About Artsong Update

Welcome to Artsong Update! We began in 2001 by announcing art song and musical events by e-mail to a small group of people with an interest in art song. The list began to grow as people learned about the service.

We added a calendar of the upcoming season's art song events and a newsletter with reviews of these events, recordings, biographies and essays. Over the years our coverage has evolved to include choral, chamber and orchestral concerts as well as operas and even local productions of Broadway musicals.

In May, 2002 at the end of our first year we decided that a website with the newsletter content might be useful. We have archives of past issues with printer friendly pages, and the calendar is updated weekly as events are added or changed. Our e-mail updates continue to keep subscribers informed but that content will always be available on our website.

The subscribers include professional and amateur singers, voice teachers and students, accompanists, instrumentalists, composers, listeners and anyone who wishes to receive our free newsletter. Most of them live in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, though some are in New York, Washington, D.C. and other areas. Some of our subscribers we know personally, but most we know only as e-mail addresses. Currently (August, 2012) how subscriber base exceeds 900.

Our material is not copyrighted, nor do we plan for it to be. Share it, use it for classes, print it out. We only ask that you give the author and Artsong Update credit. If you enjoy the site and our e-mail publication, offer it to your friends. It's free after all!

The newsletter, calendar and the website are our way of promoting something we cherish - music - and especially art song. Please send us ideas, reviews of events and recordings and news of upcoming recitals and other vocal events as well as instrumental concerts.

We are: John Campbell, content author - except where otherwise noted, and Steve Brockman, content editor and webmaster.

John and Steve at Simply Sondheim, December, 2009
Photo courtesy of Teviya Abraham and the Tidewater JCC

      In November, 2004 and 2005 we were nominated for an Alli award from the Cultural Alliance of Greater Hampton Roads. Even though we didn't win it was a real honor to be nominated along with so many other deserving nominees and we had a great time. We'd like to thank all of you who supported our nomination and so many of you whose cooperation help to make Artsong Update the success it is. We'd like to share the description of what we do from the awards ceremony program booklet, read by Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Obendorf, as we stood to be acknowledged with friends and family in attendance:

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