure to find the information we are looking for quickly!

Be well aware of what you post. Nowadays, many employers skim the web and look in what shape they find you there before they think about giving you a job. It is not going to help if you argue that they tracked down only a digital, momentary print and not the real you. They might not know the difference…

Social networks

More than just croissants and beach photos

The crowd hums with expectation. A sea of grey covers the terrain of the stalls, whilst a bell tolls, signaling the imminent downbeat. The lights dim - the ever so mildly restless crowd hushes. It’s time.

‘please ensure your mobile phones are turned off’

The Maestro emerges to loud, rapturous applause. Or perhaps the orchestra emerges first, followed by the designated tuner, then followed by the Maestro. Either way, a lot of applause happens to signify appreciation for something that hasn’t yet occurred.

Silence again, and boom goes the orchestra.

What follows is a period of silence from you, the audience member, which is more all-encompassing than that found in the most sacrosanct spaces - as if any innocuous sound would drown out the rather large and exceptional sound coming from the stage.In fact, any form of enjoyment is strictly forbidden, except that which exists between your ears. Please refrain and stifle any outburst - physical or audible - that may overcome you; it’s disrespectful to show your appreciation in this way.

Clap when told - but definitely not before. Clap enthusiastically, but again, not too vociferously. Even if you didn’t enjoy the performance, you need to join in (who knows when you’ll be able to make noise again, so make the most of it). God forbid you from uttering any other noise except 

 - don’t even think of the petty and common ‘woo’.

When the concert finishes, clap even longer. Three curtain-calls equals encore. Sometimes if you’re lucky, the performer will start going through their secondary programme without even being asked for it. Actually, going back to a previous thought, why are we even saying

? The etymology of the word suggests it could mean anything from ‘brave’ to ‘hired, untamed mercenary’. Weird.

Shuffle out whilst congratulating yourself on the musical meditation/medication you’ve just received; follow the crowd, maybe grab a drink on the way home, and it’s bed before 11:30pm.

Why is traditional concert etiquette so damned restrictive? Current audiences would suggest that it is in order to appreciate the music fully - to hear every nuance, absorb the content almost subconsciously as it envelopes your entire, meditative body. And fair point, this is an extremely valid reason - both as a performer and audience member, I have experienced a perfect moment of contemplation interrupted by the shuffling of an uncomfortable listener or the rustle of programme notes. The paying public demand complete attention and silence, and this is very reasonable - in this particular setting.

Certainly it wasn’t the case in the early days of classical music; aside from church services, music by Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven - really, anyone up until Liszt invented the proto-recital - was generally composed as light entertainment for the enjoyment of the über rich. There is a great scene in 

 where the Count actually enjoys a meal, hatches a plan, and eventually gets challenged to a duel - all during the performance of an Opera. And this was normal behaviour! People would routinely clap between symphony or sonata movements - historically, clapping after the first movement signaled that the audience wanted to hear the rest, hence the huge endings of most first movements. Bach’s dance suites were… gasp, for actual dancing.

So, quiet contemplation of the music is a relatively new beast that developed in the early 20th Century, and performances have more and more begun to resemble a series of nightly funeral processions, sans the programming of a good Requiem. And this is fantastic, because that’s exactly what a lot of (but not all) great classical music requires to engage with fully.

Though, it’s hardly the most welcoming symposium for a new listener to enter. For an industry that constantly paces back and forth saying 

, we’re awfully quick to limit how these new listeners will engage with us. No one is suggesting we go back to the classical era and start vocalising our displeasure with performers (tempting as it may be), but there are plenty of options out there which would allow the musicians to reach this crowd of patrons. They’re young, interested, and eager to experience something new - but not so eager to receive a forceful silent lecture from the glare of a particularly irritable octogenarian.

Konzerthaus Berlin does a concert where all music is performed twice in order to fully absorb it; Cafe Oto in Dalston, London, combines bar space and contemporary classical venue (and somehow doesn’t go broke); and the Royal Opera House does free screenings in public spaces such as Trafalgar Square - wine, cheese, and smoking allowed throughout. There are countless other initiatives out there, but they’re still the outliers. These concerts aren’t trying to pander to a seemingly lower level of consciousness, or patronising newcomers with easy-listening programmes, and nor should they.It isn’t about ‘dumbing down’ the product in order to trick new listeners into enjoying it, it isn’t about bastardising the music to make it more accessible, and it sure as hell shouldn’t be about programming pop music with an orchestra and trying to pass it off as classical - that’s insulting to both genres. 

It’s about creating a welcoming atmosphere - and we, the audience and performers, are responsible for creating an atmosphere that allows us to share one of the greatest experiences we are lucky enough to already be acquainted with.

Classical music etiquette for audiences

Please ensure your mobile phones are turned off

Artists feed themselves at all times with technological innovations; sometimes these are determinant and disrupt art. Especially when they come at the right time, like the apparently modest development in 1841, by the American painter John Goffe Rand, of the soft metal tube of paint, collapsible, hermetically closed with a clamp, which will enable artists to paint outside, leading thirty years later to the first impressionist exhibition.

Today, everybody talks, undiscerningly, about artificial intelligence. Without understanding anything about it, some see in it an absolute intelligence, able to free men from boring tasks and even to create works of art; others see in it a monstrous intelligence, which will distrust men and which, as soon as it can, will get rid of them.

Hence the urge, say some of them, to master it before it destroys us. And for others, at least, to decrypt what would be an “artistic intelligence”. And to use it to enhance the creative process.

AI already knows how to learn by experience, recognize faces, drive a car, play Go better than men, write a press review or compose a simple melody. Some people are using AI to predict the nature of works of art that the market would want to acquire, or to protect intellectual property by the interplay of AI and blockchain. Some also approach the reality and the complexity of artistic intelligence by the use of virtual reality in order to put ourselves in other person’s shoes, to see the world differently or to wander in the brain’s labyrinth.

But we are very far from seeing AI master what constitutes the basis of human artistic intelligence. For example, whereas a five-year-old child recognizes what is a dog once he saw one, thousands of attempts are needed for a device to learn how to recognize such an animal. And a lot more will be needed for AI to possibly be able to create original pieces of art.

Let’s check the facts: there is in our cortex about one hundred billion of neurons, all connected, and each of them connected by thousands of synapses; which makes billions and billions of connections. Excluding those which are elsewhere in our body. The main part of intelligence plays out in the mutual relations between the neurons and synapses. It is not in the ability to organize causalities, but to anticipate, by retroactive loops, later perceptions: a tennis player can’t send the ball back after a serve if he only trusts what he sees, a slalom skier doesn’t pass the gates if he doesn’t anticipate the movements of his body.This anticipation is peculiar to the human creative intelligence. For example, it is an essential part of aesthetic feelings, as Francis Wolff demonstrates so well about music in his book “Why Music ?” (Fayard éd.).

Therefore, we are very far from seeing AI taking part in the creative process. By chance, by random and serendipity, pieces of art may appear for the inform matter. But to link that with an artistic conscience and process, more is to be found.

In the long run, AI may lead us to new avenues of creation, new continents of creativity, new dimensions of human means.

Can Artificial intelligence become a help to artistic intelligence?

How far can it take us?

The other day I was talking to the colleagues at Classeek about what a CV should look like. I like to tell myself that over the years, I have become the master of masters over all CVs. I have indeed seen practically all imaginable CVs and have probably written most of them - at Zurich Opera between 10 and 40 per week for more than a decade, whereas I still translate, edit, rewrite and write dozens of them for my various projects – earlier this year around 90 for the Trans-Siberian Art Festival...

Sometimes I am quite proud of my abilities as a writer of CVs. For the Trans-Siberian Art Festival last Spring, for instance, I had to edit and translate from Russian into English a CV of a leading Tuvan overtone singer who excels in five styles of throat-singing. Apart from being puzzled by the fact that no one could tell me for sure what was the gentleman’s first and what his last name was, it took me some time to research the intricacies of overtone singing and how to translate them. In the end I discovered that most of the Tuvan names of the different styles are simply transliterated when written in English, so this particular problem was resolved quite easily.

In general, I have noticed one particular thing: a curriculum is a living organism and changes its shape all the time – like Barbapapa…! It starts with practically a few lines at the beginning of your career when you have nothing much to tell. As your career develops, your CV grows and grows accordingly: you gradually fill in every master class you attended, every city and country you played in, every foundation that gave you money, every recording you made (labels, musical partners and detailed programme included), every radio and TV programme that featured you, every award you won (and what for). And of course all orchestras, conductors and chamber music partners you ever played with, preferably in alphabetical order so that noone can get offended and bar your future career.

One day you realize that most people stopped reading your CV and that you yourself can no longer keep the inventory of orchestras, conductors, festivals and awards in order, that even you have lost count by now.

So you start reducing. You cut it down, summarize, focus on milestones and moments that truly meant something to you, cut out details – until it is about as short again as at the outset of your career...

For some reason, costume designers are masters in brevity. I remember a bunch of them whose CV consisted of one single sentence, maybe two. It was surprising but it worked.

The trouble about CVs is that you must constantly revise them, keep them up-to-date and make them appropriate for every individual occasion. Take your time to think about it – it is one of the small things that let audiences and organisers remember you favourably.

Think of what might be relevant to a particular country, hall or genre. If you are going to play chamber music, you might focus on that part of your work and shorten the part about orchestra concerts. If you play in a particular place, it will be appreciated if you elaborate on something relating to that area.

Try to write it up in a slightly different way and avoid endless (and totally boring) lists of names. However, do not try to be exaggeratedly funny and quirky – some promoters might not appreciate that and change your text completely.

Try to be short or ask beforehand how much space they foresee – otherwise your novel will be cut down to a short story or worse, mere snippets – and you might be disappointed with the editor’s work. For commodity on electronic devices brevity is also advisable.

Don’t invent things because you feel you have nothing of importance to say. The secret is to remain short, generic and sometimes vague enough to discreetly pass over some gaps in your career.

Check the proper spelling of people, orchestras and venues – out of respect for your colleagues. And do not trust presenters. They might not translate it properly or print your text one-to-one, without proofreading, and once published, your CV might turn out to be an embarrassment for you.Try to be generic and general – the text will age less quickly and spare you some rounds of revision.

Americans are in more of a hurry than Europeans, so they invented the system of writing the newest things first and facts like where you are from and where you studied at the very bottom. As you will have guessed I find this tiresome and annoying – I am always grudgingly scrolling down pages after pages in search for the one paragraph that tells me whether Mr N.N.-ov is in fact from Bulgaria, Moldavia, Russia or the U.S.A. and – since he is so brilliant – with whom and where he studied.Somehow I find this more interesting than to be told that he went on tour to Germany last month. And my brain feels far less hot when a text starts with the beginning and finishes with the end, rather than starting with the end and leaving the top waiting at the bottom.

Unfortunately, the writing of your cv is a task you cannot shun even though you might hate it. My basic advice is: be conscientious about your CV. First of all, it adds to the overall good impression you want to create (if you are taking your profession seriously) and secondly, you yourself will be pleased if what is written about you sounds decent and to your own liking.

And - as I mentioned before, in digital times things get spread around very quickly, so you are better off if the facts are right.

How to write a CV

What to include and what not to

Ok, so they’re usually biassed and certainly the methods of evaluation and marking always have their flaws. And the jurys end up in rows, while audiences are offended that their particular favourite was not given the prize they consider proper.

But I like to listen to my venerable great-aunt, Dame Fanny Waterman, founder and year-long chairman of the legendary Leeds International Piano Competition (prize winners include Rafael Orozco, Radu Lupu, Murray Perahia, Mitsuko Uchida, András Schiff, Louis Lortie, Boris Berezovsky, Lars Vogt). She has Yorkshire grass-roots and simply says "What’s the alternative?".

As a person who devoted most of her 97 years (and still is!!) to furthering piano playing and music on all levels and ages and who has seen the world’s greatest competitions from the inside for decades, she sees this business in a sober way: in her words, competitions are the best alternative to our modern age’s lack of wide-spread patronage by royalty or the church, who in olden times furthered talent and thus enabled a life in music.

If there weren’t competitions, how would you be able to draw attention to yourself, where would you be able to present yourself to a considerable number of leading performers, conductors, managers, promoters and eager listeners all sitting in one hall? Where indeed would you get a chance to perform a series of programmes, solo recitals and concertos, in front of a curious audience? Who would let you play with a renowned orchestra and conductor (without a generous bribe)?

Dame Fanny’s view is that "a competition reflects your decision that this is the moment when you are ready to take the risk. Have you got the courage? Are you prepared not to succeed where you had hoped and are you going to be put off completely by the result, or should your attitude be: I’ll show them…? The jury are not listening for mistakes. They’re listening, waiting and hoping for some magic, something that you are saying that is different from the competitor they have heard before."

I tend to agree with Dame Fanny, in spite of all shortcomings of competitions. See them as a unique showcase, see them as a moment of defiance, a moment when you test your nerves and stamina. By enrolling, you force yourself to learn a certain repertoire and bring it up to performance level within a defined period of time, you train yourself to go out on stage, to fight against many, if not all odds.

If you brave a competition, you can defy anything! Having regularly gotten through various stages of a competition lets you take adverse situations lightly: you will be able to play while feeling totally ill, when the lights unexpectedly go off (or mobile phones!!), when a patron in the audience collapses while you need to get to the end of a late Beethoven sonata, when your dress pops open on stage or when (what normally only happens in nightmares) you forget the music you are playing... Bad reviews or half-empty halls, creaking pianos and broken strings, insecure conductors and insensitive partners – nothing will prevent you from delivering an inspired, beautiful performance.

Having gone through the artificial set-up and heightened stress of competitions, you are practically shock-proof! And you needn’t win! I myself for instance prefer going to second rounds and semifinals and come to a decision of my own. And have made wonderful discoveries in the process. So even if you don’t win, people will hear you and who knows, some might be important and just make the difference.

But don’t forbear with that winning spirit…! Always go in with the conviction that only you are worthy of the First Prize and fight your way through to the end! Every time you go on stage you should feel the same kind of adrenalin and energy. You have to win your audience every single time you go out there.

Sense and nonsense of competitions

Winning the audience

I grew up in a world where one thought that if you practise enough you will have a career. And if you didn‘t have a career you simply hadn‘t practised enough, so sit down and practise!

However, after 25 years in the business (and mostly on the organiser’s side of things) I have understood that this is not the case, unfortunately. Also, I suspect that it was never how major careers actually got shaped but in pre-digital days and from the point-of-view of ordinary people it was very difficult to imagine that it could be otherwise. In many ways we were far more innocent then. After all, we believed what we read in the newspapers and what we saw on television.

Today, it is clear to me that to make a career – in music or elsewhere – you do indeed require the basics: talent, devotion, the ability to sit down and stay at it for endless hours, patience and endurance, favourable surroundings, encouragement.

But you must look beyond your music-making and keep your eyes open: You must be endowed with large portions of astuteness, independent thinking, self-confidence and… diplomacy. You should be organised, reliable, know languages and used to travelling through different countries and cultures. And you should not mind spending hours after hours on your own.Like a good friend of mine, excellent Spanish composer and pianist Antoni Parera Fons, says "I am never bored. I love being on my own thinking thoughts to myself. It is the most wonderful pastime."  Above all you should love music and your instrument, no matter what your career is doing. You should never force yourself to play only because somebody told you so. The audience can hear this. It immediately reacts to a musician that is not inspired. To put it bluntly: if you feel no vocation, you are not making real music. And you should not be making music professionally.

But you must also have the humility to understand and accept the fact that you might not be made for a professional career in music, for whatever reason. Or that you are maybe not made for a stellar career (who is?) but for „only“ an ordinary one that keeps you in the profession, lets you earn a living (more or less) and allows you to spend your days doing the thing you enjoy most.

Like in all aspects of life, you will unfortunately not be able to influence that crucial factor, luck: to find the right teachers, those who inspire you, those who can help you – those who will help you selflessly, those that will give you the right advice. And most importantly: the chance to be in the right place at the right time.

You can, however, work on things that might pave the way once you have indeed encountered a spell of luck, things that might help you unlock some doors that take you further on your way.

I would like to write about some of the things that in my experience have proven important and that are evidently often not taught to aspiring musicians. Or ignored by them. Many will be questions (me too, I like thinking my thoughts) rather than answers. But they might give you some helpful insights when thinking your own thoughts about music and your career.

Looking beyond the music making

Is practice enough?

Music has always been more than music. Not only it is what we all know and share: the ultimate expression of the specificity of mankind, its main differences with other animals (including those who sing); but it has always been, for those who can read those signs, the main way to predict some fundamental dimensions of the future.In fact, since the beginning of times, musical changes (in technological, sociological and economic patterns), anticipate the other changes in society as a whole.

For a very simple and profound reason: music explores the kingdom of signs. And it is easier, quicker, less painful and less expensive to manipulate signs than to manipulate material things. In theoretical language, we would say that information is infinite, while energy is limited. Matter is energy. Music is sign. And music explores the kingdom of possible much quicker than material fields. Even if, and it is essential, music needs matter (instrument or voice) in order to be heard by human ears.

(We could say the same about finance, also based on the language of signs; and there are fascinating analogies between the evolutions and historical roles of music and finance).

Many examples can be given of this capacity of music to anticipate the other dimensions of reality: non-religious concerts appear at the end of the 15th century, before the weakening of the power of churches. Tickets and concert halls are, in the middle of the 17th century, the pioneer of market economy. Symphonic orchestras are, in the middle of the 18th century, early signs of division of labor. The conductor is, at the beginning of the 19th century an early metaphor of the modern economic and political leader. In the middle of the 19th century, in France, with the creation of the SACEM, the dispute about music copyright opens the first fight about intellectual property; later, at the end of the 19th century, gramophones and records were the first examples of mass production, much before cars or washing machines. Discussion about allowing the broadcasting of music, around 1920, anticipates the acute recent discussion about free music on the Internet. Around 1930, the creation of hit parades open the road of ranking products by the number of their sales and not their specific qualities. Music was also the first product, before the end of the 20th century, to be delivered peer to peer, well in advance of Uber or of any other example of collaborative economy.

I could give a thousand of other examples from the surge of some ideology, to the balance of powers, and evolution of capitalism, through the evolution of opera or the birth of new music instruments. For example, the surge of atonal music was a gloomy prophecy of what the catastrophic 20th century was going to produce.

The domination of Africa on the rest of the world: Chinese music is not and never will be universal. This is a fact: no one listens to Chinese music abroad: its structure is too specific. And China has never tried to become an imperialistic nation beyond a narrow sphere of influence. The only universal music now, both as melodies and rhythms, is coming from Africa. And it is obvious that, for the best or the worse, Africa is going to be the main scene of mankind’s future: in 30 years, the population of this continent will have doubled!The development of live music is a sign that the only thing people are ready to pay for is to share an experience with artists and have good time. Time is the only scarce thing and everything will be made to free more time, by devices such as autonomous car.

More and more, people want to make music (play and compose), and not only to listen to it: it makes it easy to predict that people will want more and more to have control over their own life. DJs announce a world where the difference between consuming and producing will disappear. Where everyone will produce its consumption using 4D printing. Music is and will be everywhere, as a sign of fear of loneliness, need of reassurance and political mastering.

In this world of global music, as well as global society, things can go to the worst. If no one can make the difference between good musicians and nice amateurs anymore, the difference between good and bad will disappear. The quality of human condition is at stake. If we don’t raise the criteria of excellence, the worst will happen. If we raise it, then we can reach a noble world, of elegance, refinement, sophistication, creation, accomplishment and culture. For all.

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