When do many small or larger changes accumulate and gradually transform into a new quality? It’s a question that, much like the one in Charles Ives’ famous piece, remains largely unanswered.
What’s certain is that at some point we observe a situation has changed, and I believe that’s precisely what we witnessed in our musical landscape this summer. We are, of course, referring to the music that is our focus here.
The truth is that, emerging from the economic crisis and then from COVID, everything started from a very low base, and sometimes from scratch. Thus, any positive development or new step would have been noticeable. However, it seems something much more significant happened here. The large and well-known organizations, such as the Hellenic Festival and the events of the State Orchestra of Thessaloniki, took place as usual. But alongside these, we had many more new, smaller events, organizations, and concerts. All the older and well-known festivals held in the regions took place as they did last year and before. In addition to these, we had many new venues and spaces, featuring individual concerts or programs that lasted for several days. And we’re not even finished yet! Concerts continue into September.
All of this was evident in the general picture presented in the media. From newspaper websites like «Kathimerini» or here on our own classical.music.gr, where you can still see the announcements a little further down. Finally, Facebook was filled with successive posts, mainly by the participants.
What does all this activity leave us with? Certainly a positive and optimistic impression. However, to say anything more, we would need additional data. What was the attendance like? How many were Greek and how many were foreign? The photos uploaded to social media look good, but they would have looked good anyway. Also very important: how many of the events were ticketed? A freebie is nice, but it also indicates something. Finally, what age groups attended them? Were there younger people, or did they stay in cafes and bars?
Ultimately, we are left with a positive impression and remain optimistic. The main reason is that almost all the “small” – let’s call them that – initiatives originated locally and from the grassroots: smaller municipalities, local communities, or at least some music lovers with enthusiasm who put their hands in their pockets. The definition of a grassroots movement.
We will be here again next year for the same review, which I hope will be even better.
Happy Autumn…
