“These are trying times for the sheet music business, which has been increasingly chipped away at by illegal photocopying and online file sharing. The loss is especially noticeable in New York. The 1947 telephone directory listed nearly 100 places in Manhattan to buy sheet music. Now, only a half dozen are listed.”
Author: sbergman
Are Sky-High Strad Prices Actually A Good Thing?
Another Stradivarius sold at auction for millions of dollars last week, and once again, it’s a sure bet that the buyer wasn’t a musician. In fact, there are nearly no musician-owned Strads left, thanks to the ever-escalating value collectors place on the Cremonese gems. But is this necessarily a bad thing? Yes, it does mean that most musicians, even great ones, will never get to play on the best of the old Italian violins, but it also forces the music world to pay attention to the stunning number of great instruments being crafted by living makers.
The British Invasion Finally Makes It To L.A.
It wasn’t too long ago that an actor with a British accent couldn’t get arrested in Hollywood. But ever since Hugh Laurie turned the Fox drama House into a major hit, U.S. television execs can’t sign the Brits up fast enough.
Overcoming The Odds (And A Bit of Prejudice, Too)
At 26, New York Philharmonic principal oboist Liang Jang is one of the youngest principal players in an American orchestra, and his meteoric rise through the country’s orchestral ranks serves as a useful analogy for the rise of Chinese-born musicians in Europe and America. But “despite his extraordinary ability and success, Mr. Wang, like many Asian-born musicians, has had to confront preconceptions about his ability to connect with Western classical music.”
The Americanization Of Ballet
A new documentary delves into the twisted history of the Ballet Russes, and winds up revealing much about the state of modern classical dance. More importantly, it proves that “there was ballet in the United States before Balanchine got here. And there were other forces kindling the flame far beyond New York.”
When Did Culture Become About “Events”?
“There was a time when the play — or the symphony, ballet or collection — was the thing. Arts presenters and producers put together their seasons without bundling the works thematically or packaging them as events… [But today,] each season, the decibel level rises higher as arts organizations shout ever louder to get the attention of jaded and distracted consumers. To get and hold their attention, providers and presenters are increasingly offering events rather than shows. They are also packaging seasons under the umbrella of a theme, cross-marketing their wares to attract new attendees and surrounding attractions with a plethora of related events.
Pittsburgh’s Mystery Man Begins To Emerge
When the Pittsburgh Symphony tapped Manfred Honeck to be its next music director, much of the music world responded, “Who?” To be sure, Honeck is a largely unproven commodity on the global stage. But “those who have known the Austrian musician along his journey say he has the musicality, creativity and integrity to succeed.”
Chicago Sym Joins The 21st Century
The Chicago Symphony is known within the orchestra business as being one of America’s most tradition-bound orchestras, suspicious of change and slow to embrace new technologies. But now, with a new “chatty” broadcast series, an in-house record label, and an incursion into iTunes, the CSO is “acknowledging that, along with many other symphony orchestras, it must retool its services in a more contemporary way if it is to access new audiences and retain a pre-eminence in the field of radio and recordings it has enjoyed for some 50 years.”
Jazz At Risk
Mark Stryker says that the evolution of American entertainment has been a disaster for the one-vibrant jazz world. “It’s hard to think of a time other than our own in which jazz has been so marginalized; it no longer seems part of the cultural dialogue. The fabric that once supported jazz musicians, fans, the club scene and recording industry has been torn apart. The challenge facing jazz today is to repair the cloth, to create a new infrastructure, to weave a new fabric.”
Salonen To Leave LA Phil; Dudamel On Deck
“After helping make the Los Angeles Philharmonic one of the world’s most adventurous and versatile orchestras, Esa-Pekka Salonen has decided to step down as music director at the end of the 2008-09 season. His successor, the Philharmonic will announce Monday, will be Gustavo Dudamel, a charismatic 26-year-old conductor from Venezuela. Salonen, who will still live in Los Angeles, intends to concentrate on composing, although he plans to continue to conduct the Philharmonic and other orchestras.”