It's Your PArty, Have fun

Contradictions seem to be built into humans.  With classical music, it means there are people who love Handel’s Messiah but refuse to listen to Mendelssohn’s Elijah because “it’s opera, and I don’t like opera” (true story!).  I think we have to stop working to convince people of anything.  Instead, we should focus on doing concerts that are engaging/ fun/ moving/ emotional to our respective audiences, regardless of the repertoire.  Have a group of people who really love minimalism? Then, do a concert that engages them without trying to prove to the people who hate minimalism that they should actually love.  Maybe, if you can get the core audience really engaged with it, other people will see them enjoying it. Maybe they’ll want to check it out (or maybe not). Either way, you are doing something that is valuable to a group of people.  Think about them--not all the people who need convincing or who don’t want to go to your party anyway. You can still have fun. ​