Life's a Pitch: Arts Publicity

I've interviewed artists, directors and novelists for The Chronicles, but never a publicist. Given my background in public relations via Mozartiana, it's long overdue, I must say! Perhaps the issue was that I simply didn't feel a connection with anyone I'd met or read online, but as of last week, I had a eureeka! moment.

Upon reading Amanda Ameer's blog, Life’s a Pitch, I discovered how much I identified with her frustrations concerning publicity and marketing for the arts. She disclosed stories of her own experiences on the scene in New York which elicited witty, candid and fresh assessments. We have matching philosophies. She seeks to desegregate genres and artists to unleash an array of possibility. Yes, classical music CAN live happily combined with jazz and 21st Century texts! As I read on, I discovered information about her company, First Chair Promotion, which she launched in 2007 after departing IMG Artists as Publicity Manager.

My experience in public relations has been organizational to this point and with Amanda, I knew I'd found a good opportunity to learn more about the artist-publicist relationship, so I wrote to her to request an interview and the rest, as they say, is history. Of course, discovering that she was Hilary Hahn's publicist brought forth yet another incentive! (You're #1, Hilary!) Click here to see her perform the final movement of Mozart's violin concerto in G major, K. 216. I tremendously appreciate Amanda taking time from her busy schedule to answer a few questions and cast light on curiosity. Sincerest thanks. And now, on with the show!

Sherry

*An Interview with Amanda Ameer*

Sherry: Your client roster ranges from the illustrious classical violinist Hilary Hahn to the vibrant new sounds of Gabriele Kahane, composer of Craigslistlieder. In fact, all of the artists you represent display a passion for contrast in their artistry, merging and experimenting with various styles/genres while maintaining standard repertory. Given the current landscape of classical music and opera, this trait is undoubtedly desirable and marketable. Although these new ideas are welcomed by countless communities, significant adversity exists from purists who influence programming decisions. This sentence from your site addresses the divide between these two publics. “First Chair will bring its clients to new audiences while introducing long-time fans to fresh artistic experiences.” Is tackling this polarization one of the most challenging aspects of artist promotion?

Amanda: I should mention that I don’t, as a publicist, book artists or work with presenters on programs. That said, in my opinion, the key to representing unique artists to different communities is that, no matter how confusing their genre or lack thereof may be to some folks, each client performs or composes at an exceptional level. Despite writers’, presenters’ and eventually audiences’ tastes, it’s difficult to question a certain degree of artistic excellence. That doesn’t mean I’ll be able to get stories for every client in every media outlet I pitch, but it does mean I can confidently encourage journalists to take risks on stories they may not have otherwise written.

Sherry: Hilary Hahn is known for expressing sincere appreciation to her admirers and seems to be quite exceptional in this manner. Artists interact very differently with their fans. How has marketing dramatically changed the fan-artist relationship with the latest generation of classical artists?

Amanda: Artist blogs, in addition to sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and to a lesser degree now, MySpace, have all completely changed the expectation for fan-artist relationships. When artists blogs are actually written by the artists - like the excellent blogs of pianist Jeremy Denk and composer Nico Muhly - I find myself enjoying their performances 100% more than I would if I didn’t have that public insight into their personalities and professional lives. I was furious when a friend at a record label forwarded me Jeremy’s “interview” of Sarah Palin and asked if I thought his publicist wrote it as a PR stunt. Of course his publicist didn’t write it! Read his other blog entries! That interview is very clearly Jeremy Denk, and it’s cool that I can say that about a pianist I’ve only met in person a few times. Similarly, people always ask if I write Hilary’s Violin Case’s Tweets. (I don’t – who has the time?) That skepticism exists because publicists look at high-trafficked artist blogs, YouTube channels, Twitter feeds and Facebook pages and think, those are good marketing tools - I’m going to make my artists (or organization) sign up for them, or worse, blog/Tweet/update for them! That’s always painfully transparent, because the real deal – Hilary, The King’s Singers, Jeremy, Nico – are out there! I update a few of my artists’ Facebook and MySpace accounts, but it’s made very clear from the tone that they are official, not personal, pages.

That said, a commitment to interacting with fans at that level is incredibly time-consuming. Thirty years ago, artists had to show up at a venue, perform, and maybe do a few newspaper and radio interviews; now they’re expect to vlog what they had for dinner and post it on YouTube. I encourage my artists to do what comes naturally to them, that is, if they like to write they should blog, if they like on-camera interviews, they should utilize YouTube. If not, they can always connect with fans the old-fashioned way: in performance, imagine that!

Sherry: Americans for the Arts estimates that the U.S. could lose up to 10,000 arts organizations this year due to the recession. Opera and classical music communities have proven to be more recession-proof than their counterparts in the past, but they cannot avoid disruption altogether. Artists will rely heavily on the resourcefulness of their managers and publicists. What can we expect to see during this economic downturn?

Amanda: While times are indeed tougher than usual, when did arts organizations and artists really have money to spare? I think we actually live in ideal times to not have marketing budgets: the best ways to market are free. Can’t afford to buy TV ad spots? Put your ad on YouTube. Don’t want to invest in buying e mail lists? Set up an interesting, unique and informative Twitter account and offer sales and special offers (that expire in five minutes) up there. I’ve done one big CD mailing since I started working on my own and the postage cost $192, not including the padded envelopes, labels, business cards, paper press release, and album itself. I will never do that again, but rather, have been e mailing critics download links and offering physical copies by request only. If Great Depression Take 1 resulted in a renaissance of artist creativity, I think our Depression is generating a similar flourish of marketing creativity.