Choosing The Future: How Technology Will Change the Composing, Publishing, and Performing World

On the long list of responsibilities for the artistic director, repertoire choice is arguably the most important. Programming drives membership, patronage, fundraising, etc. Further, it’s one of the most apparent realizations of our organizations’ missions.

Today, however, the act of planning and preparing a program is changing dramatically as the various players in the music industry are shifting in patterns similar to those of the recording industry over the last decade. The participants in the discussion—composer, publisher, performer—have shifting roles and responsibilities. The composer is no longer isolated in her study sketching masterworks with pencil and paper. Rather, she is her own primary public advocate, actively engaged in in-person and online networking, directing her own self promotion for commissions and performance, and frequently typesetting and distributing her own work. The publisher, once the maker of tastes, editor of scores, and sole intermediary between nearly all ensembles and composers, now has to respond to digital technologies in the form of typesetting, social networking, reproduction: all techniques that traditionally bypassed the publisher completely. Finally, performers are facing ever-tightening budgets, more and more competition for their audiences’ attention, and an online sea of repertoire options that can overwhelm even the most curious conductors. The challenges to each party seem clear but the opportunities not so obvious.

In a panel discussion intended for all parties, we will explore this shifting landscape with representatives from each group of stake-holders. Through the dialogue, we can learn more about the perspective from each side of the conversation and generate ideas for the future of our art form.

Moderator: Dr. Miguel Ángel Felipe, Director of Choral Activities, University of Hawai’i, Manoa