Category: music

“Criticism of Alan Fletcher bubbled over this summer when he began cutting the budget. A small percentage of faculty were told they wouldn’t be back in 2010, he shaved a week off the festival schedule, and he cut the number of students at the school next year from 750 to 625. While the moves were controversial, they were supported by many board and faculty members. It was the manner in which they were done that ruffled feathers.”

“The facility, which opened two weeks ago at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Bloor St. complex, is one of the best things to happen to Toronto architecture in some time. The designer, Marianne McKenna of KPMB, one of the city’s most accomplished practices, has pulled off a triumph.”

“A musician and his team have trained 1,000 cellphones to deliver 2,000 text messages in about 40 seconds that sound like Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture – complete with bass drums and crashing cymbals at the end.”

“The classical music field is abuzz about the new music directors on opposite American coasts, although buzz hardly begins to describe the scene in Los Angeles since the arrival of Mr. Dudamel, a boyish Venezuelan with charisma to burn. The city is swept up in Dudamania.”

“Pop has replaced rock as the ruling force within contemporary music, and instead of seeming inauthentic, the Rock Hall appears too focused on authenticity.”

Dallas Symphony Orchestra music director Jaap van Zweden will be staying a while. “Now starting his second season here, and a huge hit with musicians, audiences and critics, the Dutch conductor has signed a four-year extension to his initial four-year contract.”

“The plan is for the conservatory to train at least 50 people, starting with the first class of 10, over five years to open music educational centers, or ‘núcleos,’ in parts of the United States where children couldn’t normally afford instruments.”

“Opera purists may be pleased to learn that the renovation of New York City Opera’s home at Lincoln Center, the David H. Koch Theater, has eliminated the amplification system for live voices that was installed in 1999.”

“James Levine knows people are worried about him – and about his job stamina. On the eve of what was supposed to be his return to the concert stage, Levine responded to questions about his health and his ability to serve as both music director of the BSO and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York, arguably two of the most important jobs in American music.”

“[U]ntil recently [Robert] Lepage has been best known among hip theater-goers. His nonoperatic stage works … can run from 90 minutes to nine hours, are written in collaboration with his actors and technicians, and have nothing in common with anything else on the world stage.”