Experimental composer Johannes Kreidler took the (depressing) data from the Dow, Nikkei and Nasdaq and the (plunging) stock prices of Bank of America, Warner Music Group and the like,fed them into Microsoft’s new SongSmith program, added rhythm tracks like foxtrot and samba, and presto! – a (happy) tune for the times. It’s now a YouTube hit.
Category: music
São Paulo State Symphony Fires Chief Conductor John Neschling
Neschling, who over eleven years raised the orchestra from provincial status to international prominence, was dismissed in a dispute with the orchestra’s chairman, former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, over the search for Neschling’s successor. Yan Pascal Tortelier will serve as interim chief conductor; Neschling will get a $500K buyout, and the musicians say they’re happy to see him go.
New York, Where Immigrant Composers Get Eaten Up Or Spit Out
Tarik O’Regan, a 31-year-old Briton with a burgeoning composing career, considers the travails of some of his predecessors – Mahler, Bartók, Britten, Prokofiev, Stravinsky (who moved into a fancy Fifth Avenue Apartment and promptly died) – who’ve been drawn across the ocean by the bright lights of the big city.
The Drummer As Outsider
“Drummers live on their own planet. Anyone needing further understanding should only look to hockey. In hockey, it’s the goalie that differs. Having to wearing a painted mask is just the beginning of it.” A new art exhibit examines the mythology of the drummer.
For Chart Nerds Only: A Space For The Strictly Classical
“A new chart for ‘purely classical’ music has been launched, the Official Charts Company has announced. The specialist classical chart,” which debuts in the March issue of Gramophone, “will be based on weekly sales of recordings which are 100% classical. The OCC’s long-running combined classical albums chart requires 60% of an album’s repertoire to be classical.”
Rolando Villazón Pulls Out Of Met’s HD Broadcast Of Lucia
The star tenor, who has battled throat problems throughout the current Metropolitan Opera run of Lucia di Lammermoor, has withdrawn from this Saturday’s matinee, which will be transmitted live to movie theaters around the world. Filling in, opposite superstar soprano Anna Netrebko, will be 42-year-old Piotr Beczala.
Toronto Symphony To Feature Sibelius Cycle, New Glass Score In ’09-10
Next season, Roy Thomson Hall will see premieres of a new violin concerto by Philip Glass, a contemporary music festival featuring Osvaldo Golijov, and the complete Sibelius symphonies played over three concerts in April, with Thomas Dausgaard on the podium.
William Friedkin Pulls Out Of La Scala’s Inconvenient Truth
The filmmaker-turned-opera-director has withdrawn from the Al-Gore-slideshow-turned-hit-movie-turned-opera over “irreconcilable creative differences” with librettist J.D. McClatchy. But composer Giorgio Battistelli claims that Friedkin’s reasons are “personal, not artistic” and complains that the director cared more about special effects than the piece’s message.
Jonathan Miller All Over Again? Another Scientist Moves Into Opera Directing
“With his first-class degree in physics from Cambridge, John Fulljames could have had a brilliant academic career. Instead he chose the rockier path of becoming an opera director… [he has founded] the Opera Group, a lean organisation devoted to small-scale new work and the revival of contemporary classics, which he has built into one of the best of its kind.”
Madison Symphony Musicians Join National Union
“The vote was 43-36 in favor of joining the [American Federation of Musicians], ending several decades of negotiating independently within the orchestra, which had its own union. The orchestra is 83 years old.”