"Insanity is doing the same thing again and again expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
Last night the teachers of the music school where I work gave amazing performance to 20 people in a hall seated for 250 people. I was so proud to work with them. But then I was also quite upset because only 2 of the school's students came to watch their teachers. Moreover, people missed great performance and it really drove me nuts because a few days back, a friend of mine told me that he just attended an awful concert full of famous musicians who came on stage unprepared. The house was full. These musicians seems to pass with flying colours. Their Facebook walls were full of praising comments from people who clearly thought they were fabulous.
It doesn't make sense for me at all. Are people here really that stupid that they just can't tell good or bad? Will it always be like this in this country, that you have to raise a cult of admirers to get a good number of audience? Will we have to forever depend on our own community so tickets will sell? And what if we have unloyal one such as the community in the school? (It is obvious, now). Is raising an educated audience a utopia?
It just hits me harder how difficult it is now to get people to come to a concert hall in Bandung. I'm on the brink of frustation here. I realised that Bandung doesn't really have a true classical music aficionado, who will go to concerts come rain or shine, who understand that ticket price should of course exceeds movie, and who come for the sake of music itself and not to serve some individuals who happen to be their friends. We're competing with so many things. Exam dates. Weather. Traffic. Parking lots. Price tags of many other goods. Basic necessities such as food and clothing. Other concerts in other genres. Shopping malls and cafes. And adding the real cost like publicity, venue rental and technician's overtime, it's just too much cost to bring only 20 people. And the notoriously modest and humble musicians of the city are no help either. Many seem to be uncomfortable or shy when they're asked to invite people to come to their own concerts. Some would just publish it on their Facebook walls, hoping that some random people will see it and be moved to come.
So, with basically nothing to rely on, isn't it just a perpetual insanity to do this? Why should I go on? Because it's important? To whom? To the musicians who play? But with no one watches, wouldn't it be the same as practising at home? We might as well do an open rehearsal thing. The cost as well as responsibility will be minuscule. And no one loses anything.
