Category: music

“I love this Festival deeply,” Emmanuel Villaume told the Spoleto U.S.A. board this morning, “and I have always said that if I could not give the organization what I consider to be the necessary time, I would step down from my position.”

“Every musician in this ensemble was playing the same instrument – a MacBook. You’ve now entered the world of Slork, one of various high-tech musical projects under way at CCRMA, Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics.”

“Watching the Karmetic Machine Orchestra is like getting a peek at the inner workings of a factory through a sheet of glass. It churns. Gears turn. Wired mallets beat drum heads. Some of the musicians sit at laptops looking like workers as they rhythmically press buttons.”

“The real surprise is that, in that brief span, a number of classical music’s legends are also commemorated in the stars. Even a violist. I knew a few were there, but not this many. So I started snapping photos when I was up there the other day…”

“Judged by the standards of a mere mortal music director, Dudamel had a remarkable first season. He delivered many exciting performances and a couple of great ones. He took chances and cheerfully flew, more than once, by the seat of his pants. He has a lot yet to learn. He may be experiencing growing pains (and ones that will continue for a while). Nothing remotely conclusive can be said about him at this point.”

“Selling products beyond recorded music is nothing new for these retailers. Stores have routinely sold band T-shirts and stickers, for instance. But the decline of CD sales — and, more recently, of DVD sales — has forced the big-box retailers to find other ways to fill their space and tap into customers’ interest in music.”

Attendees “were greeted by about 25 protesters who stood outside on the Music Center Plaza with banners that denounced Wagner and the county’s decision late last year to approve an emergency loan for the financially stretched opera company.”

In an interview included with the promotional materials, she is blunter, asserting that “this album is not crossover,” that it occupies the “other extreme of the spectrum,” that making the recording was like visiting “a parallel universe.”

“The 76-year-old maestro was due to conduct a preview concert for under-30s on June 3, followed by two concerts on June 4 and 6, for which he had requested 90,000 trees to be planted in Milan as payment.” He’s been hospitalized in Berlin.

“The project could come in with a balanced budget if the most optimistic scenarios pan out for ticket sales and donations. On the downside, according to figures quoted by Rountree, a deficit of $2.5 million could loom. That would compound the financial challenges facing a company that already has cut staff in response to the economic downturn, and has announced a scaled-back season for 2010-11.”