Sound Directions

The following is the transcript of my Ignite Baltimore talk, which was titled “Hybridity: Remaking Baltimore’s (New) Musical Horizon.” The event took place at the Walters Art Museum on Thursday, March 4, 2010 at 7 p.m.

Okay, so I’m a Peabody grad. And as a Peabody grad you get the Peabody magazine, which, you know, makes you feel pretty good about yourself because you’re connected at least by affiliation to all these amazing things that other Peabody people are doing all over the world. Anyway, as I was flipping through the latest issue one page in particular caught my attention and that was a page listing upcoming performances by some Peabody students, alums, and faculty in New York City and Washington, DC. And at the bottom of the page there were URLs for a listing of those events on the Peabody website. So, I went to the website and checked out the information, saw who was doing what and where they were doing it. Then, just as an experiment, I decided to replace ‘nyc’ and ‘washington’ in the web address with ‘baltimore,’ which then yielded, um, nothing.

So, I think this is a problem. It’s a problem because it sends a message that Baltimore isn’t a place where you can achieve success as a musician. Or, like, even if you’re doing something musically interesting or innovative in Baltimore, that it doesn’t count; that what’s happening in Baltimore doesn’t carry the same weight or credibility as something that’s happening in New York City or Washington, DC. Anyway, without getting too down on Peabody, because I think it really is a world-class conservatory, I’d at least like to think that an institution that lives in Baltimore would want to highlight the fact that this city has a pretty rich and vibrant musical culture. But, of course, that’s coming from someone who believes that Baltimore can be, should be, and actually is an important place for musical innovation.

About two years ago there was an article in the Guardian about the booming music scene in Brooklyn, NY, which talked about the role Baltimore had played in the borough’s so-called musical renaissance. Yeah, it was great for Baltimore to be recognized for its “curveball creativity,” but I was honestly more than a little offended by the notion that Baltimore was merely serving as Brooklyn’s farm team and couldn’t be a place where a hip and innovative musical culture could throw down roots and thrive. But that article was published almost two years ago and paradigms have shifted a little. Now more and more musicians who call Baltimore home are defying the stereotype that you need to live in a closet in a dingy Brooklyn apartment for a chance at notoriety outside of Charm City.

But in my musical ghetto, I mean, niche, which has been dubbed several things, for better or for worse, including, new music, post-classical, alt-classical, indie-classical, non-pop, up-pop, contemporary classical, modern classical, avant classical, totalist, newmusic with no space between words, and new-music with a hyphen, to name just a few, New York City’s reputation as the center of the universe still prevails among both musicians and the media. I mean, there’s a reason why, I suppose. There’s been a lot of innovation in New York recently, especially when you’re talking about the current trend in new music, which is basically built on the formation of a hybrid musical culture. But what I’m saying is that New York City isn’t the only place this can happen and I actually think Baltimore, with its strong do-it-yourself ethos and overwhelming sense of community within and across artistic disciplines, is perhaps even better suited to create this yet to be defined hybrid.

So can you tell that I’m a fan of Baltimore? Seriously. Like, that Live Baltimore organization should have me on its payroll because rarely do I miss a chance to extoll the city’s virtues to people who know next to nothing about the what’s going on here, which is something I’d like to explore for a brief moment. And that is, what do people think about when they think about Baltimore? Well, here are a few things: crabs, boarded up houses, shit-eating drag queens, and The Wire. Oh, indeed. And musically speaking, it’s been the crazies who have defined the city to a larger audience. Now please don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that there’s a scene, or multiple scenes, in Baltimore that are dedicated to the experimental, to the really out-there shit, to the irreverent, and to the quirky. That is great. It means that there’s a strong musical voice rooted in Baltimore. But I think we can turn the page on that being all there is.

Because the flip side of selling ourselves as quirky involves the outside perception of what Baltimore values musically and what it’s all about. I mean, if I’m an outsider looking in and if the majority of what I’m seeing is quirky and irreverent, I’m getting a pretty strong message that goes something like, “Hey! Don’t take us too seriously!” You know? Because in general, the whacked out shit in Baltimore is what people remember and has ended up defining us to everyone else. Yeah, I get it, Baltimore’s quirky and that’s how it’s been selling itself. I’m down with that. But what I’m saying is that that’s not all that we have to offer here and there are things that can be done, should be done, and need to be done to start changing perspectives. But everyone’s got to get on board. Especially the people who call Baltimore home and who have the ability to effect this kind of change to help bring the kind of credibility to the city that it deserves but even though they’re living here and are some of Baltimore’s biggest media darlings, continue to work primarily outside Baltimore and don’t seem to be all that interested in contributing to this city’s musical life. Anyway, that’s what I’m about. That’s what I’m trying to do. Thank you.