The November 20 event in Tel Aviv was planned as a benefit for a nonprofit providing medical care to indigent patients. But that organization’s founder, an Orthodox rabbi, asked that no female singers be included, per a stricture observed by ultra-Orthodox Jews. Furious debate broke out around the country, and the Israel Philharmonic was the first among several performers to withdraw. The concert has now been canceled. – The Times of Israel
Category: music
Lara St. John: I’m Disappointed With Curtis Institute’s Response To My Abuse Charges
St. John writes a letter to Roberto Diaz, president of the school: “You and the Board have failed both this venerable institution and the Curtis community.” – Lara St. John
Pittsburgh Has A Shortage Of Mid-Size Concert Halls. Does It Matter?
Sure, there’s Heinz Hall, where the Pittsburgh Symphony performs, but that’s 2,700 seats, and smaller ensembles can’t really fill the hall. It’s depressing to be in a half-empty hall, even when there are lots of people there. So what to do? – Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Look Out, Akhnaten — Your Famous Son Is Getting An Opera Of His Own
As Philip Glass’s work about the monotheist pharaoh gets a major revival at the Met, news comes that a new opera on the life of King Tutankhamun is set to premiere late next year in Cairo. The libretto is co-written by the famous archaeologist Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s former minister of antiquities, with the score by Italian composer Lino Zambone. Performances are planned to mark the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo. – The Art Newspaper
Vinyl Music Is Outselling CDs. Why?
Vinyl sales have been surging in the last few years, as CD sales stay flat and digital downloads decrease. In the United Kingdom, data from 2016 reveals that vinyl LP sales revenue surpassed that of digital downloads. And in the United States, LP sales are on par with the sales of CDs. – The Conversation
Dallas Symphony And Opera Make A Major Push For Women Conductors
“I won’t say women are discriminated against as much as not given the same pathways as men. mostly because there is a male dominance in terms of personnel in the business. It’s been generations of music schools having faculty members who were renowned male soloists or conductors. The system was created that way, so it takes a lot of time to get women in those roles and as mentors to other talented women.” – Dallas Morning News
Musician Stephen Morris Left His Priceless Violin On The Train
That was October 22, and the train was in southeast London. The soloist from the Royal Phil eventually received a private message on Twitter from someone who said he recognized (from a security photo) the man who took the case, with the violin and a couple of special bows as well, off the train. And then? “Both the violin and the bows were ‘in tune,’ when they were returned to him Friday night at a supermarket parking lot in Beckenham.” – The New York Times
An Old Text, Set To New Music
Catholic Scottish composer James MacMillan, whose version of the “Stabat Mater” – a meditation on Mary, the mother of Jesus, suffering during the Crucifixion – is at the Lincoln Center this week, “sees himself as part of a widespread search among composers for the sacred in contemporary music.” – The New York Times
From Jazz To Classical Without Losing The Beat
Myra Melford is a composer as comfortable in jazz scenes as she is composing for new music ensembles. “Call it an ‘organic approach to composition,’ which is how her one-time teacher Henry Threadgill described his process during their studies. Melford’s approach curiously also comes, albeit somewhat intuitively, from growing up in a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.” – NewMusicBox
In DC, Increasing Access – And Audience, Maybe – At The Kennedy Center
What does Deborah Rutter really want to do with the expanded, busier, more national – perhaps – Kennedy Center? –The New York Times