{"id":108,"date":"2013-02-22T10:19:21","date_gmt":"2013-02-22T18:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iannelli.us\/diderot\/?p=108"},"modified":"2013-02-23T10:41:18","modified_gmt":"2013-02-23T18:41:18","slug":"songs-from-a-vieaux-guitar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iannelli.us\/diderot\/?p=108","title":{"rendered":"Songs from a Vieaux Guitar"},"content":{"rendered":"

[The following is an interview with guitarist Jason Vieaux<\/a> that was supposed to run in the February 21 issue of <\/em>The Inlander<\/a> in anticipation of his performance of Rodrigo’s <\/em>Concierto de Aranjuez with the Spokane Symphony. Due to space constraints in the print edition, it got spiked at the last minute. So that it should still see the light of day, I’ve posted it here.<\/em><\/p>\n

EDIT: It did run online under the alternate title<\/em> Small-Town Symphonies<\/a>\u00a0(because, I suppose, not everyone would get the obtuse Red House Painters reference).<\/em>]<\/p>\n

Jason Vieaux is watching the \u2018small-townification\u2019 of classical music and learning how to adapt.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Jason<\/a>Jason Vieaux has just left a lively meeting with his management team. The meeting wasn\u2019t about the acclaimed classical guitarist\u2019s forthcoming album, a still-untitled collection of virtuoso encores. It wasn\u2019t about his guitar academy<\/a>, a one-on-one online study exchange he recently developed with the programmer who helped create AOL. Nor was it about his upcoming appearance as guest artist with the Spokane Symphony.<\/p>\n

Or rather, it wasn\u2019t about those things specifically. Instead it had to do with Vieaux\u2019s ability to continue doing them in an industry that has been turned upside-down by technological advances, economic recession, and changing tastes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of doom and gloom ten years ago about shrinking budgets, but it\u2019s really manifested itself now,\u201d Vieaux says. \u201cAll these classical music entities all over the world are circling the wagons and looking more locally. It\u2019s really individual personal relationships that seem to be taking over. The bigger structures don\u2019t have the reach that they once had.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result, it\u2019s been especially hard for Vieaux to land gigs at European festivals, despite his international renown.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the surface it seems like there\u2019s so much more activity. There\u2019s ten times the number of festivals that there were, but [they] have a limited budget, and they can get somebody for a fraction of your fee. So they\u2019re not hiring from overseas as much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even in America, established soloists like Vieaux don\u2019t have it easy on their home turf. As a recent spate of stories in publications as diverse as Mother Jones<\/a><\/em> and USA Today<\/a><\/em> has shown, there have been similar upsets in the domestic classical music scene. Consider, too, last year\u2019s strikes by symphony musicians right here in Spokane, a situation that played out like a microcosm of larger shakeups all over the country.<\/p>\n

The upshot is that, somewhat paradoxically, orchestras are beginning to look closer to home in a globally networked world, giving opportunities to local musicians who lack star power \u2014 and the concomitant higher prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince city orchestras can\u2019t afford top-ranked soloists, they\u2019re fostering relationships with the local conservatories,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m noticing a trend that [conservatories] want to create more performances \u2014 more festivals, things at nightclubs and coffeehouses, more concert series \u2014 because what will eventually come out of it is a broader base of performers and a broader audience. They\u2019re trying to get more of their students in more performances locally, so that the city orchestra is hiring soloists from the conservatory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vieaux\u2019s management team might be biting their nails, but he personally is more curious than concerned. \u201cI have no complaints, because I have plenty of work, almost more than I can handle. What\u2019s interesting about this \u2018small-townification\u2019 is, where does it all come together? That\u2019s the puzzle we\u2019re trying to figure out.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Vieaux arrives in Spokane to perform Joaqu\u00edn Rodrigo\u2019s famous Concierto de Aranjuez<\/em> \u2014 an \u201cemotionally powerful\u201d piece with a second movement that has captivated the likes of Miles Davis and Led Zeppelin \u2014 he\u2019ll also be treating it as an opportunity to cultivate the personal ties that have become so important in the changing classical music landscape. The \u201cmachinery\u201d of his PR team might have helped land him the gig, but that machinery has become less necessary than social media and face-to-face contact.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn more cases now than ever before,\u201d he says, \u201cyou foster the personal relationship first. It\u2019s almost like they don\u2019t care about your discography or your twenty-year track record, or your fame. Really, all you\u2019ve got to do is go down to the pub, have a beer, and talk about music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very cool,\u201d he laughs, \u201cbut I never thought I would find myself on the outside of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spokane Symphony performs works by Surinach, de Falla, Rodrigo, Ginasteria and Rimsky-Korsakov \u2022 Saturday, Feb 23 at 8 pm and Sunday, Feb 24 at 3 pm \u2022 $14 to 44 \u2022 Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox \u2022 spokanesymphony.org<\/a> \u2022 (509) 624-1200<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In anticipation of an upcoming performance with the Spokane Symphony, classical guitarist Jason Vieaux discusses the \u2018small-townification\u2019 of classical music and learning how to adapt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[12,10],"class_list":["post-108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","tag-music","tag-spiked","has-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.iannelli.us\/diderot\/files\/2013\/02\/jason-vieaux.jpg?fit=650%2C450&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2GDPS-1K","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":346,"url":"https:\/\/www.iannelli.us\/diderot\/?p=346","url_meta":{"origin":108,"position":0},"title":"Salvaged \u2022\u00a0Behind the Blue Door","author":"E.J.","date":"March 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The director's cut of a brief 20th-anniversary history of Spokane's Blue Door Theatre.","rel":"","context":"In "Interview"","block_context":{"text":"Interview","link":"https:\/\/www.iannelli.us\/diderot\/?cat=11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.iannelli.us\/diderot\/files\/2016\/03\/BlueDoorgroup.jpg?fit=1000%2C616&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.iannelli.us\/diderot\/files\/2016\/03\/BlueDoorgroup.jpg?fit=1000%2C616&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.iannelli.us\/diderot\/files\/2016\/03\/BlueDoorgroup.jpg?fit=1000%2C616&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.iannelli.us\/diderot\/files\/2016\/03\/BlueDoorgroup.jpg?fit=1000%2C616&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":414,"url":"https:\/\/www.iannelli.us\/diderot\/?p=414","url_meta":{"origin":108,"position":1},"title":"Review \u2022 Kiss Me, Kate","author":"E.J.","date":"May 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A review of the Spokane Civic Theatre's 2017 production of Kiss Me, Kate.","rel":"","context":"In "Review"","block_context":{"text":"Review","link":"https:\/\/www.iannelli.us\/diderot\/?cat=5"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.iannelli.us\/diderot\/files\/2017\/05\/PromoSM3.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.iannelli.us\/diderot\/files\/2017\/05\/PromoSM3.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.iannelli.us\/diderot\/files\/2017\/05\/PromoSM3.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.iannelli.us\/diderot\/files\/2017\/05\/PromoSM3.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.iannelli.us\/diderot\/files\/2017\/05\/PromoSM3.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":203,"url":"https:\/\/www.iannelli.us\/diderot\/?p=203","url_meta":{"origin":108,"position":2},"title":"Salvaged: William T. 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