Re: reply

Thanks for last night, I once saw joshua bell playing in the subway

You are welcome....) don't quite get the reference to Josh Bell and the subway, however. Thanks for going to the concert.

pearls before ..

I hope you enjoyed yourself. I warned you it was out there.

In January we are doing a concert at Carnegie designed to question why certain pieces become famous. I am doing three symphonies in minor keys all written or revised in the 18805 by three composers who knew one another. One work became famous (Brahms 4), one is on the sidelines (Dvorak 4) and one is totally obscure (Herzogenberg 1). The audience then gets the rare chance to think about their own reactions in relation to conventional judgment.

Are you in Cambridge and will you see Henry. If so please give him my best. When do we see each other? Leon

i will be on the island until jan 17 , you are welcome to come for a few days, one day, any day, I spent time looking at works by Cage , therefore I might argue that it says carnegie music hall , not carnegie sounds hall. we need a longer discussion re benefits vs cost.

i have been wrestling now with the conceptual underpinning of you project. I found the cage concert disquieting. the Audience , at least the vast majority were neither interested, interesting or engaged, they were just warm. (body temp ). If music is to bypass the intellect, it shouldn't have been a problem for your audience as that hurdle did seemed not to exist. . IF your idea does not have traction, then what. are you saying that there should be works that are exhiited, though the audience does not yet know it. what encouragement doest it give to new world symphony players . to look out and see blanck old theatre masks. if there is one person whose life is changed , is it worth the effort and the philanthropy. I remain troubled

Dear Jeffrey,

Happy holidays on the Island (wherever it is). I just got an email from Henry (about some project he is involved with). Take care and I look forward to our next conversation. Leon

I think, if I may, that the Cage concert is an anomaly. Furthermore, there were people who were engaged. The vast majority had never encountered this sort of event. The underpinning of our idea is sound...and if you come to others you would see that. Furthermore, the current audience is a traditional one, in which most never exhibit excitement. Yes, no one wants to see plank faces out there, and neither do I and we won't. We have years of ASO and Bard Festival concerts to prove that the premise works. And even in the Cage, there were more than one persons who were reached. We never have been in a mass entertainment enterprise, but I know this will work with the audience. If I had the slightest doubt, I would not have invited you to the Cage event, which I knew would either be empty or populated by an unpredictable array and a real stretch for a Carnegie audience.

When would you like to talk. I would like the chance to defend the enterprise's premises. Leon