Category: music

“In fiscal 2010, the St. Louis Symphony boosted ticket sales to the most in a decade, attracted the largest total attendance since 2002 and cut its deficit to its smallest in five years in what President and CEO Fred Bronstein describes as a major turning point in the orchestra’s history.”

Keith Burstein claimed he was defamed by an Evening Standard review of his opera, Manifest Destiny, which said it made suicide bombers appear heroic. Burstein, who claimed the review implied he was sympathetic to suicide bombers, lost his appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

“In a ruling that has the potential to affect many websites that stream music, a federal appeals court on Tuesday threw out a lower court’s method for determining music royalties, saying the calculations were flawed.”

“I would argue that paying attention to others rather than yourself, which focused listening makes possible, is music’s ultimate use. And if music exists in your life solely as an accompaniment for other activities, then you are not really listening to it.”

“Last season, the company’s nine live opera broadcasts sold 2.4 million tickets in four dozen countries. Once everyone was paid, the Met still had $8 million (all figures U.S.) left over to help cover a deficit brought on by tough economic times at home.”

“The story of how this hard-to-imagine event in Bluegrass Country came about is difficult to unravel partly because it’s been a long time in the making but also because everyone we interviewed had a rather annoying habit of giving the credit to someone else.”

“The world’s longest-surviving live music venue is to close because of the soaring overheads faced by its owner Jeff Horton, whose father gave the club its name when he took over in 1964.”

“Perhaps we’ve seen too many commercials with toffs in penguin suits to accept the fact that operagoers are, in fact, a motley middle-class lot. And the Wagner audience is the motliest of all — emeritus professors sit side by side with “Ring”-loving schoolteachers, fanatic record collectors, neophyte opera mavens and that woman wearing a Valkyrie helmet.”

“The called-off performances will cost the orchestra hundreds of thousands of dollars, and they add another setback to its efforts to be a world-traveling band.”

“Borda’s reputation for demanding as much of others as she demands of herself is matched by the professional respect and affection she commands in classical music circles.”