HEEDING THE CALL

posted by James Reel

    Yesterday, a fellow from the Music Critics Association of North America informed me that I’d been nominated to run for the organization’s board. After laughing myself into a coughing spasm, I accepted the challenge, even though I doubt I’ll be elected; probably no more than two people in MCANA know who I am. Most likely, the nominating committee compiled a list of members who paid their dues on time but hadn’t attended the annual conference in several years. It’s a scheme to get slackers like me to show up for the next conference, in late May, just in case we win and are needed at the board meeting.
    I’ve been thinking about what sort of mission I might propose for myself as a board-member-at-large. I think I’d like to address two issues related to the same root problem: American newspapers are phasing out their full-time classical-music critics, and replacing them, if at all, with staff reporters who lack the assignment’s necessary expertise, or with freelancers who have no influence on the direction of coverage. So, first, I’d like to make sure that freelancers continue to see MCANA as an organization that is worth the annual dues that come out of their own pockets, not out of some newspaper’s expense account. Second, I think MCANA needs to conduct some aggressive membership and service outreach to nonspecialist newspaper staffers who get stuck with the classical beat, but don’t realize there’s an organization that can help them develop the credibility they lack.
    Really, it’s up to the critics to set their own standards and police their ranks, because newspaper editors are proving incompetent at quality control. For the past few years, features editors have been chosen for their efficiency rather than their breadth of knowledge, and without that knowledge they can’t possibly judge the work of people on specialized beats. People who are color-blind can’t be trusted as interior decorators, but editors who are culture-blind are allowed to supervise cultural journalism. If anybody’s going to keep newspaper coverage of classical music from becoming a national embarrassment, it’s got to be the critics themselves.