Category: music

“Beginning August 1, 2009, the top five highest paid executives will receive a 5 percent pay cut; four open positions will remain vacant; S.F. Opera will suspend matching contributions to administrative employee 401(a) pension plans; all administrative employees will take one week unpaid furloughs in January 2010; staff healthcare contributions will increase; and there will be no more parking subsidies.”

“The 74-year-old Cincinnati Pops conductor was diagnosed on Wednesday with pancreatic, liver and colon cancer and will be undergoing chemotherapy treatment in Cincinnati. ‘It was totally unexpected, out of the deep blue sea. We got it early, but it’s still there,’ he said.”

“But as sales of CD singles have dwindled (most major labels have ceased production of CD singles altogether), the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales chart has become a sales log, primarily, of 12-inch maxi-singles – good old-fashioned vinyl records. […] Last week’s chart-topper was the Dallas rap crew GS Boyz’s infectious, ridiculous ‘Stanky Legg.'”

“[F]or today’s composers and conductors, Mendelssohn comes a long way down the list. How did this genius composer come to be synonymous with the worst aspects of 19th-century music – its conservatism, nostalgia, sentimentality and superficiality?” Blame Wagner — again. “The tragedy is that Wagner’s critique has become – minus most of the racism – the default position when it comes to Mendelssohn.”

“Half a century ago, most female musicians did not care about their appearance: what mattered was how they sounded. Indeed, a ‘high priestess’ attitude seemed to be positively encouraged; anything visual was downplayed so that the music could sing out unimpeded.” With the priorities given different weight these days, “has the pressure on young women musicians to look like supermodels gone too far?”

“The means to discover music we don’t even know exists has been threatening to die for a while – an ancillary fatality as the CD store threatens to go the way of the auk. But now, massive musical archives – some of them previously inaccessible – have parked themselves online, which is particularly good news for classical-music types….”

“Crossover has expanded into a wide range of sub-genres, popera and hip-hopera among them, and gone on to embrace the full potential of instrumental music.” But what, exactly is crossing over?

“It would let performers and the recording labels get a share of the ad revenue that radio stations collect from playing their songs. This pool of royalties could be hundreds of millions a year — which would be crucial for the record industry, as compact disc sales plummet and digital song sales aren’t making up the difference. It could also unlock an estimated $70 million to $100 million per year that is collected by radio stations abroad for U.S. artists, but never paid out because U.S. stations don’t pay foreign artists in return.”

“From the recorded music side, the reality of the past 50 or 70 years is that a few percent of the people involved in recording ever made any real money off the records. Just a few percent!”

Enter Giorgio Lalov, a Bulgarian-born impresario who for 20-plus years has headed a touring opera outfit called the Teatro Lirico D’Europa; who happens to live in Baltimore; and who is now seeking to establish a new permanent opera company there, the Baltimore Opera Theater.