Category: music

The players of the Richardson (TX) Symphony have gone public with complaints about being paid late. The response (in part) from maestro Anshel Brusilow, in rehearsal and on tape: “People are starving to death and you’ve got a job, and you’re a little late being paid so you’re upset … well, wake up, get a life!”

“More than 60 musicians tried out for the chance to sing, play or shout–legally–in the city’s most sought-after locations underground. That field was narrowed from about 300 who applied for audition spots. By the end, about 20 or 25 make the cut–an acceptance rate that puts the program on par with some of the nation’s most selective universities.”

“At a time when arts organizations and universities are struggling to pay their bills, Stanford University is tuning up to break ground on the campus’ first true concert hall with world-class acoustics financed by $112 million in private gifts. The 844-seat Bing Concert Hall … will accommodate everything from soloists to full orchestras.”

“You have a good day, you have a bad day, next week you look at what you wrote last week and it’s rubbish and you throw it out,” he says. “I write all the time, not so much for pleasure but mostly from habit, which is what anybody who writes anything needs to do. It’s pretty good, or it isn’t, and I try to do better next time.”

The $60 million complex will be “the only free-standing jazz arts center in the country…. For the first time, jazz in America will have a counterpart to symphony hall, an edifice that proclaims the value of jazz to anyone who sees it on the street.” So should Chicago be envious?

The nonprofit consortium In the Pocket NYC “helps performers teach and teachers perform,” creating “a social network for professional musicians who offer private lessons, giving them built-in substitute teachers.”

“As the traditional record business has turned topsy-turvy, artists as well as startup companies are developing ways to finance the making of music today. A couple of European websites, Sellaband.com and Slicethepie.com, act as revenue-generating conduits between musicians and fans.”

“Along with hidden credit-card fees and staggering ATM surcharges, ticket service charges offer another twist in the maze of penalties facing American consumers. And concertgoers are getting tired of it.”

“At a time of crisis in the recording industry, Simon Fuller’s roster of singers which includes “Idol” winners Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, British singer Annie Lennox and The Spice Girls, have sold 160 million songs on iTunes.”

“While there are plenty of female artists, the majority of people working behind the scenes are still male (66%). In London, women represent only 30%. Another staggering statistic is that 47% of women in the music industry earn less than £10,000, compared with 35% of men, which may go some way to explain why there are even fewer of them in London, due to the high cost of living.”