We catch up with Jack Bazalgette, Artistic Director at through the noise
Monday
I’m usually a late-night and late-morning kind of person, but this week is a little different: a rare break between the nearly 100 concerts we are producing this spring allows for a taste of normal life, and I even have time to make a coffee before heading to our office in East London which overlooks the canal.
Going into “work” at through the noise would have seemed a novelty two years ago when an old friend and I started a concert series as a spare-time passion project. Since then, “noisenights” have grown beyond our wildest expectations and taken over our lives entirely; since last year, our team has expanded threefold as we have scaled our series to meet demand.
We’re always on edge about how tickets are selling but, from our first team meeting of the week, the outlook seems good for our next few tours. We’re on a mission to show that with the right presentation classical music can be a viable part of the mainstream music scene without compromising the quality of the music. That philosophy does mean that I do regularly and anxiously check ticket sales, but so far things are looking good. Over the weekend I’ve been adding endlessly to Monday’s to-do list, and I am now faced with an unfeasible list of varying tasks, from contracting out video work for our record labels to emailing agents about next season’s new collaborations.
Tuesday
For the last six years, every Tuesday morning I have been running a Dementia Choir in Edgware Road. As work has become busier, I’ve often struggled to make time for this part of my week, but I love singing, playing the piano and catching up with the residents of Penfold Community Hub, some of whom have been with me from the start. I am convinced that singing does everyone good, but its positive effects are particularly stark for those suffering from Alzheimer’s and Dementia, and I invariably leave with a spring in my step.
The rest of the day I am in meetings that range from catch ups with our partners at Warner Music to meetings with a formidable venue owner in Hackney. Then I head to our local pub quiz where I and my trusty teammates lose consistently.
Wednesday
Today I’m back on tour again, this time for a “noisenights” concert in a community run venue in Birkenhead [near Liverpool] with cellist Raphaela Gromes and Julian Riem. I’m extremely passionate about this side of what we do: “noisenights” aim to take the world’s leading musicians to venues and areas that are traditionally underserved by live music. We work in a fantastic venue in Birkenhead called Future Yard CIC, run by a co-operative of local music lovers.
They do a huge amount of good, including offering free rehearsal rooms for local musicians, mentorship schemes and production apprenticeships. It’s always a privilege to be here: Future Yard has built a strong network of local support which, when paired with our marketing, means we can pack out a classical gig with people of all ages, some of whom are seasoned classical music lovers and some of whom just clicked on an Instagram advert having never seen a cello played live before.
Thursday
Having tucked into a hotel breakfast, very much a tour perk, we catch the train back to London for the next gig of our tour with Raphaela and Julian. Thanks to our new team members, including our new General Manager, the very experienced Gigi Williams who was previously an event producer for the London Jazz Festival, I have the surreal luxury of a night off while the rest of the team run the show.
Some of what we do feels part of the mainstream “gig” world and yet our background is in classical music, with its own separate network of agents, promoters, halls and artists. In other areas we work as an interface between the two worlds and it often feels like we act as a translator. What a classical agent would call “servicing” (ie organising the travel, accommodation and logistics for a concert), a gig venue or promoter would describe as “advancing”; when you tell a classical artist to arrive somewhere at 2pm they’ll usually get there 15 minutes early, but a band might not think twice about arriving up to 90 minutes after their call time. All good things to learn the hard way… once!
Friday
Having worked solidly through last weekend and with the knowledge that a long tour is about to start again, my fiancée Katie and I go for a long walk. There’s no amount of stress in life that cannot be partly relieved by the two characterful goats in Clissold Park’s public zoo. Maybe in my next life I’ll give up on promoting classical music and run a boutique touring circus featuring two goats – walks are a good time to come up with and then swiftly dismiss this kind of idea.
I spend the afternoon in meetings, including with Young Concert Artists in New York. They have a wonderful roster and I’m keen to bring the best young musicians from across the pond to the UK, so watch this space for some exciting announcements later this year.
Saturday
Outside of the working week I try to focus on the less urgent and more long-term side of what we do. I still believe in our original mission of reaching as many people as possible with inspiring live music, but it’s easy to become paranoid about whether we are achieving what we set out to do. When you have this kind of worry, it’s nice to look at the data and evidence from what we’ve done so far.
From the start my good friend (and now colleague) Jack [Crozier] has been meticulously organised in documenting everything that we do. We can compare, for instance, the extent to which doing a concert on a Tuesday rather than a Friday will impact sales in Birmingham, and compare that in turn between different cities, genres and times of year. Using this kind of strategy gives us the confidence to plan and helps us to leave less to chance. There’s always an unknowable element, but increasingly we can see patterns as we begin to scale up our work.
In the evening, I and some friends are going out in London to a Cumbia night at The Jago, a legendary independent club in Dalston, where they specialise in bringing bands from all over the world to their small but colourful gig room.
Sunday:
I often sing on Sunday mornings at various churches around the city. I love ensemble music making and I have huge respect for all the wonderful singers and musicians that work in London’s beautiful churches every weekend. Afterwards I head home to get the oven on. I’m quite a bad cook but I’ve recently got into doing Sunday lunches for friends.
Jack Bazalgette is the Artistic Director at through the noise. To discover more about the “noisenights” taking place in the UK and throughout Europe,
visit www.throughthenoise.co.uk/
