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Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Launches Free Classical Music Podcast  
– “The Concert” – Under a Creative Commons License

Museum offers unreleased live performances by notable musicians and  
emerging young artists for free download and file sharing

BOSTON, MA, USA — September 14, 2006

Starting today, everyone who visits the website of the Isabella  
Stewart Gardner Museum (www.gardnermuseum.org) will be able to  
download free classical music and share it with anyone, anywhere.

“The Concert,” the museum’s new classical music podcast, features  
unreleased live performances by master musicians and talented young  
artists recorded from the museum’s Sunday Concert Series, the  
nation’s longest-running museum music series. Today, the museum posts  
the first in a series of 45-minute podcasts, including music by  
Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, and Chopin for solo piano, orchestra,  
string quartet, and voice. A new podcast will be posted on the 1st  
and 15th of every month, and users will be able to subscribe to  
receive free, automatic updates delivered directly to their computers  
or mp3 players.

With this podcast, the Gardner Museum also breaks new ground,  
becoming the first art museum to encourage sharing and free  
distribution of its online programming by using a “some rights  
reserved” copyright license from Creative Commons. On the website,  
links to the Music Sharing license encourage users to freely share  
the music they download in “The Concert,” making the Gardner Museum  
one of the few early adopters of flexible copyright in licensing  
classical music.

“By sharing its renowned classical music performances with all the  
world under a Creative Commons license, the Isabella Stewart Gardner  
Museum embraces its public, expands its reach, and steps into the  
future,” said Eric Saltzman, a Creative Commons founder and board  
member. “Creative Commons got its start across the river in  
Cambridge, so we’re especially pleased that the museum looked to CC  
to make “The Concert” series freely available online.”

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School has  
worked with the museum to address legal issues relating to podcasting  
music and using Creative Commons licenses for podcasts.

“To be able to support the artists who perform here and, at the same  
time, to expand the reach of classical music is very exciting,” says  
Gardner Museum Music Director Scott Nickrenz. “By using podcasting  
technology, and with the full support of the artists, we’re going to  
be able, for the first time, to offer free recordings of great  
classical music to anyone who wants to listen, wherever they want to  
listen.”

The podcast is a modern continuation of the museum’s long history of  
supporting young artists. Artists heard in this first season of “The  
Concert” run the gamut from young chamber musicians to established  
solo pianists. The artists whose performances are featured in “The  
Concert” include: the Borromeo String Quartet, the Claremont Trio,  
violinist Corey Cerovsek, the Gardner Chamber Orchestra with  
conductor Douglas Boyd, harpsichordist John Gibbons, violist Kim  
Kashkashian, Musicians from Marlboro, flutist Paula Robison, baritone  
Randall Scarlata, and pianists Jeremy Denk, Paavali Jumppanen, Cecile  
Licad, and Seymour Lipkin. Artist and composer bios are available on  
the website.

“This is a great opportunity, not just for the musicians involved,  
but for listeners, too,” says pianist Jeremy Denk, one of the  
musicians heard in “The Concert” and the author of the blog Think  
Denk (http://jeremydenk.blogspot.com). “For such a long time, the  
only way to get a recording out was to go through established  
channels of distribution, and even then, it’s rare that a classical  
record is widely available. The internet has really changed that.  
Projects like this support new voices in classical music, and create  
new opportunities for audiences to hear them.”

“I don’t think Isabella Gardner could have imagined all the  
incredible innovations of the past century, but at its heart this  
podcast is a continuation of her vision for the museum, and of her  
spirit of adventure and creativity in supporting artists,” says Anne  
Hawley, Norma Jean Calderwood Director of the Gardner Museum.

The title “The Concert” is in part an homage to the Gardner Museum’s  
treasured Vermeer painting “The Concert,” stolen in 1990.

“THE CONCERT”: WHAT’S INSIDE
“The Concert” strives to make classical music accessible to many  
different kinds of listeners. Rather than re-broadcasting complete  
concerts, each podcast features selections from the museum’s  
recording archives, paired in a way that draws interesting  
connections between pieces and offers variety. In a single podcast, a  
listener may hear a Schubert song and a string quartet, or a Mozart  
violin sonata and a concerto. Brief introductions place the music in  
context for listeners. Those interested in additional information  
about composers or artists featured in the podcast can find bios and  
links on the podcast website.

The podcast is also a first step towards building a free online  
classical music library on the museum’s website. Each musical work  
featured in “The Concert” will be archived to this virtual library,  
sorted by performer and composer. As it grows, the library will be a  
resource for free classical music that can be shared with listeners  
around the world.

BREAKING NEW GROUND WITH CREATIVE COMMONS
All podcasts in “The Concert” are offered under a Music Sharing  
license from Creative Commons, meaning that users are free “to  
download, copy, file-share, trade, distribute, and publicly perform  
(e.g. webcast)” the podcast for any noncommercial purpose. The  
Gardner Museum’s choice to allow free sharing is a first for an art  
museum.

“As soon as I heard that this was an option, I knew it was the right  
thing for us to do,” says Scott Nickrenz. “If we’re serious about  
getting this music out there, we need to allow people to spread the  
word. Whether that means using peer-to-peer file sharing or burning a  
CD and sending it to your grandparents, we want people to be able to  
share this music in a way that works for them, using the power of the  
internet to spread classical music.”

The Clinical Program in Cyberlaw at Harvard’s Berkman Center (http:// 
cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/clinical) provided support and legal  
counsel for the project. "This has been an exciting collaboration for  
us," explains John Palfrey, Executive Director of the Berkman Center  
and Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. "We're big  
believers in combining the innovative use of technology with the  
freedoms offered by a Creative Commons license to help increase  
everyone's access to information, knowledge and music, like these  
terrific Gardner concert recordings."

MUSIC AT THE GARDNER MUSEUM
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is home to the oldest museum  
music program in the country. From September through May, the museum  
hosts weekly Sunday concerts. The Sunday Concert Series features  
renowned musicians, and the Young Artists Showcase presents  
outstanding emerging artists.  Composer Portraits features  
adventurous young performers playing the music of 20th- and 21st- 
century composers. Live performances from the Gardner Museum are  
heard frequently on radio, locally on WGBH radio and nationally on  
National Public Radio’s “Performance Today.”

Isabella Stewart Gardner established a legacy of music with the  
creation of her museum. Boston Symphony Orchestra members performed  
on opening night, January 1st, 1903. Isabella Stewart Gardner also  
supported established and emerging young musicians, including  
Margaret Ruthven Lang, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s first female  
member. The music program at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was  
formally established 79 years ago.

About the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is a work of art itself. Housed  
in  a Venetian-inspired palace, turned inside-out and surrounding an  
ever-changing courtyard garden, the museum’s collection spans more  
than 30 centuries and features artworks by Rembrandt, Michelangelo,  
Raphael, Botticelli, Degas and Sargent. Continuing the legacy of its  
founder, changing contemporary and historic exhibitions, the oldest  
museum music program in the country, seasonal courtyard garden  
displays, annual free days, visiting contemporary artists and  
innovative school and community partnerships enrich the permanent  
collection and provide ongoing inspiration for all.

About Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a not-for-profit organization, founded in 2001,  
that promotes the creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works— 
whether owned or in the public domain. Creative Commons licences  
provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors,  
artists, and educators that build upon the "all rights reserved"  
concept of traditional copyright to offer a voluntary "some rights  
reserved" approach. It is sustained by the generous support of  
various organizations including the John D. and Catherine T.  
MacArthur Foundation, Omidyar Network, the Hewlett Foundation, and  
the Rockefeller Foundation as well as members of the public. For  
general information, visit http://creativecommons.org

Contact

Charlotte Landrum
Podcast Project Manager & Marketing Associate, Isabella Stewart  
Gardner Museum
Phone: 617.278.5106
Email: clandrum AT isgm.org

Eric Steuer
Creative Director, Creative Commons
Phone: 415.946.3039
Email: eric AT creativecommons.org

Creative Commons Press Kit

http://creativecommons.org/presskit