Category: music

“In 2006, when the Metropolitan Opera announced its plans to show operas live in movie theaters, skeptics wondered who would actually pay to go. Plenty of people, as it turned out. … The Met is still the dominant player, but others have now gotten into the act, eager to claim a slice of this niche market for themselves.”

“The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra revealed a $1 million challenge to the community at its annual finance meeting this afternoon to try to make up a $776,000 shortfall.”

“Mummified Jalapeño Bacon Bombs. New Orleans Blood Red Beans and Rice. Thundering Beef Brisket. Those are just a few of the recipes you’ll find in Hellbent for Cooking: The Heavy Metal Cookbook. Author Annick ‘Morbid Chef’ Giroux talks about the recipes she gathered from more than 100 bands from 32 countries, including Anthrax, Judas Priest, Thin Lizzy, Sepultura and Gwar.”

“It’s pretty standard that when an artist” — Sting, say, or Alec Baldwin — “accepts a date” with an orchestra, “he or she accepts some of the responsibility for selling the house by doing publicity. When the house isn’t sold out, observers tend to blame orchestra management,” but sometimes the fault belongs to an interview-shunning star.

“The Philadelphia Orchestra and Peter Nero and the Philly Pops … have been sparring in recent months over a deal brokered less than five years ago – with the help of now-incarcerated State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo – that was to expand the groups’ donor base, increase the shared budget, and lead to economies by eliminating overlapping functions.”

Tom Service: “It’s going to stick in many people’s craws that some of the best paid and most union-protected musicians in the world, whose jobs aren’t under any real threat, should protest against proportionately small cuts rather than continuing to play and to serve their community.”

“Video games pull in $20 billion a year, roughly the combined revenues of the film and music industries. Berklee, one of a handful of schools prepping students for a field that barely existed 10 years ago, is eager to tap that booming market, one that’s making boldfaced names out of its most talented and prolific composers.”

Some prominent Iranian musicians say the Peace and Friendship Symphony “lacks the standards of a symphony to be performed in Europe” and will dishonor Iranian classical music. “Composed by Majid Entezami in last year, the symphony was originally entitled the Islamic Revolution Symphony, but it has recently been renamed for the European concerts.”

“Current economic hardships, of course, are partly to blame. But industry experts point out that in the flush years of the 1990s, orchestras went on spending sprees without building up their endowments for a rainy decade. Now the crunch is on.” And that’s not the only problem facing the nation’s orchestras.

“The Ivor Novello awards, won by luminaries including Sir Paul McCartney and Sir John Tavener, will introduce a new category this year — best original video game score. … The Novello committee has concluded that the compositional skills required for an effective games soundtrack are equivalent to those for an original film or television score.”