Was a guest at a Piano Competition the other week and saw a range of abilities and ages play for a chance to be put through to the second round which is held at a major performance venue in London. Asides from enjoying the competitors playing i was astounded by some of the performers attire. In particular, this one contestant who wore a pair of old trainers paired ever so elegantly with some trousers which had never before seen an iron. Now, is this really an outfit one would choose to wear in a performance situation? I understand that a lot of musicians just don't care about their physical appearance, but it really did get me thinking about the importance of a performers' appearances. Ever since the 'new wave' of 'classical' (the term 'classical' used very loosely) artists such as Catherine Jenkins and Il Divo have been on the scene the way we as performing artists look has proved to, in some cases, be more important than the actual product they are trying to sell, i.e. music.
Now, ordinarily i would want people to comment and discuss about this topic, however, because i currently have a grand number of...zero followers of my blog, i think a discussion is out of the question.