Category: music

The president of LA’s highly regarded Colburn School of Music has abruptly resigned his post. Neither Miguel Angel Corzo nor school officials are saying what led to his departure, but the school has been under fire from parents of young students in recent weeks for scrapping its Suzuki piano program. Corzo joined the school in summer 2007.

The musicians’ strike at the Madison-based Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra is only getting uglier. “In a volley of press releases, management has blamed musicians for not promising to head back on stage later this month, even though they’ve won numerous concessions over eight months of talks; musicians accuse management of denying them rights that are standard among orchestras across the country.”

A 1741 Guarnerius del Gesu violin is being put up for sale in what Norman Lebrecht calls “a worrying sign of the times.” In the current darkening economic climate, Lebrecht writes that “there will be enough work for good musicians but there will also be a threat to the availability of instruments. Much hinges, in fact, on the fate of the Stoutzker fiddle.”

Earlier this month, a judge made headlines when she sentenced a young man found to have been playing rap music too loudly to listen to classical music. But what does such a sentence accomplish, other than demeaning both hip-hop and classical? “Classical is considered the ‘civilizing’ music but it also comes off as being imposed on you whether you like or not. Not the best way to get people to appreciate the music.”

“For years, the Philadelphia Orchestra struggled with financial troubles as the U.S. economy soared. Now, with the economy in critical condition, the orchestra has crossed the finish line in its long endowment campaign having raised more money than expected – only to see this gain withering along with seriously distressed financial markets.”

“As with her 2007 Meistersinger at Bayreuth, [director] Katharina Wagner proves to be too clever for her own good, rarely passing up an opportunity for something cute. During the opera’s ballet, Rienzi appears in a trash bin, with an outdoor vacuum cleaner strapped to his back, which he wields as a weapon.”

“London’s Handel House Museum, where the German-born composer died, will host an exhibition in 2009 focussing on his passion for food and his finances to mark the 250th anniversary of his death.”

Currently chief conductor of the London’s Royal Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Dutoit has a longstanding relationship with the VFO, including conducting the group on its last tour of the U.S. in October 2007.

“During the dawning years of jazz education [the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, NY,] was the unmusic school, roughly analogous to Black Mountain College, the progressive school in North Carolina that brought together avant-garde writers, dancers and painters in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s. The constant musical activity at the studio, in workshops and concerts, yielded about 400 hours of tapes.”

In reviewing Tina Turner’s L.A. concert last week, Ann Powers observed that the 68-year-old rock goddess’s singing just ain’t what it used to be. And she got walloped for it. (Samples of reader abuse are included.) “For many fans,” Powers writes, “just being in the presence of an elder artist confers residual magic… This takes us into the realm of pop music as religious ritual. Who are we to judge the gods and goddesses?”