Category: music

“When you’re running the busiest opera house in the nation, if not the world, a logistical nightmare you could do without is a one-night-only potpourri involving two dozen hand-picked stars in arias and ensembles from two dozen repertory titles.”

“Officials from the Royal Opera House told MPs that performances in Covent Garden might be cancelled because of problems getting border clearance for famous stars who are drafted in from overseas at short notice.”

The D.C. Philharmonic will make its debut in April with a substantial program of Torke, Barber and Mahler. “And according to [founding conductor] John Baltimore… the ensemble will represent a new model for orchestras, funding itself by turning to a market he describes as ‘untapped.’ – ‘You just don’t find this level of educated upper-middle-class African American income anywhere else in the United States.'”

Once again, classical music proves its usefulness: “New Zealand opera star Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has been credited by a local mayor with keeping vandals away from his city centre because they find her singing ‘bloody hideous’.” (In Christchurch, NZ, officials are planning to use Barry Manilow for a similar purpose.)

“It is a hidden, taboo subject, widely known about within the music world but barely discussed. Little research into the area has been done and the full extent of the problem is incompletely understood. But inappropriate use of alcohol in Britain’s great orchestras is, according to musicians, endemic – ranging from drinking a pint before a concert to steady the nerves, to full-blown inebriation on stage.”

“The cult Russian pianist Grigory Sokolov has cancelled his sole British 2009 concert next month because of the tightening of new visa requirements by the British government to combat illegal immigration and terrorism.” Sokolov, who lives in Italy, said that the “requirements had echoes of Soviet oppression, and that for every trip to Britain he would have to make an arduous and humiliating four-hour trip from his home to have his fingerprints taken in Rome.”

“Now that Lincoln’s Birthday is past and the Presidents Day sales are but a frenetic memory, the activities of the Lincoln Bicentennial year continue to gather steam, with music playing a central part. Abraham Lincoln’s 56 years of life coincided not only with the struggle to address the question of slavery, but with a struggle in America’s musical development.”

The multiple-Grammy-winning company, which includes jazz labels Heads Up and Concord as well as classical label Telarc (home of the Atlanta and Cincinnati Symphonies), is eliminating half of its 52 staff positions and ending all in-house record production. Telarc will continue to manufacture and distribute recordings produced by others; the company’s founders and chief recording engineer have already launched new ventures with Telarc as a major client.

The orchestra “announced last month that it was suspending recordings as part of cost-cutting measures.” With the orchestras’ longtime label, Telarc, no longer producing records, “if the orchestra ever hopes to record again, it will have to explore new options, such as self-producing or recording for Internet download only, which other orchestras have tried.”

With a musicians’ strike just entering its sixth month, the WCO has cancelled two further concerts at the end of March. (Three youth concerts on March 18 will go ahead as announced.) The main issue is that management wants to cut the number of guaranteed rehearsals and performances per year from 75 to 45 or fewer, though the per-service fee would remain the same.