classikON, the community that makes classical music accessible, is celebrating its first birthday – but it’s the fans who are getting the presents.
Spreading the reach from promoting classical concerts in Sydney in its first year to now promoting across NSW, Victoria, Queensland and SA, classikON will soon list events Australia wide.
Founder Kate Tribe said the community had grown from small beginnings around her Sydney base in the past year, and she was excited about the prospect of sharing her love of classical music with fans across the country.
“classikON aims to attract new audiences to classical music through promoting classical music being performed live outside the main concert halls,” Kate explained.
“These small groups and ensembles are really the pub scene of the classical music world – professional musicians performing in churches, art galleries, cafes, unique venues and smaller venues attached to main concert halls,” she added.
classikON has published more than 300 concerts on the website already, with a further 150 coming up during 2013.
Kate said the two main barriers to fans accessing classical music was time and money, so classikON has made it a mission to find affordable concerts.
More than two thirds of the concerts promoted via the website have been $50 or less for full price tickets, with a quarter priced from $0-25.
“We also love that in this busy world we can promote shorter concerts. Almost a quarter on our site are shorter than 90 minutes,” Kate said.
Kate’s grandfather, Ken Tribe, fostered her love of classical music early on by sharing small pieces of information at each concert they attended together.
“He shared insights into the performers, the one thing I should listen out for in a work, or something unique about where the concert was being performed, and he didn’t use technical terms without defining them.”
“I started classikON after he died because I wanted to share the love I had developed of the rich history of classical music, combined with the contemporary environment, like my grandpa had done for me. I wanted to do something to continue his legacy,” Kate explained.
Ambassadors attend the concerts listed and write reviews about their experiences for the website. Members share the music with like-minded fans through classikON’s drinks before and after the concerts and special reserve seating.
Website users can find concerts by period, instrument, musicians, groups and composer, and they can also read up on their favourite musicians via the classikON profiles.
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