Environmental Sustainability and the Classical Music Industry

[Applause]

today

i will outline some of the ways in which

the classical music industry can

restructure itself

to become more environmentally

sustainable

some of the attitude shifts that will be

required to make this transition

and ultimately how this change can lead

to a more prosperous

and creatively inspired industry

in a way it’s not surprising that

there’s very little discussion within

the classical music industry regarding

climate change

and the role that we may have to play in

it we are a small industry

and there’s probably a pervading sense

that a change in our actions will do

very little to mitigate

the global climate crisis however

one thing that the covet 19 pandemic has

proven about our society

is that a sense of responsibility for

everyday individual behaviors and

actions can make a big collective

difference

all of us ensuring that we wear masks in

public keep two meters apart

and avoiding social gatherings has

resulted in our health system staying

afloat

through a situation in which it very

possibly could have been overwhelmed

i think that the same thinking needs to

be applied to industries

when it comes to fighting climate change

every industry no matter how small

has to adapt and make fundamental

changes to its ways of business

in order to contribute to the collective

project of saving our planet

within the classical music business

concert presenting organizations have a

crucial role to play

as they are the ones booking artists

paying them for their work

and playing host to audiences while

there are many good practices that

contribute to reducing waste and carbon

emissions in small ways

such as banning single-use plastics at

venues using led lighting

and getting rid of paper tickets and

programs

the single largest contributor to global

carbon emissions in the concert business

is transportation in particular the use

of air transit

just to give you an idea a return flight

from new york

to london england creates 986 kilograms

of carbon dioxide

per passenger that’s the equivalent of

heating a house in a cold climate

or driving a car for a whole year

so if a concert hall adopts all of those

in-house policies relating to energy use

and waste reduction

but still flies many of its performers

in from across an ocean

or even on a short-haul flight it is

still

contributing significantly and harmfully

to carbon pollution

of course if this was an easy problem to

fix we wouldn’t be talking about it

right now

there are many economically and

artistically legitimate reasons for why

concert venues hire artists

that need to travel great distances to

perform there

certain artists names like lang lang

yoyo ma

are sure fire box office hits and their

concerts will sell out

while many venues are still likely to

lose money on those concerts

due to the astronomic fees and expenses

incurred by hiring musicians of that

standing

they undeniably raise the profile of the

organization and add a sense of prestige

to the series

more widely being part of the worldwide

touring

circuit and bringing artists who make

their livings by playing all over the

world

gives any venue or series a feeling of

cosmopolitanism

bringing the best in the world to your

doorstep

having an internationally focused

concert venue has become one of the

hallmarks of a culturally relevant city

however strong these reasons are we we

need to return to the central question

here

is it worth contributing substantially

to the demise of our planet in order

to hear world famous artists play in the

flesh

i would argue probably not

that’s not to say however that people

would be in any way prevented from

hearing world famous artists play

live since the kova 19 crisis began

and public events have been disrupted or

postponed until further notice

live streaming technologies have come to

the fore as a viable way

to produce and consume performance art

not unlike what we’re doing tonight

of course this medium is not perfect yet

and presents many challenges of its own

but at its very best it arguably has the

potential to provide an even more

immersive live concert experience than

attending a concert in person

especially if you’re on any kind of

budget sure

you can pay hundreds of dollars months

in advance to book a ticket

right in the center of the first row to

see let’s say yo-yo ma

play dvorak’s cello concerto you will

see the beads of sweat

falling from his forehead you will hear

him breathe with the music

and you’ll notice the subtle gestural

interactions that he has with the

conductor

of the orchestra in order to make sure

that the music stays together

these things are the gritty essence of

live performance that recordings can’t

provide

and are the reasons that we value live

performances so highly

but if you are somebody who’s not

willing to spend hundreds of dollars

and plan months in advance you will

likely be seated

near the back of the hall where you will

be squinting just to catch a glimpse

of yo-yo ma’s cello probably having to

lean to your left to see around the

rather tall person sitting in front of

you

apart from being able to say i was there

afterwards

you haven’t really had a comparable

experience to the person sitting in the

front row

live streaming has the potential to

completely remove that boundary

and give every viewer the same up close

gritty experience

without the financial discrimination and

requiring very little advanced planning

other technologies are on the way that

will enhance distance consumption even

more

such as steinway’s sphereocast which

essentially allows computerized

acoustic pianos to livestream through

each other

with this technology let’s say langlang

could be playing

a piano recital on a spherio piano in

carnegie hall

which is then live broadcasting to every

other spherio piano in the world

each of these satellite pianos is

acoustically reproducing his performance

in real time i think the industry and

consumers

need to embrace the many technological

possibilities presented

support their development and help the

whole world become more connected and

more cosmopolitan

while also eliminating our unnecessary

carbon footprints but

make no mistake by saying that we should

embrace these technologies that offer

high-end distance to viewing experiences

i’m not at all advocating for the demise

of live performances with in-person

audiences

i’ve played a number of livestream

concerts during this pandemic and even a

set of outdoor in-person concerts in the

summertime

the overwhelming feedback that i’ve had

for my audiences

is that they miss attending regular live

performances and they can’t wait to get

back to doing so

again when it is safe hopefully

one positive takeaway from this pandemic

is that we never again

take for granted the joys of

congregating for shared artistic

experiences

however there’s no reason that

congregating for a live concert or event

needs to generate a substantial and

harmful carbon footprint

if concert presenting organizations take

this to heart and reconsider their

artist booking practices

they can greatly reduce their

environmental impact by presenting

artists who live

locally perhaps the most

egregious aspect of artists traveling

the world

to perform in important concert halls is

that there are typically

many musicians in these destination

cities who can play the same repertoire

to a comparable standard sure there’s an

aspect of celebrity that might be lost

but in terms of the artistic product

hearing an excellent performance of

say rachmaninoff’s third piano concerto

that product can almost

always be sourced locally

if consumers are not happy with the

local product they can then turn to live

streamed concerts

and watch their favorite artist play

from the concert hall in his or her

home city this competitive aspect is

also important

as it provides an incentive for

organizations to ensure

that their in-person products are of the

highest possible quality

i acknowledge that this requires a major

shift in attitude from both concert

presenting organizations

and from consumers however it’s

important to return to the fundamental

question here

is it worth contributing to the demise

of our planet’s ecosystem

in order to see famous musicians play in

the flesh

again i would argue no

aside from the environmental aspect of

this shift towards presenting locally

based artists

there are also economic and artistic

benefits

a good comparable here is the food

industry when you go to a shop

and buy let’s say a bushel of locally

grown apples

you’re not only making a good

environmental choice because the apples

have only been transported from the

orchard to the store

rather than by air from their country of

origin to a central warehouse

and then finally to the store you’re

also putting money back

into your local economy and helping

local producers develop a better product

some of the money from your purchase

will go back to the farmer

who will then be able to invest in his

or her farming infrastructure

and be able to grow a bigger or higher

quality crop in the future

thus improving the product that is

available to you

there’s been a marked shift in the past

few decades towards supporting local

food growers in canada

and the result is a thriving local food

economy that provides sustainable

high quality products to consumers and

creates job opportunities

for farmers if we were to adopt a

similar approach

in the music industry a musician

supported by their many local concert

venues would then be able to reinvest

their earnings

into their local economy be supported

and encouraged to develop better

artistic products

and would be able to contribute to other

aspects of musical life in the region

like teaching outreach programs and

helping startup venues get off the

ground

from a purely financial perspective this

would also mean that concert presenters

could spend less money on travel and

accommodation for artists

and more on actual take-home fees

from the artistic perspective i think

there’s a great amount of value to be

found in performers

building a relationship with a specific

audience over time

rather than constantly performing for

new audiences or performing for an

audience with such infrequency

say once every two or three years that

there’s very little sense of continuity

i like to compare this to dating on a

first date

it’s very easy to appear as a curated

version of yourself

the person doesn’t know anything about

you and all they have to go on is their

first impression

over a series of dates or through the

course of a relationship

it becomes much more difficult to curate

your image you really have to be the

person that you are projecting

and it will become obvious to your

partner if you are hiding something

a musician’s relationship with an

audience is much the same

performing for the same audience

frequently builds a bond between the two

parties

that makes the musician artistically

accountable to his or her listeners

when the sheen of novelty is removed

every concert has to be well thought out

and engaging

or the audience will start to lose

interest

many classical musicians are able to

travel the world playing essentially the

same

sets of pieces for different audiences

for years on end

this approach simply would not hold

water with a local audience

people might want to come and hear the

same program twice but interest would

certainly fade by the third

fourth and fifth times having to

constantly develop artistically and

build new ideas

keeps a musician fresh and it keeps

their audience interested

one of the most frequent discussions in

the classical music industry

is the issue of relevance how is playing

music written by dead white european men

relevant to today’s world if the

industry continues to ask the critical

questions i mentioned at the beginning

with regards to gender and pluralism

if it becomes a leader in environmental

sustainability if it embraces new

technologies

and challenges itself to build a more

accountable artistic product

we will be well on our way to answering

that question

this change needs to start with

organizations and i would like to finish

this talk by challenging all concert

presenters

to turn the dark days of this pandemic

into an opportunity to rethink

and remodel the work that we do so that

when we come out the other side of this

crisis

we are more prepared to play our role in

the future of our planet

than we were before thank you for

listening today