The Sunday Bs

Growing up in the San Joaquin Valley, our big newspaper of the week was the Sunday edition of the Modesto Bee.  Sometime in my pre-teen years, my parents also began subscribing to the Sunday edition of the San Francisco Chronicle.  In those days, it was an excellent paper and a dose of the real world for us.  I would spend hours poring over the pink section and what seemed to be an endless smorgasbord of music and performance opportunities available in “the city.”

Flash forward to 2010, and I regret that I rarely pick up an actual newspaper.  I admit this reluctantly, because I love the New York Times, and still consider it to be the gold standard.  The Arts and Leisure section regularly transports me to distant galaxies of wonder, but I usually read it in text bites, in several installments during the week, and almost always on a large format computer screen.  I don’t have a Kindle or an Ipad or anything like that yet.  (As much as I love Star Trek, the idea of reading a book or a full paper on that little device Lt. Uhura handed to Capt. Kirk still doesn’t seem quite real to me.)

So what’s an arts lover, and/or an arts organization supposed to make of this changing media world?  Getting “ink” is still a big priority for SFGC. We LOVE to see our name in print, on paper.  But more and more, we’re excited about our online coverage, as exemplified in this week’s post on SF Classical Voice.  We’re also finding our way in social media, and specifically using tools like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube to connect and re-connect with those we call our internal Chorus community – current choristers, their family and friends; and alumnae and their family and friends.  There’s a strategy around our communications in this area.  We don’t intend to use these tools for  mainstream marketing, or to promote the SFGC “brand” to those who don’t already know us. Instead, we want to offer our friends and family special insider access.  While social media may never take the place of a New York Times (or even SF Chronicle) review, it can keep those who know and care connected, informed and hopefully excited about what we’re doing.    

But back to the Sunday Bs.  I cannot imagine a better Sunday afternoon activity (especially on a rainy day) than taking the time to read through a stack of newspapers and magazines, drinking really good coffee or tea, and listening to the most profound and compelling Bs out there – the music of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms.  At our house, last Sunday’s featured listening included Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 15, Op. 132, recorded by the Alexander String Quartet, followed by a recording of the Brahms Requiem from the 1960s with Herbert von Karajan and the Vienna Philharmonic.  Not exactly easy listening, and almost more than any mortal can take in one afternoon, but we survived and were better for it.