Category: music

“To succeed these days, musicians have to be willing to diversify, to branch out, and take chances as never before. You have to learn the industry as much as you learn your instrument.”

“Musicians of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, who have been performing without a contract since August, voted Tuesday night to approve a two-year contract that reduces their base pay for the current season by 13.5 percent.”

“Opera Ireland and Opera Theatre Company (OTC), the country’s main touring opera group, are being disbanded to make way for a new company, Irish National Opera (INO), which is not expected to stage its first opera until at least the spring of 2012.”

Elza van den Heever: “It was as if the carpet had been ripped from under my feet. I thought I was something and then I turned out to be something else. It was almost like a sex change.”

“Called Danny Knows Best, it is – supposedly – an online reality TV show along the lines of Jerry Springer. There are three episodes, featuring shouty family conflicts broadly based on ballet and opera plots.”

“More usually associated with musical esoterica than international espionage, terrorism, or economic skulduggery, the world of musicology – which is to say the music departments of our universities – is under threat. Government cuts? Tuition fees? The progressive dumbing down of today’s culture? Well, all that – and the UK Border Agency officials at Heathrow.”

“The world famous musician approached the Cardiff-based company [Music Theatre Wales] with his plans for a new opera based on Franz Kafka’s short story, ‘The Trial,’ and asked if they would like to stage it.” The company has recently finished touring with Glass’s first Kafka adaptation, “In the Penal Colony.”

“Contract talks between the Louisville Orchestra and its musicians struck a discordant note Monday, as representatives of the musicians’ union said the orchestra was threatening bankruptcy if the union did not agree to significant cuts and concessions.”

“Steve Jobs is nearing the end of his long and winding pursuit of the Beatles catalog. Apple Inc. is preparing to disclose that its iTunes Store will soon start carrying music by the Beatles, according to people familiar with the situation, a move that would fill a glaring gap in the collection of the world’s largest music retailer.”

“Conductor James Conlon will be staying on as music director of the Los Angeles Opera at least through the end of the 2012-13 season … His contract was set to expire at the end of the current 2010-11 season. … As music director, Conlon, 60, has helped to raise the profile of L.A. Opera to an international level.”