Classical:NEXT, which began in 2012, is an art market that takes the form of a specialized forum. The first Classical:NEXT event, which opened in Munich, Germany, in 2012, brought in around 400 classical music companies and over 700 participants. There were 74 exhibition booths, 24 conferences, and around 60 artists’ showcases. Embarking on its second year this year, the five-day event took place from May 29 to June 2 in Vienna, Austria.

An emerging market centered on classical music, with participation from major record labels, agencies, and artists

The most well-known music-related art market in existence is Midem, which opens in Cannes, France. This is one of the oldest art markets globally and is the most well-known market of its kind in the Korean classical music industry. However, as Midem is an international art market that is open for a short period of time and includes a very diverse selection of genres—from Europop and world music to classical music—it has the disadvantage of not being able to showcase the distinct characteristics of each specific genre. This drawback, as well as the need to reflect the importance of the classical music market—which among the music genres today is showing the least amount of market decrease—revealed the necessity for an art market that specializes in classical music. Classical:NEXT was started to fulfill this need.

Like other art markets, Classical:NEXT is comprised of showcases, booth exhibitions, conferences, and various meetings for networking. One point of distinction for Classical:NEXT is that on top of this, it has mentoring events at the art market itself featuring specialists in different areas of classical music.
Despite being a relatively new market event, Classical:NEXT is able to provide these kinds of diverse offerings because it is organized and run by team of the globally renowned WOMEX. Officially, Classical:NEXT began as a sub-brand of WOMEX, and as a result, many classical music groups and related specialists from around the world were able to easily decide to participate in the event with confidence.

I participated in this year’s Classical:NEXT along with the Kayageum Trio’s showcase. The structure of the participating teams and the content of the presented performances were made to fit in with the Classical:NEXT showcase. My first goal in participating at Classical:NEXT was not only to introduce single artists, but to properly introduce Korean composers to the overseas classical music market. This effort will center on the Korean National University of Arts professor Lim June-hee, who has continually worked with the Korea National Opera, the National Chorus of Korea and the National Gugak Center and conducted a full range of large-scale compositions, including operas Karma, Ippni’s Wedding, and Soul Mate and many chamber music and other song works. Lim also has another project titled “Dancing Sanjo,” a trio-style work that takes the structure of a traditional classical music performance; it was determined that a trio format was most appropriate for production overseas with a limited budget. Led by the composer, the gayageum (Korean zither-like string instrument) is the pivotal piece, and the violinist and pianist accompany the instrument to form the Kayageum Trio. Only eight groups from the over one hundred that applied were selected for the showcase, and the Kayageum Trio was one of them.

A typical music market comprised of showcases, booth exhibitions, and various sessions

Although Classical:NEXT 2013’s venue, Vienna’s MAK (Austrian Museum of Applied Arts/Contemporary Art) is small in scale, it is located near the center of the city and makes good use of its space, making it the perfect place to hold this kind of event. The organizers say that 2014’s Classical:NEXT will also be held in this venue. On May 29, with the opening event in MAK’s main hall by violinists Daniel Hope and Benjamin Schmidt, the 2013 Classical:NEXT officially began.

The Expo saw participation by music-related firms and individuals, including record companies, industry professionals, and management companies from all over the globe, and they consulted with music industry people and artists from around the world and displayed various promotional materials. The event was attended by over 800 people from around 40 countries and was a big success. In particular, there was the noteworthy participation by major record label, Universal Music Austria, in which the company operated its own booth as well as a separate event called “Yellow Lounge.” Looking at this, it seems that this event appealed to major record labels as a good marketing tool. Along with the booth exhibitions, there were various conference sessions. This year’s forum included many sessions about the Asian market—it was clear that Europeans were taking big interest in Asia’s classical music market. The sessions titled “Developing a Digital Strategy for Mobile Audiences” and “Art Management Tools in China” were intriguing.

The live showcase ran for two days at the Porgy and Bess club. A well-known jazz club where European jazz masters frequently perform, it is also a two-story, multipurpose hall where many premier performances of contemporary classical music are held. The venue isn’t the optimal place for an acoustic performance, but due to the great piano and engineers, the sound quality was on par with other performance venues. The first day’s live showcase started off with Vienna Clarinet Connection, an Austrian clarinet quartet. Humorously and with ease, they played lighthearted works like Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” Each group performed their live showcase for 30 minutes, and four teams performed each day. Besides live showcases, there were also video showcases, film screenings on classical music, and the off C:N showcases, which were added during the latter half of the event.

During the Kayageum Trio’s live showcase, which started at 10pm on May 30, composer/professor Lim June-hee first came onto the stage, introducing the artists and giving short explanations about the music that would be showcased. The audience showed great interest during her explanation of the gayageum, which has thousands of years of history behind it. As soon as the 30-minute performance—which included a gayageum sanjo (a style of traditional Korean music with an instrumental solo accompanied by drumming – translator’s note) piece called Honbul and two Kayageum Trio originals, Dancing Sanjo and the world premiere performance of Arirang Sanjo—finished, the 150-member audience clapped enthusiastically.

Although I couldn’t attend a lot of sessions, as I had to help prepare for the Kayageum Trio’s showcase, I felt that I was indeed standing in the middle of the European classical music market. This event was a great opportunity to easily meet the people behind the music labels that I had only seen in record stores, as well as European performance venue personnel and classical music artists. The fact that all the participants’ addresses and contact information were included on the website in order to set up meetings for participants prior to the event was also a big help. After the event, I grew optimistic that Korean classical music could be competitive and have strong appeal in Vienna, the home of classical music and, moreover, in the center of Europe.

Reference

Classical:NEXT http://www.classicalnext.com/
Kayageum Trio’s video interview with Arirang TV http://youtu.be/H14SEiVUDZA