Category: music

“I find this is a difficult institution to get air time in because we don’t talk about the art first. Nobody ever talks to me. Barely. There’s no place to actually say these things safely, so I’m going to say them here.” – Baltimore Sun

“In a collaboration influenced by [music director Gianandrea] Noseda’s role as principal guest conductor for the London Symphony Orchestra, the British symphony’s record label — LSO Live — will distribute the NSO’s new label.” The first release, with Dvořák’s Ninth Symphony and Copland’s Billy the Kid, is due on February 21. – Washingtonian

Best known in the U.S. for his years as assistant and associate conductor and conductor-in-residence with the Philadelphia Orchestra and as music director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Măcelaru is currently chief conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne. He succeeds Emmanuel Krivine at the ONF in 2021. – OperaWire

The Hungarian-born pianist, who was scheduled to play and conduct in the Maison symphonique on Oct. 23 and 24, ended up performing only before intermission in both concerts. Schiff withdrew from the second half of the program after an acrimonious rehearsal in which OSM sources say he criticized the players unfairly and even accused them of “sabotage.” – Montreal Gazette

“There have been a couple of studies done with populations of indigenous people who live in places where there is very little background noise and elderly people in those populations tend to hear as well as infants do.” – NPR

Consultant Lauren Tan watched footage of Leonard Bernstein, Gustavo Dudamel, Manfred Honeck, and others for what their hands, eyes, faces and postures can show the rest of us about non-verbal communication. – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

As managers assume a greater variety of responsibilities, the longstanding earnings model – a 20% commission – is viewed by many as “anachronistic and unfit for purpose”. – Arts Professional

Holly Mulcahy hasn’t performed with the orchestra since April because of a contract dispute – a dispute so intense that one board member has resigned over it. That board member, film composer George S. Clinton, said that the entire dispute had been “badly mishandled and allowed to deteriorate to the point that now the symphony has lost what I and many others consider to be one of its finest assets.” – Chattanooga Times Free Press

Apparently, it’s not the money. There’s diplomacy, there’s prestige, and there’s the desire of areas of the world – China definitely included – to be seen as supporting Western classical music. – The Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

On the agenda for Tuesday’s Los Angeles Supervisors board meeting: Having the L.A. Philharmonic take over the outdoor Ford Theatre. According to the supervisor who made the proposal, “It is the most wonderful, intimate summer night venue. … You’re outside, the hills are beautiful, but you’re not in a great, great, great big Bowl — which is fine for a whole lot of stuff.” – LAist