Category: music

“Or, more realistically (since the Cleveland Orchestra is not actually likely to pack up, like a baseball franchise, and move to another city), how many modifications can an orchestra make before it loses its identity?”

“Orchestra leadership wants the players to take a pay cut to address urgent financial problems. The musicians say that would be the beginning of the end of the premier ensemble, making it harder to attract and retain top talent.”

“A beloved Pops conductor – gone. A recording contract – gone. A music director – going. A performance venue – closing soon for renovations. … Never in its 115-year history has the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra faced so many challenges at once and so much uncertainty about its future.”

The Victoria & Albert’s display “looks certain to close next month in order to make way for an expanded display of the museum’s fashion and costume holdings. While a number of the instruments will remain exhibited as part of other sections … most of them will be placed in storage, available on request, or distributed among other museums and collections.”

“For almost half a century the NYJO has been nurturing the next generation of British musicians. Although its musical stock is as high as ever … it is facing bankruptcy and could collapse within the next few months, The Times has learnt.”

“While the music industry mutates in ways that impoverish entertainers and annoy aficionados alike (greedy promoters flogging inauthentic acts), the house concert has emerged as an attractive – and easily achievable – alternative to the commercial scene.”

Anne Midgette points to opera companies that are adapting well to the tight economy by keeping their focus on the art.

“It is deceptively challenging these days to apply technology to music in ways that explode our imaginations, deepen our personal insights, shake us out of boring routine and accepted belief, and pull us ever closer to one another.”

“The answer – in part – seems to be that the patterns of pitches in major keys mirror those of excited speech, whereas minor keys parallel subdued speech. That suggests that language shaped our musical expression of emotion.”

“A deep-seated sense of secrecy permeates auditions, a result of laudable efforts to eliminate bias and favoritism.” But when the New York Philharmonic refused to identify a candidate, the Minnesota Orchestra’s Burt Hara, after he played a solo in a public concert, “the inherent tensions within the orchestra beast” became manifest.