Category: music

Forty-five years ago Glenn Gould left the concert stage to focus on technology and recordings. Many of the ideas he pioneered are now commonplace…

“The cuts come in the wake of reductions announced last month. Those included: 7.5 layoffs (17 percent of staff), a cut of 15.5 percent in compensation for senior management; salary freeze for non-senior staff; a cessation of contributions to retirement accounts; cancellation of a European tour for 2009-10.”

“As most sectors of the music industry scramble to cope with the way the Internet and online stores like iTunes have changed how music is distributed and consumed, the regional Mexican industry is focused elsewhere, on the power of the cellphone as both a one-stop music source and a symbol of working-class immigrant identity.”

“These days, Colombia seems to be starting to shake off the culture of drug cartels and kidnapping that kept visitors away: the Foreign Office notes that the security situation has improved considerably in recent years. That’s good news for Cartagena, because the Unesco-polished colonial town is being promoted as a centre for international cultural tourism.”

“There is evidence that playing Beethoven and Mahler has reduced antisocial behaviour on the transport network. An entire generation, aged between 10 and 30, seems radically disenfranchised from classical music. How, and when, did this happen?”

“The USC Thornton School of Music announced today that it is expanding its physical presence by 50% with the acquisition of three buildings on the university’s main campus… [to be] used as classrooms and rehearsal and performance spaces.” In addition, Thornton “will offer [new] Bachelor of Arts degrees in popular music performance, choral music, vocal jazz and performing and visual arts studies.”

“Phoenix Symphony musicians could become part-time workers under a proposal to help balance the 60-year-old organization’s budget, a labor union says. […] The change would shorten the orchestra’s 40-week season, which features 200 performances.”

“Wafa Younis, a musician from northern Israel who founded a youth orchestra in the Jenin refugee camp, was arrested there on Tuesday by Fatah militants and sent back to Israel from the West Bank. Last week the orchestra played for Holocaust survivors and elderly Arabs in Holon, news that ignited passions in Jenin.”

“Budget troubles for Opera Columbus have forced the group to cancel a planned June run of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, cut an employee and mandate unpaid days off for its remaining workers.” Ironically, the company’s February run of Turandot sold extremely well, but ticket revenue makes up only about one-fourth of the Opera Columbus budget.

“In a remarkable testimony by Linda Ronstadt to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment & Related Agencies Tuesday, the pop singer made an impassioned plea for government support of the arts. And Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s soon-to-be music director, was her poster boy.”