Humane promotion

How I'm telling people about my string quartets

To promote my string quartet recording — when (soon enough) it’s fully released — I don’t want to think like a marketer. I want to think like a human being (a caring and humane one, I hope), a person reaching out to other people.

To do that, I have to imagine who might like this music, and then reach out to them directly. And I have to present the recording as a human endeavor, something real people did, people with stories to tell, stories that might interest others.

I need something more than standard publicity, because there’s no ecosystem for most classical recordings. We don’t have what exists in pop music — listeners at least loosely in touch with the field and each other, eager to learn about new albums and bands.

And a lot that I see in standard publicity can’t possibly work, at least as I see it. Calling artists “acclaimed,” for instance, when they’re not widely known. Unconvincing!

Or saying a new recording is “eagerly anticipated,” when not many people heard any others the artist made.

(I saw a publicist saying “eagerly anticipated” not long ago, about someone’s completion of a recorded Beethoven piano sonata cycle. I’d never heard of the pianist. A niche reputation they might have, and, for all I know, richly deserve. But that doesn’t mean the world thirsts for their work. It’s not like the the long-ago first recording in Georg Solti’s Ring cycle — the first complete Ring ever recorded — with people rushing to buy it at record stores, the day it came out.)

So here’s my modest plan. No guarantees — not all of it might work. And there could be better ideas I haven’t thought of.

The stories to tell:

I’m a guy with a long, in some ways prominent, classical music career, who’s now turned full time to composing, something I haven’t much been known for. Deeply fulfilling. Some human interest there.

The Terra String Quartet, who play on the recording, in December won the Naumburg competition, one of the highest competitive honors in American classical music. That’s not a weak assertion that they’re acclaimed. It’s genuine acclaim.

One of my quartets, Quartet for Anne, has a romantic backstory — I wrote it as a surprise birthday present for my wife, Anne Midgette. Brought musicians to our home to play it! Anne herself, of course, is a prominent classical music figure.

The recording project was a warm collaboration. Shich we can bring to life with a statement from the quartet, included in the CD liner notes. The quartet violinists took a course I taught at Juilliard, and with that in mind, the group wrote, in part:

Greg [during the work on this project] went from a beloved professor to respected colleague and friend, and allowed us glimpses into his inner world when he and Anne welcomed us into their home.

It is no wonder that his music is so poignant and can speak to so many given the incredibly rich life he has lived.

These stories (and there are more) will touch some hearts, I hope.

And then who to reach to:

Classical radio, first of all. Quartet for Anne — just five minutes long, romantic in sound, and the sweet backstory to tell on the air — felt natural for radio. And in fact we’ve gotten it broadcast.

Another of the quartets, The Remembered Song, has a spiritual theme, so the spiritual community (websites, groups, influencers) might respond to it, especially followers of the Course in Miracles book, since the piece is based on a quote from it. (To reach beyond the classical music field, I’ll have a video made.)

The third and longest quartet, Mahler Variations, is based on a Mahler theme, the opening melody of the last movement of the Third Symphony. So Mahler fans and Mahler societies might be interested (they can critique the final variation, which I tried to write in Mahler’s own style).

Finally, and maybe with the longest-term fulfillment, we can talk to people involved with strings music — influencers, musicians, Conservatory strings departments, other string quartets. I’d gift them this music — they can play it.

And then there are people I’ve known for many years in the business, friends and colleagues. These I’m approaching individuallly, with one goal simply to let the world know I’m composing now.

Bonus: Getting in touch with old friends has been a delight in itself.

So again, this isn’t just marketing. Talking about my music is, in the deepest way, an extension of my life.

If anyone has ideas for me — or if I can help anyone with this kind of thinking — I’m happy to be in touch. Contact me!

You can hear Quartet for Anne:

Or on Spotify, Tidal, and Apple Music.