Category: music

Dead Musicians Are Touring As Holograms (Really)

“Was it really okay, I wondered, to let holograms stand in for once-vital, important artists and carry out new performances? Was this an inevitable development in the interweaving of high tech and art — or did it possibly speak to something darker about our 21st-century morals and our endless quest to be entertained? What did this phenomenon say about, well, us?” – Washington Post

Catholic Group Tries To Shut Down Brussels Opera Production With Nude Joan Of Arc

The Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Belgium’s national opera house, is presenting a staging of Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher (Joan of Arc at the Stake) by provocative director Romeo Castellucci in which the Maid of Orléans is shown, in extremis, unclothed. A group called the Pro Europa Christiana Federation has petitioned both La Monnaie’s director and Belgium’s minister of culture to close the show, arguing that the production, in which “Saint Joan of Arc is again the target of a pornographic representation, … [is] obscene and hurt[s] Christians.” (The Monnaie’s director is unmoved.) – Yahoo! (AP)

Soprano Julia Bullock Is Forging A Major Career Entirely Away From Standard Opera Repertory

“Instead of singing Mozart or Verdi, she has made a precocious impact on the concert stage and as a curator, serving as artist in residence last season at the Metropolitan Museum of Art — where she delved deeply into the African-American experience, past and present — and this season in the same role with the San Francisco Symphony.” Says director Peter Sellars, “This is who we’ve been waiting for. You see someone who’s not just a vehicle, but an agent of change. She’s actually moving the whole art form into a new relevance.” – The New York Times

Berkeley Symphony’s New Conductor On His Transformative Career Encounter With Marin Alsop

Joseph Young: “I went up to her and said ‘I really want to go to grad school for conducting’ and she said ‘why don’t you come study with me.’ That moment changed my life. Before that I had no examples. I had no mentor. All I knew was that I wanted to conduct orchestras. In that moment I had all of that. Someone from whom I learned there is a transcendental power in what we do in music, which I began to appreciate. Someone who showed me, by example, to be a leader not only of an orchestra, but of a community, as when I was with her in Baltimore.” – San Francisco Classical Voice

After Public Pushback, Eastman School Cancels Orchestra Tour Of China

Earlier this week, news broke that three musicians, all South Korean nationals, in the Eastman Philharmonia, the student orchestra of the Eastman School of Music, had been denied visas to enter China for the orchestra’s upcoming tour. Eastman’s dean, Jamal Rossi, initially decided to go ahead with the plans and leave those three players behind — and he was promptly pummeled with criticism from alumni and members of the public. Rossi has now “postponed” the tour. – The New York Times

800 Musicians Say They’ll Boycott Amazon Festival Over Company’s Work For ICE

The letter — organized by a group of artists and activists including Speedy Ortiz’s Sadie Dupuis, Downtown Boys’ Joey La Neve DeFrancesco, Evan Greer, Adult Mom, @k8_or_die, Carmen Perry, and Jes Skolnik, according to Rolling Stone — comes in response to the announcement of Intersect, Amazon’s first music festival, which will be held in Las Vegas from December 6-7. The company is promoting the festival as an event “where music, technology, and art converge.” – Hyperallergic

Surprise: Vancouver Opera General Director Steps Down Over Disagreement On Company’s Direction

Kim Gaynor joined the opera three years ago, and was given the challenge of moving the company from a traditional season (or “stagione”) model to a festival with a number of events during a concentrated period in the spring – a decision that had been made by the board and her predecessor, James Wright, ahead of his retirement. The move had been made in response to financial and organizational challenges. – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

How India’s Only Professional Symphony Orchestra Has Kept Itself Going For 13 Years

Founding music director Marat Bisangaliev says that launching the Symphony Orchestra of India back in 2006 was a serious challenge: with the country’s own art music traditions dominant, the few fully trained Western classical musicians from India had all gone abroad. “We zeroed in on a bunch of talented adults who were self-taught and put them through an intensive crash course designed specially to elevate their standard … They had to become worthy of a place in a symphony orchestra, and the move paid off.” And with no existing conservatory to train future orchestral musicians, the SOI has since founded its own. – The National (Abu Dhabi)