Careers in Classical Music

Rachel Smith gives the insider’s view on what’s involved in being a classical record producer

Biography

Rachel Smith has 15 years’ experience as a classical record producer and editor. She has worked with many of the country’s major orchestras, soloists and chamber groups on recordings for leading independent classical record labels. Now freelance, she spent eight years producing for Chandos Records and was formerly Classical Manager at the distributor KOCH International.

Pathway

My interest in the recording industry was sparked when researching careers at school. At that time the only degree course specifying my particular A levels – Music, Maths and Physics – was the Music and Sound Recording (Tonmeister) course at Surrey. Although I eventually decided to study Music at Cambridge, my desire to join the recording industry remained, and in my last term I approached record companies to ask for work experience. Meridian Records took me on as a trainee, and I worked there for over two years, learning on the job and eventually becoming the company’s only producer and editor.

Pop vs. classical

Music producing and classical record producing are very different careers:

Pop	Classical
The producer will give creative input to the song-writing process, producing a finished product by taking an original idea, ‘orchestrating’ it, adding harmonies, creating the structure and helping to form the distinctive sound that characterises a particular artist	The music is already in its final format: the producer’s role is to encourage the performers to give the most convincing, musical interpretation of the piece, while making sure that the details of tuning, ensemble, etc, are all in place
Producers often work with the latest audio equipment and techniques	The classical producer’s main piece of equipment is a pencil! It is the engineer who is responsible for setting up the mics and operating the mixing desk
The music may not have been written down on paper, so the producer is often working by ear	The producer works with the musical score, marking the points which need attention
Each instrument/voice is recorded separately on to a different track, often not at the same time. Multi-track recording gives flexibility if the producer wants to add an effect to a particular instrument, or to remove a track altogether	The orchestra/chamber group is recorded as a whole. There will be different microphones for different instruments, but they are all mixed down to a stereo track, and everyone is playing at the same time. This gives a good sense of performance and communication between the players, but means that everyone has to be doing the right thing at the same time!
A vast amount of processing can be added. For example, reverb, compression and eq will usually be added to a vocal line, along with other effects such as auto-tune, chorus and delay	Very little processing is applied, and it’s rare to use compression. This is why Radio 3 often sounds quieter than Radio 1: there is a big dynamic range between the loudest and quietest passages, whereas pop music is compressed so that the general dynamic level is fairly constant throughout a song
The song will often be new, or a new cover version of an older song, and it is likely that this will be only recording of it	The piece will usually have been written years, or even centuries, ago, and may have been recorded many times before. There are more than 200 different recordings of Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’, for example
Recordings usually take place in purpose-built studios	Recordings sometimes take place in studios but are more often in buildings with natural acoustics, for example churches and concert halls

Skills for the job

A passion for classical music. This might sound obvious, but you will be listening to music in a very intense and critical way for hours at a time, so you need to love it! A broad knowledge of repertoire is also important.

Being able to read and understand music. This is essential. Score-reading (being able to read several lines of music being played simultaneously) is a daily part of a producer’s life.

Aural skills. It is the producer’s job to notice things that the musicians, in the heat of the moment of performing, might miss. He/she is an extra pair of ears, listening objectively from outside the group. Details of tuning, rhythm, tempo and ensemble must be correct, at the same time as maintaining an overall sense of performance.

Diplomacy. No one likes to be told that they have made a mistake, and yet it is the producer’s job to point out anything which can be improved. The ability to employ tact, discretion and encouragement in achieving this is central to a producer’s skills.

Time-keeping. This is particularly important in orchestral recordings, which are governed by strict Musicians’ Union rules on session lengths. It’s no good recording a symphony if you find you’ve run out of time and can’t complete the last movement!

Concentration. Producing is intense work, and you can’t afford to let your attention wander for a moment. Listening to take after take and checking for wrong notes or slight errors of tuning needs enormous powers of concentration, especially since there is usually no time to go back and listen again.

Tips for the top

• Try to play and/or sing in as many different choirs, orchestras and chamber groups as you can.

• If you sing, work on sight-singing: knowing how something should sound before you hear it is a valuable skill.

• When performing, or listening to others perform, try to listen critically. If something sounds wrong, try to work out why this is. Is someone out of tune, or playing out of time? Perhaps someone is playing more loudly than everyone else. These listening skills will develop more as you practise them.

• Go to professional concerts, to hear how music performed really well can sound.

• Work hard at your aural skills. There are few jobs which require such acute musical awareness. You should be aiming to get full marks in ABRSM Grade 8 aural tests, for example.

• Practise score-reading by choosing a score, perhaps of a string quartet, and playing all the parts simultaneously on the piano. Watch out for unusual clefs and transposing instruments.

• Listen to classical cds. Perhaps find two different recordings of the same piece and compare them. Has one performer chosen a faster tempo? Is the style of playing different? Which do you prefer, and why?

• Listen to BBC Radio 3, especially ‘Building a Library’.

• Try your hand at conducting! Not everyone wants to be a conductor, but it involves several of the skills used by a record producer: score-reading and listening to several lines of music at once; musical and diplomatic skills; and the confidence to take a leadership role.

• If your school or college has studios, record a group while following the music. Try to note down any mistakes as they are made, in the appropriate place in the score, then listen back to see whether you spotted everything

• Contact record companies and recording studios to ask whether you can sit in on a recording session. Find out in advance what is being recorded and take a pocket score with you, so that you can follow it during the session.

• Apply for work experience at a recording studio or record company. You may not be given much to do at a recording session, but there will be plenty of post-production work. Editing and mastering are fascinating processes, and if you can take on ‘back room’ tasks such as backing up files and copying masters you will gain valuable experience in a vital part of the post-production process.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• If you love music then spending every day listening to it is the best job in the world!

• You will meet many fabulous musicians, whose talent can be utterly inspiring

• The challenge of trying to create as perfect a performance as possible from the raw takes is very satisfying

• Seeing your name on the cover of a cd is rewarding, but even better is hearing a recording you’ve produced being recommended on a radio programme, or better still winning an award, such as a Gramophone award or Grammy

• Most producers are freelance, which gives flexibility in when, where and with whom they work

Cons

• The classical recording industry has been suffering in recent years and competition for work is strong. Because most producers now tend to be freelance, it’s harder to get ‘on the job’ training

• Sometimes listening to music for hours at a relatively high volume can cause your ears to feel ‘tired’, and some people can get occasional mild tinnitus after long bouts of headphone use. However, this is much less of a problem than with pop music, which tends to be more consistently loud

Work Handel's Serse Artists Early Opera Company
Venue St Silas the Martyr, Kentish Town, London
Conductor Christian curnyn Producer Rachel Smith
Engineer Ben Conellan Date of session August 13-17, 2012 Words David Vickers

The sun shines warmly over Camden when I drop into the Early Opera Company's recording sessions. Christian Curnyn makes the most of the brief spell of good weather, turning up in shorts and sandals. He perches cross-legged at the harpsichord in meditative fashion, while preparations are under way for a session of recitatives. Almost everyone involved knows Handel's ironic masterpiece Serse (1738) like the back of their hands, but nothing has been left to chance: full rehearsals with the orchestra have already taken place and there have been copious recitative rehearsals.

Judging from the team sheet, attractively sung arias and stylish orchestral playing are certainties--but those factors won't be enough on their own to make this anti-heroic comedy's bittersweet flavour come alive under studio conditions, so singers and players alike have been prepared to aim for the elusive fusion of theatrical expression and musical sincerity before the microphones are switched on.

Chandos has not used the Church of St Silas the Martyr for many years but Curnyn instigated the change from previous venues used for the Early Opera Company's recordings, hoping to find 'somewhere with a theatrical bite so that the orchestra could sound a bit more upfront'. The acoustic offers clarity, presence and a useful amount of unobtrusive reverberation just like Baroque wooden theatres might have had. Producer Rachel Smith's makeshift control room is located downstairs in the vestry and she prefers recording entire long takes: 'I'd much rather help the musicians to build momentum. Long takes capture the context of a real performance better than stitching together a master from lots of short patches.'

There's some pressure to get time-consuming recitatives wrapped up efficiently. Behind the scenes, co-ordinating this project has been tough work: scheduling the sessions has been difficult because of busy singers' clashing diaries; moreover, one of the biggest star singers reluctantly withdrew only a week ago and had to be replaced at the 11th hour. Today turns out to be the only day when all of the singers can congregate in the same room at the same time. But you wouldn't suspect any of these challenges when observing an unmistakable spirit of fun. Perhaps the combination of rare sunshine and Handel's light-hearted characterisations (and his delightful score) dissolves any hint of tension. …

ABRSM: Report on recording the Trumpet Exam Syllabus

Trumpeting the syllabus

Tim Whitlaw takes a look behind the scenes at the recent Trumpet syllabus recording sessions

July saw the issue of a brand new ABRSM Trumpet syllabus and to coincide with its publication, ABRSM has undertaken the considerable task of producing recordings of the Trumpet syllabus pieces for the first time.

During June and July, 176 of the 203 pieces from the new syllabus were painstakingly recorded over the course of six days at Red Gables studios in Middlesex – a process involving more than 24 hours of recording sessions. Once edited and approved the recordings will be issued on ten CDs with a combined duration of almost nine hours. Alongside performances of the majority of accompanied pieces, the CDs will also include play-along tracks and solo studies.

Producing such a vast volume of recorded music is a sizeable undertaking. Little wonder then that the task of performing the pieces was shared among five world-class trumpeters: Roger Webster, former Principal Cornet with both Black Dyke Mills Band and the Grimethorpe Colliery Band; John Miller, Director of Brass Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music; John Wallace, Principal of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama; Paul Archibald, Head of Wind, Brass and Percussion at Guildhall School of Music and Drama; and Alistair Mackie, Co-principal Trumpet of the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Leslie East, ABRSM’s Executive Director: Syllabus & Publishing, explained how the performers prepared for the sessions. ‘They are sent the music weeks before the sessions so they can rehearse. In fact, in some cases these players have actually helped select the syllabus. That means when they arrive for the sessions we can start recording straight away’.

The sessions themselves were directed by experienced classical record producers Rachel Smith and Sebastian Forbes. They ensured that the performances were consistent across many different takes and that they remained faithful to the published scores – especially important when preparing recordings for exam candidates.

One of the challenges of recording an ABRSM syllabus is the requirement that the pieces be available in both duo and play-along (piano-only) versions. The option of separate duo and accompaniment recordings is time-consuming and expensive, with the added drawback that variations inevitably occur between duo and play-along performances. There is also the option of having the pianist and trumpeter perform their parts simultaneously in separate soundproof booths allowing the piano recording to the isolated. But that option is less than ideal. ‘It’s not the way classical musicians are used to working’, notes East.

However, a few years ago producers recording other ABRSM syllabuses began using another option – the Yamaha Disklavier, an electronic player piano. Using the Disklavier allowed the pianist and trumpet player to perform the piece as normal. While this performance was being recorded, the Disklavier software recorded all details of the pianist’s performance – notes, pedal movements, tempo variations – as electronic data. When the pianist and trumpeter left for the day, recording engineer Ken Blair sent the data back to the piano which electromechanically replicated the performance of the pianist. This performance was recorded as the play-along versions of the pieces, meaning that it will feature exactly the same piano performance as the duet versions.

Once the recordings were finished, the complex task of assembling the numerous takes of each piece into finished performances began. The producers took away all recorded takes on a stack of CDs. They then chose which takes to use for each section of the 176 pieces, after which Blair and his team seamlessly edited the selected takes together.

But it doesn’t end there. A complex approval process means the music must go not only to the performers for their feedback, but also to staff at ABRSM for comments, queries and approval. ‘The process is a lot more involved than for most classical recordings’, admits producer Rachel Smith. ‘With most recordings we get feedback from the musicians and that is often all. In this case, we don’t tend to get a lot of comments from the musicians, but we do get a lot from ABRSM’.

This is perhaps not surprising. As Simon Mathews, Production Director at ABRSM, notes: ‘Students and teachers look to these recordings as a document of how the pieces are meant to be played so it’s very important that all the details are absolutely right’. Indeed, it’s possible that, as a result of the editing and approval process, the instrumentalists may be brought back to do retakes of pieces or sections.

All in all, it will take about six months for the project to progress from the studio to the finished CDs (the tracks will also be sold as downloads on ABRSM’s website) – meaning that the recordings will be ready in time for January 2010, when the new syllabus comes into use.