“You might carry the music in your pocket, but you are obliged to hear it performed live. We’ve created a new/old relationship between the audience and the performer.” stand the business aspects too, and figure out how digital media get monetized.” Suzanne Farrin, director of the Conservatory of Music, says that the digital revolution has made music ubiquitous—and cheap—and thus musicians have come full circle to a reliance on live performances to sustain their careers. Various social-media platforms, meanwhile, support the music enterprises and build loyal audiences. Classical musicians are venturing outside the concert hall to indie classical venues such as (Le) Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village. “It’s like a medieval model getting flipped over,” says Farrin, a composer whose piece Uscirmi di braccia was performed in February by the International Contemporary Ensemble at Trinity Wall Street in lower Manhattan. “You might carry the music in your pocket, but you are obliged to hear it performed live. We’ve created a new/old relationship between the audience and the performer.” Jenny Owen Youngs ‘04 integrates digital and social media, fun merchandise, and lots of live tours to build connections with audiences.
social media in full flower, and live performances taking center stage as musicians find new audiences with whom to share their sounds. In 2011, the Pop Ups toured with Yo Gabba Gabba! Live, a spin-off from the children’s television show of the same name that airs on the cable network Nick Jr. “It’s a strange and entrepreneurial time,” says Peter Denenberg, chair of studio composition at the Conservatory of Music and director of the college’s music studios. “Musicians need to learn how to play everything and do everything. They need to under-
Take Jenny Owen Youngs ’04, a singer-songwriter who went on an international jaunt this spring with Chuck Ragan’s Revival Tour, playing 23 shows in 24 days, with stops in Toronto, New Orleans, Nashville, and Manhattan. Her latest album, An Unwavering Band of Light, produced by Dan Romer ’04, is available on iTunes and also in a limited edition of 500 records on white vinyl through her revamped website, jennyowenyoungs.com, which was launched in October 2012. The site integrates her social-media platforms with opportunities to buy her music, as well as the growing list of items in the JOY online store. For sale: a steel flask emblazoned with her JOY monogram, wool hats with titles from her songs (“Secrets up Here” and “We Could Be Pirates,” which sold out in February), T-shirts, buttons, patches, and a Jenny Owen Youngs bumper sticker.
STUDENTS WORK IT AS MUSICIANS Four Purchase students, recording as the Hiya Dunes, released their debut album, High Tide, in 2012. The student group is unique in that none of the band members is majoring in music. Over winter break this year, they spent time setting up a summer 2013 tour of Texas to showcase their surf-inspired brand of pop-rock, which they played across New England in the summer of 2012. The band, which was formed while the musicians were high school students in western Connecticut, includes Sean Henry Posila ’14 (new media), Eddie Golden ’15 (School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, undeclared), Alex Goosmann ’14 (new media), and Jeffrey Hoyt ’15 (film). Their venues include house parties and bars. They often pass the hat and sell their T-shirts and cassette tapes, which are available for $5 and come with a download from their website, hiyadunes.com. The band’s name comes from the greeting “How ya doin’?” “This is the most intimate way to hear music: in an immediate, personal way,” says Goosmann. “There’s only so much promotion you can do online. Playing live is the way we connect with people. We’re trying to be rock ’n’ rollers, going across America.”
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The Hiya Dunes (L to R): Eddie Golden III, Jeffrey Hoyt, Sean Henry Posila, and Alex Goosmann.