Pentopixels

Communication between musicians and their fans was once time-consuming if more personal. Ariane Todes looks at how social media has changed everything

- Ariane Todes

When Stephen Sondheim died last November, it was revealed that throughout his career the great songwriter had written copious responses to his fans’ letters. Twitter was briefly awash with heart-warming examples of his gracious thanks and detailed answers – there’s even an Instagram account dedicated to them.

But what sort of wide-eyed geek actually writes to a famous musician? Well, me, for starters – the 17-year-old version at least, on a high from being released from school into the cultural wonderland of London. A visit to Wigmore Hall to see cellist Steven Isserlis left me reeling and pre-internet I must have had to go to the local library to find the British & International Music Yearbook to hunt down his agent’s address. I don’t remember what I wrote – no doubt it was fervent and profoundly uncynical – but there came an answer of several generous pages (now lost in the muddle of my storage).

I’m not the only one to have experienced this. Colin Dunn, now a hire librarian at Boosey & Hawkes, has written several such letters. He remembers writing to John Cage: ‘I wrote a fan letter to his address, which I gleaned from an