Category: music

“There was very good news from the Dallas Symphony : More than $20 million raised toward a new Great Orchestra Campaign. The report was less cheery from the Fort Worth Symphony: a new contract with musicians calling for a shorter season and 13.5 percent pay cut.”

“Part of the hesitation on the Beatles’ part may have been that the band have always been heavily protective of their music, keen never to devalue the brand by giving away their songs too cheaply: when the disruptive effects of the internet were first felt within the music industry, one common response was to start selling CDs at heavily marked-down prices, but McCartney and co never succumbed to this pressure.”

“The principal conductor of the Huddersfield Philharmonic orchestra stormed out of rehearsals just three hours before the concert was due to start – and never came back.
Natalia Luis-Bassa, a talented and fiery Venezuelan who has held the baton for seven years, accused the musicians of being “disrespectful” and said their attitude had affected her health.”

“Permission is required and not all bands are taper-friendly. But as the music industry tries to adapt to the many opportunities to download something for nothing, this taper community is being embraced by more and more musicians.”

“Virginia Opera, a scrappy regional company that’s been bringing productions to three cities in Virginia for decades, has fired its founding music and artistic director, Peter Mark, after 36 years of service. The announcement came Thursday after weeks of acrimonious debate that divided the opera’s board and much of its audience.”

“Anyone close to the classical music world in the US is watching closely how the dispute plays out in Detroit because of its fundamental, almost existential, nature. At stake is not only the future of this orchestra. Also in question is the traditional focus of classical orchestras on stage performing and recording, and the very survival of America’s big-city ensembles. It is feared that where Detroit goes first, other cash-strapped cities may follow.”

“[An] £8.3m building overlooking the Queen Elizabeth II bridge and the mighty vessels docking on the Thames … is about to open with, for the first and last time, the staging of an opera.”

“‘I think [organ concerts] would be more challenging to sell,’ said Jane Moss, vice president of programming for Lincoln Center, during a recent phone interview. ‘But we would certainly think of the organ for future White Light Festivals … or Mostly Mozart … The organ is a complicated instrument that occupies a curious niche.'”

“[His new] seven-movement composition, Symphony No. 15: Running Through the World Like an Open Razor (Music for Strange Orchestra), doesn’t feature 100 electric guitarists, like [his] 2001 Symphony 13: Hallucination City. But the 12 musicians it does employ have to manage more than 100 separate instruments” – which may not be able to fit in the venue’s stage.

“Singing sensation Susan Boyle has a No. 1 album in the United States and the U.K. simultaneously for the second time in a year – a feat not achieved for more than 40 years.”