The Classical Circuit - 21. Alexandra Whittingham: online authenticity, classical guitar's growing popularity, and finding joy in informal concerts

21. Alexandra Whittingham: online authenticity, classical guitar's growing popularity, and finding joy in informal concerts

09/17/24 • 37 min

Alexandra Whittingham is a prominent figure in the guitar world. At the age of 16, she began filming and editing videos of herself playing popular guitar repertoire and posting them online, rapidly catching the attention of viewers all over the world. Since then Alexandra’s online community continues to grow, and her videos have amassed over 50 million views since. She's also a recording artist on the Decca Classics label, and a member of the guitar faculty at Chetham’s School of Music (where she first started her own musical journey at the age of 11).

In this episode, Alexandra talks about how she manages her online presence with such a large following, and how her approach there hasn’t changed much over the years, despite the internet and social media being a very different place to when she first started out. We discuss how the guitar is still a relatively new instrument in the classical realm, though fast-growing in popularity, and Alexandra talks about the enjoyment she's found in playing to intimate venues. She also recounts the repressed memory of the time she didn’t have a visa the day before she was due to set off on tour...

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Alexandra's links:

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Music: François Couperin - Le Tic-Toc-Choc ou Les Maillotins