integrating DIY aesthetics into concert music feels more like colonialism than liberation -- conversations around liberation never happen, nepotism continues in new forms, and the feature of aggressively mediocre music gets framed as transgressive. https://twitter.com/dbirdsoprano/status/1310682449773559810

most of the ways i've seen DIY (sometimes but not always interchangeable referred to with punk) integrated into CM has been through a form of market consideration where a DIY ethic has been used to create alternative venues/house shows/etc —

I've seen these super lacking in any of the ethical and accountability frameworks that defined those spaces growing up in DC — a focus on safety, liberation, diverse lineups, cultivation of non-associated voices, sharing of opportunity.

A lot of this critique comes from seeing mostly white composers use DIY &/or punk as markers of trangressiveness in their own musical/compositional practices — mostly as a title or affect applied to modernist/classically-derived musics.

DIY has a history and culture that interacts with liberation— be it the 80’s DC scene, Riot Grrl, or its current formations today. The ethics of liberation are written into the ability to repeated access to the space—

entering meant agreeing to a level of accountability about safety, behavior, and a celebration of various levels of musical expertise.

My experience w/ CM and DIY crossovers have been mostly at house concerts where its either a basic concert music program without a stage, full of grad students or other mostly white spaces in DC where DIY CM popped up as a form of cheap entertainment for gentrifiers.

I think there’s a long history of CM and New Music positioning itself as a victim to mainstream musical tastes and seeing them link up here just feels like reiterations of the same problems...

because I don’t think the metric of who is invited, who plays, who shows up is much different from the grad programs in the area.

I’ll also say growing up without access to CM, DIY punk spaces were extremely formative. Music was always about familiar proximity, self-oriented humor, and just getting out as much energy as possible in dancing to really fun forms of expression.

I don’t see the level of pedigree and distance intrinsic to classical ensembles and modes of playing as being compatible with those ethics: its not super approachable, it does reward a level of pedigree, its not as visceral, and it doesn’t value everyone in the space equally.

There are so many hidden layers of power when CM enters the space and I don’t think labeling it DIY and having many of the same people playing on concert stages is particularly liberatory or progressive. It follows familiar avenues of power.

how accessible is it if every set involves thousands of dollars of personal equipment? who is able to host these events? ie - have access to rent/or own private space with no noise restrictions, sound equipment, etc

DIY spaces can be really cool spaces for resource sharing and learning, but if everyone who attends is a masters student with tons of mod synths is it actually that counterculture