Dear Alma, Should I be playing candlelight concerts?
OrchestrasFrom our agone aunt:
Dear Alma,
I am in an orchestra, and do some playing on the side – chamber concerts or pickup gigs here and there. Recently I have been asked to do a couple of concerts that are contracted by a company that puts on basically classical pops with pickup quartets, surrounded by electric candles. They pay decently, treat us well, have set repertoire, and the concerts are well-attended.
Here is the question. Some of my colleagues have expressed negative feelings towards musicians accepting these gigs, because they feel like a corporate, out-of-town “pretend classical” event is pulling audience away from the actual classical concerts. I don’t want to turn down decent work that pays well, but I also don’t want to get in a sticky situation with my colleagues.
On the Fence
Dear On the Fence,
Yes I have seen these concerts advertised. Aggressively. On my Instagram especially. If I am thinking of the same operation, it normally features a photo of 4 young musicians surrounded by a sea of plastic candles, with catchy titles reflecting a Hallmark Holiday or some such. And operation it is. Over 100 cities, and the catch phrase on the website is “Almost like, you know, heaven”. Talk about classy! I want to go! You can even hear these “spectacular musicians” play Aretha Franklin or Coldplay! Why do they stop here – why not make a series of music schools to train the next generation of “spectacular musicians”? It’s just, you know, like, very high level stuff.
But really. Musician to musician, it’s hard to turn down a gig. And it’s probably pretty fun to play. And I know about the concerns. Taking audience away from actual classical events. But is there even a crossover? If someone is going to go hear an orchestra play, are they going to be flipping a coin over these two, polar opposites? I don’t know, but my instinct says no. Not the same audience.
On the Fence, I used to have a student who had a regular gig playing in a baroque orchestra in a castle on weekends. She was in FULL consume. She gave me tickets for our family to attend, and we all dressed up. It came with dinner and a kindof comedy warm-up routine, then we piled into the ballroom and the orchestra played with candles on their stands. They were very good, surprisingly. But, looking around the room, it would take a real stretch for me to imagine any of the patrons going to hear Mahler at the symphony, if you catch my drift.
So, no, I don’t imagine that these events will pull away audience. Maybe a teeny little bit. And maybe it’s that kind of information that you can share with your concerned colleagues.
And maybe you will just love being surrounded by thousands of non-recyclable plastic candles, playing Beatles tunes. You can fill up your whole house with them. And then the landfill. It going to be, like, really super magical.
Questions for Alma? Please put them in the comments section or send to DearAlmaQuery@gmail.com
the answer is yes because it will help you pay for your living. Even the first violinist of the Dover Quartet plays in Candlelight concerts because he doesn’t get enough concerts with the quartet. Waste of talent to see him play in non classical pop concerts but I guess he will do anything for money. It’s hard to make a living as a quartet member or freelance musician!
Really? I find it hard to believe that a Dover member would play one of these….
I heard that the rest of the Candlelight Quartet takes a bigger cut from the salary and tips to pay the members of famous quartets because famous quartet members’ base pay is much higher than the freelance musician pay. Freelance rate is cheap!
Who are you? Is this same person keeps mentioning Dover quartet? If you are musician, go practice
Who are you? You should practice and audition for the candlelight quartet and work on your life instead of asking who this is.
What if my life is better than yours?
I’m a tenured professor at university. Pretty good life if you ask me. What about you? Do you have job security like me?
Maybe it might just be the classical teaser the first-time concertgoer needs to get the chutzpah up to attend Mahler!
Double edged sword. Get stuck if you do, get stuck if you don’t.
These concerts are everywhere and they are driving me crazy!!!!
I have played some of these. I felt dirty after.
Is the André Rieu crowd pulling away from classical audiences? Or maybe this schlock is close enough to classical to affect classical concerts? I don’t know.
You could ask yourself whether symphony orchestra players should be participating on the Pops concerts most orchestras have to offer to stay afloat.
It’s a living. You are lucky to be able to play things you esteem much of the time and that your greatest misery is in giving pleasure to people whose tastes you apparently do not share — for money.
Very first-world problem, yours. Get over yourself.
Why are you always so bitter about this topic? What happened in your life? Did this person every say that it’s their “greatest misery”? Are we not all allowed to think of how to better our lives? In fact, I would say that the point of life is to strive for our best and to live the best life we could possibly have. If you stick to your mantra of dismissing any concerns beyond making a living, then I guess that explains why you’ve become so bitter and senseless. Ironically, your attitude and words serve as a cautionary tale, and I hope the inquirer reads your comment for this reason.
Just one comment. There is a crossover audience, in the middle. Not hard-core classical music enthusiasts, but people who will go to the local Symphony on occasion if something, or someone, on the program catches their interest. Does an orchestra live or die by these occasional ticket purchasers? Definitely not. However, some of these folks will over time convert to being either season holders, or perhaps even donors to the orchestra. So while I don’t really have anything against the candlelight concerts per se, even though I am a musician whose programs probably do lose some audience that way, I don’t think it’s as cut and dried as suggesting the audiences are different.
Take the gigs! Your bills don’t care where the money comes from. Tomorrow the work might not be available. Never pass up opportunity in the music business.
The saying goes: jazz musicians play 3000 chords for 3 people, rockers play 3 chords for 3000 people, so this advice to stick with “real” classical music n turn up your nose against these classic-light, crossover, “not real” classical music just deepens the grave “real” classical music is in.
I went to one in Philadelphia where the cellist was begging for tips. Same jokes as 3 years ago, but now they give you nasty looks if you ask to take pictures with them but didn’t put any money in the tip basket. That cellist gave me such a mean look like i was supposed to tip. I also played in one in NJ and we did not do that. I am nicer to my audience who don’t tip!
I love the (not so) veiled hate against these types of events (Candlelight) by the defenders of the status quo. It seems to me that, instead of pandering to their old donor base, orchestras gotta wake up and come up with innovation if they don’t want to die; we live in a capitalist world after all. Who could imagine that a string quartet surrounded by plastic candles would sell so well? Wakey wakey!
Candlelight is for musicians who quite did not make it in their career to make a living. No prestige or high level but stream of money in their pocket. You should always play when you get a chance. I would not invite your classmates from Curtis and Juilliard or your teachers because of the level of playing.
https://ocsm-omosc.org/index.php/en/news/92-disruption-by-candlelight
Dear On the Fence
Do your colleagues pay your bills or buy your food, or provide for your children? I’m guessing no, right? So play the gigs with no guilt whatsoever. No one is better or worse just because they listen to Mahler or Brahms, or the Beatles. There are audiences for everything, and actually, it’s very cool that you get to be part of two different musical ecosystems where you can play for people who, at the end of the day, just want to enjoy some music, whether it’s Beethoven or The Beatles. They can coexist without excluding one another.
I went to one just as we were emerging from the pandemic.Despite the fact masks were recommended no staff wore them and less than 10% of the audience did. The quartet was pretty ordinary . Each item was explained and it hit me: these concerts are designed to create new audience. They are not for people who know the difference between a sonata a symphony and a concerto or can tell Brahms and Beethoven apart. So I won’t go to another unless somebody’s mum or granddaughter wants a ride .. then it’s worth the effort and I will keep my opinions to myself if audience members enthuse wildly over pretty ordinary renditions of works I have probably heard enough of … these concerts may act as a bridge . I was really impressed by the appreciation shown by the audience
Candlelight is low level gig that pays decent. I don’t think the members of candlelight would say “yeah I play in candlelight quartet” to their classmates at an alumni event. I’m sure the candlelight members would rather play Brahms 4 with Boston Symphony if the pay rate was same (well Boston Symphony is more pay but even if they were the same). Let’s have sympathy for these candlelight quartet players! Even Curtis faculty plays in these candlelight concerts to pay their mortgage!
My dad always told me: if you think the check will clear, take the gig.
For all you know, you might meet someone there who will provide you with even more work.
Your Dad had a great deal of sense.
I’ve been 30 years in the profession and can say with some certainty that the level of business acumen amongst many musicians is appallingly low. True, we are musicians, but without financial pragmatism you will be left in the practice room or worse, constantly moaning about the money you thought was not important to you.
I think Candelight is made up of players who have a 9-5 work job as their secondary. Musicians with music degrees who never won a full time audition so they’re doing other 9-5 job and gave up auditioning. Not your typical Emerson Quartet but freelancers trying to get by paycheck to paycheck.
As a musician has played these concerts in various cities, as best as I can tell the quality varies wildly between locations. I’ve seen some terrible performances on YouTube, but also played with full-time tenured orchestra musicians on their weeks off. All depends on the depth of freelance talent in the area.
I am do Candlelights in Fort Worth and our audiences are from the Fort Worth Symphony and Dallas Symphony. They said they enjoy our candlelights more than boring Symphony concerts from both orchestras. We are more innovative than those two orchestras so I dont blame anyone.
For a candlelight concert with real class, see Lilly’s tragedie lyrique “Cadmus et Hermione” performed by Le Poeme Harmonique under Vincent Dumestre. The stage of the Paris Opera is entirely candle-lit and soloists are attended by acolytes holding candlesticks. The performance is available on DVD and it pops up occasionally on YouTube.
How it would play in Peoria I do not know.
I don’t think it’s a safe way of having a concert. In the summer of 2017 I was sent to a chamber music festival in Aix-en-Oye which was held in an ancient large monastery which still had most of its structure in medieval wood. One of the concerts was a candle light one titled ‘Les Lumières en Amour’. The harpsichord player’s dress was a long one and caught fire in some baroque allegro, after which the whole building got up in flames and we could only escape just in time, watching the catastrophe from the gardens. It was a beautiful sight, though, but I was sad I missed the second half wich included something like The Art of Fudge.
Sally
Fever has a long blacklist. In some places it may be well paid. But let’s remember that this is a worldwide concert series. There is mistreatment of musicians, bad pay, hiring people with shady pasts, and much more. I don’t think this concert series is wrong, but the company that organises it is rubbish.