THE TROUBLE WITH LISTS
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Dear Friends,
People of a certain generation (or three!) will happily remember the daily offering made by Late Night host David Letterman in the form of a Top Ten List. It was inevitably random in topic, and the answers, read from 10 down to 1 were meant to be funny. Letterman can be forgiven for having some of those lists suffer from originality. After all, he was doing it every night for 23 years! But the gesture was, as I said, one of, uh... jest!
Last week I was out West performing. At the post-concert reception I heard all five of the questions I have on my "Most Asked" list. Here they are, in order:
1 - How long have you been playing?
2 - How long did it take you to learn that piece?
3 - Who is your violin made by?
4 - Where are you headed next?
5 - What's your favourite type of music?
30 plus years and those are still the most common questions I hear after performances. Of course, there's nothing wrong with any of those, and I usually (usually!) give the same answers, except of course for question number four.
Also last week, the New York Times came out with a "Greatest Songwriters" list featuring 30 people - mostly individuals, but also some groups. To quote Rick Beato, the list is "a disaster". Why? Well, the answer is in the fine print. The criteria which the NYT used to come up with the list is entirely legitimate, except that it isn't revealed so easily to the reader. Instead, the headline could be called clickbait. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of great songwriters on the list they present, but there are also a lot that are missing (Billy Joel? How can he not be on this list!)
Here's Rick's take on it. As usual, he makes some pretty interesting points, including the fact that non-Americans aren't considered. No Joni Mitchel. No Ron Sexsmith. No Gordon Lightfoot.
Of course, if the NYT list didn't take itself seriously (if it was fun, like David Letterman), there wouldn't be much debate about any of this!
I do enjoy Rick's videos, and I'd love to get him to Stratford. Anyone out there want to help me make that a reality? Maybe we can start a Top Ten List of Reasons Why Rick Beato Wants to be a part of Stratford Summer Music...
In the interim, be sure to stay tuned for the official SSM 2026 season poster reveal next week, featuring artwork by Luke Swinson.
Until then, have a great weekend!
Mark and the SSM Team
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