Category: music

Owen Burdick, who “built up Trinity Church into a major force on the New York classical music scene,” says his sudden “resignation” a couple of years ago was instead a firing. Burdick “said he wanted to set the record straight because, in his view, Trinity … has sought to push him to the sidelines of its history.”

“The Charlotte Symphony’s struggle for financial security was transformed [Tuesday] by a pair of $1 million donations from two of Charlotte’s leading families.”

Majken Mechling, an experienced fundraiser and non-profit exec who has made her entire career in Hawaii (though not in music), has been appointed to lead the admired but perpetually strapped-for-cash orchestra. In its announcement, the orchestra’s board made a point of praising Mechling’s “respect for our local culture.”

“In opera, accidental circumstances abound. It is a profession designed for the unfortunate incident and the regrettable injury.” Just ask Joyce DiDonato or Ana María Martínez. Michael Shmith explores the annals of onstage mishaps.

Last year a research study “suggest[ed] that treating wood with fungus might help recreate the unusually low density that prevailed when Antonio Stradivari carved his legendary instruments.” The researcher and some luthiers made violins with treated wood, and in the first blind test, listeners preferred the new instruments to a Strad.

Charlotte’s Arts & Science Council will decide today whether the Charlotte Symphony “gets $900,000 or $150,000. For an orchestra struggling against deficits, the $750,000 difference is momentous. Even the larger amount would be a cut of roughly $1million from what the orchestra got last season.”

Sarah Palin “has achieved one measure of fame – someone’s written an opera about her.” Composer Curtis Hughes says that “Say It Ain’t So, Joe” is more about voices — the contrast between Palin’s and Joe Biden’s — than politics.

“The Philharmonic announced today it will receive a $10 million gift from Henry R. Kravis to endow its new composer-in-residence position, a major initiative of” incoming music director Alan Gilbert. “The Kravis gift will also fund a $250,000 prize for new music, one of the largest awards of its kind.”

“Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra musicians and librarians unanimously rejected a new contract offer, suggesting they might not easily accept the same deep pay cuts seen at major orchestras around the country.”

“How does the company now see its identity and purpose? Its right to define itself by those words “English” and “National” seems totally hollow. The company hasn’t toured out of London for decades, and it shows very little interest in Englishness, or even Britishness, either.”