KCMETROPOLIS.org
Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

Twenty-three individuals from across the country met and bonded during an intense week in the city of New York this past October.   Coming from all over, from Alaska to Florida, the fellows for the 2010 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera were a diverse group of editors, pop music contributors, dance and theater writers, freelance critics, and radio programmers.  We gathered together to attend concerts, lectures, writing workshops, and tours to gain insight into our work as journalists and the state of the classical music in America.

 Three NEA Arts Journalism Institutes take place yearly, covering not only classical music and opera, but theater, musical theater, and dance.  During the course of the Institute, fellows attend performances and write reviews, participate in discussions and (in our case) a singing class. This was the second year that a writer from KCMetropolis.org was selected to participate.  Megan Brown Helm attended the NEA Institute for Classical Music and Opera in 2009. 

Co-Directors of the Institute were András Szántó and Anya Grundmann with Artistic Director Joseph Horowitz.  Each comes from an artistic and journalistic background.  Szántó is a consultant, researcher, writer, and instructor in art business.  Grundmann is the Executive Producer of NPR Music and has a history of successful classical music programming.  Horowitz is an author and blogger in classical music as well as a concert programmer.  They arranged an array of activities from morning to night and constantly raised topics of discussion that pushed us to hone our arguments and discover more about ourselves as writers and the arts culture we cover as journalists. 

 Our classes were held at the Journalism School of Columbia University.  We received crash courses in the history of dance, opera, and classical music in the United States.  We learned in-depth about selected works of Brahms, Mussorgsky, and Mahler in preparation for our reviews and also about Dvorak’s influence on the American symphony.

 Not everything happened in the classroom, though.

We live in a time of changing media culture and the roles of the Internet and social media were integral into the Institute’s curriculum. Geeta Dayal, Sree Sreenivasan, and Duy Lin Tuh led stimulating sessions about using sites like Facebook and Twitter as networking tools as well as how to build websites and utilize blogging to communicate with a wide audience and strengthen readership.  Each of our reviews was submitted to a blog which enabled us to read and respond to each other.  Print media was not neglected, however.   Many of the fellows make their living through traditional routes and it was exciting touring the arts floor of the New York Times with Classical Music Editor James Oestreich and discussing how they’ve adapted to the changing culture while maintaining their traditions and reputation.

 A fascinating aspect of our Institute involvement was discussing various organizations’ roles within the culture. We met with many of the leading players in the New York music scene including Metropolitan Opera General Manager Peter Gelb, New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert, and New York City Opera General Manager and Artistic Director George Steel.  They all had on their “meeting with journalists” hats and offered interesting, though guarded, discussions about their organizations.  Yet there was a unified attitude of progress and innovation, especially in regard to the MET’s HD broadcasts of operas to movie theaters across the country.  We talked briefly with Alex Ross, The New Yorker music critic and author of Listen to This, who discussed his journey from as a music writer as well as the previously mentioned institutes’ reclamation as viable cultural entities, citing the New York Philharmonic’s recent production of Ligeti’s “Le Grand Macabre”.

We had a frank panel discussion about the national state of the arts with Marc Scorca of Opera America, Jesse Rosen from the League of American Orchestras, and Wayne Brown of the National Endowment for the Arts.  They presented different viewpoints, but created a clearer internal picture, discussing various infrastructure issues that affect artistic output in organizations all over the country.  

 We also met with composers for some of the newer pieces.  Magnus Lindberg, composer-in-residence with the New York Philharmonic, described some of his compositional processes.  “Joy,” which we saw performed at Julliard, came from a recording Lindberg made as he destroyed a worn out grand piano.  At the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Evan Ziporyn discussed the inspiration and creative process working on “A House in Bali,” an opera based on the life and work of Colin McPhee.  An exciting surprise was a Steve Reich sighting at Le Poisson Rouge, a club in Greenwich Village which programs classical music, during a Kronos Quartet performance our first night in New York.  He smartly slipped away before he could be mobbed by the classical music die-hards in the audience.

Over the course of the Institute, we had three writing assignments: two reviews and a think piece; we discussed our work in smaller groups with three different critics.  My group met with Justin Davidson, music critic for New York Magazine, to discuss our reviews of the New York Philharmonic’s performance of Lindberg’s “Kraft,” Anne Midgette, music critic for the Washington Post, for the MET’s “Boris Godunov,” and Steve Smith, music editor for Time Out New York, for our end-of-Institute think pieces.  The think pieces ranged in topics from audience etiquette to classical music’s online presence, the American opera canon to the critic’s curatorial role in exploring new music.

These critiques were invaluable. Instant feedback and group discussions are nearly non-existent in a freelancer’s work.   Reading others’ reviews and reactions stated in thoughtful, yet vastly different, perspectives was eye-opening.  We not only read each other’s work, but, with the guidance of our workshop leaders, dissected our less effective areas, such as weak arguments, overwritten ideas, and lazy word choice, and discussed solutions for stronger writing.

Highlights from the Institute included a backstage tour of Carnegie Hall with museum director and archivist Gino Francesconi, a recital and discussion with pianist Jeremy Denk at Steinway Hall, and the MET’s production of “Boris Godunov” starring René Pape and conducted by Valery Gergiev.  The first two experiences stood out because these individuals displayed a blinding passion for their work made apparent by their complete and humble service to artistic endeavor.  “Boris” redeemed the opera experience for me, making up for some of the horrible productions I’ve had to endure in the past.  We also had a fascinating backstage tour of the MET, an artistic “factory” with inner workings of colossal proportion.  As we left the opera house after the show, a well-prepared busker played snippets of melodies from the opera in the subway. 

Flying home after an exhausting week, I have rarely been more invigorated about writing, music, and the Kansas City arts scene.  The NEA Arts Journalism Institute opened my eyes to many possibilities in my contribution to the arts and the challenging, yet dynamic opportunities available in the current and future culture.

By Libby Hanssen

Traditional and New Classical, Theatre Contributor

Libby Hanssen holds degrees from University of Missouri-Kansas City (M.M.) and Ball State University (B.M.) in trombone performance and also studied music education at Indiana University. She has studied trombone with Carl Lenthe, JoDee Davis, John Seidel, John Huntoon and Denis Wick, and music education with Brent Gault, Estelle Jorgensen and Katherine Strand.

While at IU, she taught classes in general music, focusing on listening skills and music fundamentals through practical music usage and exploring new sound constructions. During the course of her studies at UMKC, she performed with many ensembles, including the Conservatory Orchestra and Musica Nova. She has also performed with the Kansas City Puccini Festival, the People's Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City, the New Jazz Order, the Indiana Wind Symphony and the Muncie Symphony Orchestra.

In 2010, she was a fellow (one of 23 journalists selected from across the US) for the seventh annual National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera at Columbia University’s Journalism School in New York City.

Most of her free time is spent with her three boys (son, dog and husband) and camera, exploring the many fine aspects of Kansas City living. She enjoys listening to KKFI - Kansas City Community Radio and KCUR - Kansas City's NPR station, visiting Kansas City's fine collection of museums and galleries, and scavenging in thrift and antique stores to add to her collection of toy instruments.

She writes for the joy of words and the process of constructing a story, maintaining the blog Proust Eats a Sandwich (www.prousteatsasandwich.wordpress.com). She is working on her first book: Murray Goes to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.