This 4-day class is know as Sales Induction, something that every Best Buy employee has to do. Our trainer was this energetic and fun 25-year-old named Caitlin, and she had several activities we did where we got to talk about ourselves. In a demonstration to show how to get to know your customer properly, she had everyone in the room (there was 35 of us) name off their favorite concert they've been to, how much they paid, and if they'd go to it again if they could. I was in the middle of the room, so I sat and listened to everyone name off their favorite rock/rap/country concert. I had never been to one of those concerts, but I've been to plenty of orchestral/wind band/chamber concerts. So when it came to me, I said that, and that I was an orchestral musician. The trainer, as well as several people in the class, were genuinely surprised, as I told them I study music and have performed a lot of concerts myself. Caitlin asked if I could bring my horn into class the next day, which I told her I would be happy to if she really wanted me to. She said, "we'll talk later," but we never did, so I assumed she really didn't mean it.
I got to class a few minutes early on the last day, and the first thing she asks me is if I have my horn in my car. Unfortunately I didn't, since I didn't think she really wanted me to bring it. She asked if I was an Youtube performing, which I am, so I e-mailed her the link. Towards the end of class she decided to show the opening of the video I sent her (which was my performance of the Gliere Horn Concerto with the Mid-Columbia Symphony, which you can find on my "As a Performer" page) to the entire class. I was so surprised and gracious, as not only was she enthusiastic about seeing me play, but the class was, too. After hearing me perform the first page of my solo on the video, the whole class applauded and smiled at me, and it was as if I had just played it for them live. What a great feeling. Unfortunately, that segment of the video was all we had time to watch.
Y'know, there's no doubt that there's a definitely decline of interest in the field of classical music. How our business and our careers is financially successful is based on our audience. The problem that we have is that we don't have enough of an audience, which I think is because not enough people even know about symphony concerts and how easy and inexpensive (especially compared to rock concerts) it is. In my experience, the "common man" envision the symphony orchestra as a boring ensemble of strings and maybe a few winds playing unexciting music from the Baroque and Classical eras (let's face it - music from those eras can be quite boring to the undisciplined listener). But most symphony orchestras you see today use the full orchestra setup, complete with wind, brass and percussion, and playing exciting, story-telling music of the Romantic & Modern eras that was created for people to sit and listen exclusively to them. They even throw in a little Classical era stuff for flavor. Going to an orchestra concert is such an invigorating and awe-inspiring experience, and I know that all the non-musician friends and family that I've taken to the symphony have really enjoyed their experience, and would probably pay to do it again.
We've got to get these people excited about this field of music. I know so many people who hate classical music because they just haven't experienced it, and it's too different from popular music of today. The truth is that it's much more advanced and intelligent than popular music today, despite being a hundred or two hundred years older than it. The lyrics of orchestral music is something you interpret and imagine, just as one would do while reading a book, sparking your imagination to get off its butt and get to work.
So, what I've learned about this experience is to continue to simply share with people what I do and the work I've put into it. I'm happy to share with anyone that I'm a dedicated horn player who has a lot of experience and education in performing with an orchestra. Perhaps maybe they'll be excited about it and want to hear it. I also will start inviting anyone I can to hear me perform, not so much just to hear me, but to experience a performance. Definitely avoid trying to set them down somewhere and making them listen to some music of your choice. That won't get them to like it. You gotta leave the choice up to them. Believe me, money shouldn't be an excuse for most people when attending concerts, since so much more money is put into entertainment like movies, football and smartphones.
It's really sad that we have so many talented musicians in our field of music, yet so few of them actually make a living doing what they've spent so much of their time to perfect. It can easily be argued that classical musician work harder than any other musician, especially more so that popular musicians, who end up succeeding financially much more than classical musicians. Luckily, we live in an era where people what to know more and learn more, and there are more people than you think who are interested in going to symphony concerts. We just need to tell them about it more. Make some good friends, and tell them about your concerts. They'll be more likely to come and support you. And hey, maybe they'll enjoy it enough to want to do it again.
Take care and value music.