Category: music

“The New York Philharmonic visit comes amid deepening economic ties between Vietnam and the U.S., now the Asian country’s biggest export market. … The visit is a way of ‘opening up relations on a cultural basis,’ [New York Philharmonic President Zarin] Mehta said.”

“The Abreu Fellows Program [at New England Conservatory of Music] provides tuition-free instruction and a living stipend for young postgraduate musicians who seek to develop El Sistema programs in the U.S. and beyond.”

Both defenders and detractors of Luc Bondy’s staging “have seized on this event as a watershed event in the history of opera in America and have been flogging their opinions of the production endlessly so as to advance their broader agenda. So once again, poor Floria Tosca has become a victim in a war that she wanted nothing to do with.”

The Winspear’s capacity is only two-thirds that of its predecessor, Fair Park Music Hall. Sure, Foster + Partners wanted to enhance sightlines and acoustics, but there’s another factor at work. Said lead project architect Spencer de Grey, “People want wider seats, as basically they have bigger bottoms.”

“As CD sales continue to plummet, and the music industry searches for a profitable future, entrepreneurs with various approaches say they believe they can finally make music subscriptions work.”

“Bill Theisen, whose dismissal for fiscal reasons launched the Skylight Opera Theatre’s summer of offstage drama, is back as the theater’s artistic director.”

“Salaries have been frozen, travel expenses reduced by 50 percent, and League contributions to 403b accounts suspended. League spokesperson Judith Kurnick reports that the League closed fiscal 2009, Sept. 30, with a balanced budget, after reducing expenses by about 9 per cent.

“Disputes over the German conductor Christian Thielemann’s role with the Munich Philharmonic finally ended Friday when he accepted the position of music director of the Staatskapelle Dresden,” beginning in 2012. “He is to replace the chief conductor, Fabio Luisi, who is leaving to join the Zurich Opera.”

“At a special performance on Usedom, the Baltic Sea island best known as the place where the Nazis developed and tested the V-2 rocket, the instrument had its first public outing since the Prussian monarch (1712-1786) played it at his Potsdam palace.”