Category: music

“Trying to resolve a dispute that dates back to the mid-1990s, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled today the orchestra’s concerts are entertainment events and therefore are subject to the tax.”

“Oscar, who wakes up every morning yelling ‘Mu-mic! Mu-mic!’ has musical tastes that range from Tosca to the whirring beat of the Magimix. But he’s stymied by the fact that babies are not, as a rule, welcome in the concert hall. … And so Oscar and I toddle off to Baby O….”

“Opera houses across Italy are canceling performances because of sputtering strikes over efforts by the government to reorganize their administration. Musicians, fearful that a result will be cuts in pay, are organizing free concerts in support of themselves and other opera house workers.” Among the casualties is La Scala’s Simon Boccanegra with Domingo and Barenboim.

“One of the city’s recently acquired glories – the $2.5 million Schoenstein pipe organ installed in the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in 2007 – is among the latest casualties of the Cumberland’s unstoppable flood waters.” Two Steinway concert pianos and the center’s dining facility were also damaged, though the main concert hall was not flooded.

On a free day during their Asia tour, several members of the Philadelphia Orchestra returned to a Sichuan town for which they performed and raised money right after the disastrous 2008 earthquake.

“The orchestra has cited a downturn in single ticket sales, and unrelieved costs from its 2007 separation from the ABC, for the $1,090,477 deficit. Affected by the weakened economy last year, single ticket sales were $593,000 less than those for 2008.”

“Though the city’s strapped budget means that the Grant Park portion of the fest will be reduced to two days, Sept. 4 and 5, the planners of the event have turned an apparent setback into a potential bonanza: They have conceived a Chicago Jazz Festival Week that will offer major events in Millennium Park, the Chicago Cultural Center and the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies.”

“[W]hile new work is often seen by audiences as more a duty than a pleasure, the opening-night crowd in Dallas broke into spontaneous applause three times during the first half, and screamed and yelled its approval at the curtain calls. It was a wonderful and rare reminder that new opera truly can excite people if it’s done right.”

“The Boston Pops is facing a very 21st-century problem. Ticket sales are down, television exposure is scarce, and the orchestra, one of Boston’s grandest traditions, is looking for answers as it kicks off its anniversary season.”

“The conceit is simple:” The members of a local roots-rock band “conduct a day of workshops with students selected by teachers for their writing and musical skills. … The band returns in a few days to perform the new song in front of the student body, no doubt giving the budding writers and musicians cachet among their peers.”