Category: music

Stanford, Helsinki and Berlin have already heard ensembles that use the iPhone’s Ocarina app, but the University of Michigan has made a course out of the endeavor. The 11 students, who had to write software as well as music for their “instruments,” give their first concert next week.

Chucked by Skylight Opera Theatre in a cost-saving move, then wooed back after the Milwaukee company suffered protests and national disgrace, artistic director Bill Theisen says the whole debacle could have been avoided if only he’d been asked to go to half-time status. “And I’m quite sure I would have said yes….”

“True, you won’t likely see any classical-music stars thanking their agents on Grammy night — that’s because the classical categories are usually relegated to off-air time, heaped together with other presumably unpopular genres.” But there are plenty of nominees filling the 13 classical categories.

“Grammy voters might have made some baffling choices this year (seriously, Hall & Oates?), but not when it came to the jazz categories.”

“Oligarchs of the oboe world gathered on Monday for a private dinner” that “drew players from the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. … The event was the equivalent of a gathering of National Football League quarterbacks, with [Albrecht] Mayer cast as Brett Favre.”

“Down Under,” the 1981 pop hit by Men at Work, and “The Kookaburra Song,” the classic 1934 children’s tune, “now reside at the center of a fierce intellectual-property battle raging in Australia. The copyright holder of ‘The Kookaburra Song’ says it’s unlawfully sampled in ‘Down Under.'”

“George Steel, who took over as City Opera’s general manager and artistic director in February, when things looked bleak, has rallied the company and made many good calls. Particularly gratifying was his decision to remove the dreaded sound-enhancement system that had been in use for a decade. … Opera at the Koch Theater is again a performing art for natural singing in an unamplified space.”

“The NMSO had to postpone several concerts after the master agreement with the musicians expired in August. The symphony said in October it was facing a $1 million deficit and needed to cut $690,000 from its budget.” NMSO trustees are now “launching a major fundraising campaign,” the orchestra says.

“Spheres,” by York Hoeller, has won the 2010 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music. Hoeller is professor emeritus of music composition at the Cologne University of Music.

“Entering the music charts in the top spot on Sunday, Boyle’s “I Dreamed a Dream” sold more than 410,000 copies — the biggest first week sales for a debut album in UK chart history, the Official Charts Company said.”