Another Modest Proposal

There are a great number of composers (and we're talking about the whole world here) that have unpublished solo pieces that haven’t been performed or recorded, and there are a ridiculous number of extraordinary young musicians isolated at home, with little to do aside from practicing. Many of these people have demonstrated a tremendous talent for making video recordings, and many are devoting a great deal of time and attention to making multi-track recordings to share on their YouTube channels.

We have all enjoyed hours and hours of excellent performances. Listening to them has certainly enriched my days.

There are far too many performing musicians who are in financial difficulty because of cancelled concerts. These musicians are trying to figure ways of making money online, so that they can continue to eat and pay the bills. Teaching lessons is one way. Making money through a YouTube channel is another (You can make money through YouTube if your channel gets more than 1,000 subscribers). But what musicians do best is play. That's what they are paid to do most of the time.

With so many talented people who are eager to participate in musical life, this period of isolation could be a time to make new kinds of personal connections between and among musicians.

My proposal for advocates of new music:

If you are a person who loves music, and are in a stable position financially (i.e. you can continue to do your work and draw a salary while working from home), why not "commission" some of these young, highly competent and professional (and not currently concertizing) musicians to make video recordings of solo pieces by composers you admire that they can feature on their YouTube channels?

If you have a particular fondness for a particular performing musician, reach out and ask him or her about "premiering" an unperformed, unrecorded work by a living composer of their choice. The fee can be negotiated between the "commissioner" and the performing musician of choice. The "commissioner" can be the conduit between the composer and the performing musician, a role that has so often in the past been reserved for people with connections to performing organizations. Unpublished work or work kept in the public domain would be the best choice, for obvious reasons.

This activity would bring some activity into the economy for performing musicians, but, most of all, it would give musicians something meaningful and productive to do, and would bring people who care about music into the proccess of musical creation. As an audience member you can help promote a musician in the early part of his or her career by providing opportunities. You can also help promote the work of living composers that write music you like (always a good thing).

Once performing musicians are back at work playing concerts and teaching students in ways that do not involve a computer screen, people who have connected this way will have relationships with living composers, that they can commission to write brand new music for their performing ensembles.