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10 ways the 2010s changed classical music forever / CLASSIC fM

Posted: December 29, 2019

In a decade of change in music, we've selected 10 moments that reflect the altering course of classical music history.

The early 2010s were very much about virtual everything, as the arts world started to discover a whole host of new connections and collaborations that could take place online. The decade began with a project from composer and conductor Eric Whitacre who created a user-generated choir, taking video recordings from webcams around the world. His Virtual Choir made its debut in 21 March 2010. Eric has gone on to head up four other projects, with thousands of choral participants and millions of views. The graphics of that Virtual Choir No. 1 definitely now look 10 years out of date, but it was a moment of classical music finding new ways to assemble, collaborate and create in a new digital age.
 

Crowdfunding and crowdsourcing was one of the trends of the decade, from keeping local pubs open and social campaigns to life-saving medical treatments. Classical artists and ensembles, of all profiles and sizes, have turned to crowdfunding over the last 10 years as a way for resourcing recording tours, projects, concert halls and more. It's also proven to be a great way of creating and engaging new online support bases.

This important trend is nicely illustrated by star mezzo Joyce DiDonato who, in 2013, invited her online fans to produce her album. Fans suggested names, selected the anthologies pieces and provided quotes and photos, including the cover photo. The album, ReJOYCE, represents this fundamental change in how projects were conceived and delivered in the 2010s.
 

Classical music's move to social media was one of the trends of the decade. Now, orchestras, artists and music venues around the world share live performances, curated playlists, explainers and masterclasses across platforms which themselves have defined the 2010s: Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter.

This revolution has been profound and broad, but we're going to zero in on what happened in 2014 when Ray Chen and TwoSet Violin started sharing short, entertaining musical skits (back when Instagram videos were the mind-bending length of 15 seconds...). Ray Chen's videos were fun, delightfully geeky, and grounded in something uniquely classical. In the 21st century, classical music has been finding its voice away from the formality and detachment of the past, and engaging a new audience of a digitally-savvy generation. Around the time of Chen's first snaps, young Australian violinists Brett Yang and Eddy Chen established the social media channel TwoSet Violin. It has been outrageously entertaining and has now reached over 1.93 million subscribers and 377 million views on YouTube alone.
 

In early 2016, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra named young Lithuanian conductor Mirga Grazinytė-Tyla as its new music director, succeeding Andris Nelsons. American maestro Marin Alsop had already shattered the long-in-place glass ceiling at major orchestras when she was appointed Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in 2002. But still, 29-year-old Mirga's appointment in Birmingham felt like a significant moment in the slow and long-overdue ascent of women conductors on the podiums of the world's great orchestras. Gra?inytė-Tyla's performances with the CBSO have been met with acclaim. Over the last 10 years, many other women have taken up top spots in orchestras around the world: Susanna Mälkki as Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Elim Chan at the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, and Simone Young at the Sydney Symphony, to name just a few.
 

The 100 Days Project, where artists share their daily progress on their work, had already been around for a couple of years – but American violinist Hilary Hahn had the idea of setting the trend to a musician's daily creative act: practice. For the duration of her project, she shared iPhone moments of her practice and rehearsals. It was flaws-and-all sharing of the struggles and successes that every musician encounters in their daily practice routines. #100DaysOfPractice came to trend among musicians on social media, with others, of all stages and abilities, joining Hahn in openly sharing their progress. Musicians practising is, of course, nothing new. But the openness, honesty and positivity of this project speaks of a new approach to music-making in the digital era.
 

A spring day in 2018 saw a moment that propelled a young cellist to international stardom. The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle was historic and memorable for all sorts of reasons, not least thanks to a 19-year-old soloist, who serenaded the congregation at the height of the service. His name was Sheku Kanneh-Mason, and he's just one of an extremely musical family of seven siblings.

His playing and sartorial style immediately created quite a sensation around the world, with #CelloBae trending on social media. His debut album featuring the Shostakovich Cello Concerto also shot to the top of the US iTunes pop chart. Kanneh-Mason won the 2016 BBC Young Musician of the Year award, becoming the first black musician to win the award since its launch in 1978. He has made acclaimed recordings on the Decca label and is establishing himself as one of the classical world's finest soloists. However, it was the moment Sheku played at St George's Chapel for Harry and Meghan that the beauty of his playing touched so many around the world. "It was such an awesome moment – just really incredible to perform for Prince Harry and Meghan at their wedding!  The atmosphere was amazing and I'm proud to have played a small part in the celebrations.  It's a day I will remember for the rest of my life"
 

The growth and accessibility of streaming was illustrated when Yo-Yo Ma's first recording of the Prelude from Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 hit 100 million worldwide streams on Spotify, with Sony Classical announcing him as the first core classical artist to reach that number of streams with one track.

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