primephonic: classical music in the digital age

Welcome to Brooklyn. Powered by that greatest of all
drivers in New York City—real estate—in the past decade
Brooklyn’s demographics have been transformed. An
explosion of high-end housing in downtown Brooklyn
and Williamsburg, along with the transformation
of much of the Brooklyn waterfront,
has lured people priced out of
Manhattan to a borough that’s diverse,
livable, cultured, and still affordable (just
barely).
The influx of culturally enthusiastic and
curious residents has created a place
for the arts to flourish. Brooklynites are
staying in their home borough when
they go out at night, and supporting
cultural institutions that are now luring
Manhattanites across the water to see
what’s happening in Brooklyn.
Brooklyn’s classical music venues, old
and new, are figuring out ways to bring
these audiences in and show them something traditional
in a new way, or something new in an untraditional way,
or some of all of those things. They’re asking questions
about programming choices and ticket prices and
seating arrangements, and all coming up with different
answers.
‘the stage
area puts the
performers
so close to
the audience,
it's like a
petting zoo’
BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC
For years, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), one
of Brooklyn’s oldest cultural institutions, ran a bus from
midtown Manhattan to its home in Fort Greene. BAM is
two blocks from a major subway hub,
but those two blocks seemed like too
much to walk for some.
These days, the BAM bus is gone, the
subway hub is also a mall, there’s an
NBA arena a block away, BAM has
three buildings, and is at the heart of
the Brooklyn Cultural District—a $100
million city development project that
focuses on arts organizations, affordable
housing, and public spaces.
Classical music is part of BAM’s very
eclectic programming, and is usually
part of something else—opera, dance,
or theater, said BAM president Katy
Clark. “We’re very much interested in
the way genres collide.” A few seasons ago the Debussy
String Quartet shared stage with Australian acrobat
troupe Circa, for example, each interpreting Shostakovich
in its own way. And BAM often plays host to Baroque
operas staged by Les Arts Florissants and ballets by Mark
Morris.
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