Category: music

Heartening news for the recorded music imprint, earning $119 million one year after losing $89.6 million. Still, its ownership, an investment bank, said don’t get too excited. “It can be misleading to look at just one quarter in isolation due to the timings of releases. As we all know, the recorded music business is extremely volatile and we cannot count on future quarters always being this good.”

“There’s still room for record companies but they should reinvent themselves as a service industry and not as owners. The structure of the old album and waiting for that to be finished still has some merit but you can do a lot of other things and I think it should be a lot looser and mixed up.”

A British composer was told to go bankrupt yesterday after he unsuccessfully tried to sue the London Evening Standard for libel, after one of his operas got a bad review.

“The ensemble was founded in 1948 by pianist Mabel Massengill Gunn in what was then the largely black southeast part of town, at a time when blacks were shut out of most major orchestras. Southeast’s mandate of providing a place for black players to hone their skills and receive support from one another is simple, but it has not always been easy to carry out. When Dickerson took over, only four of the 56 players were African American. Now, 82 of the 95 scheduled to play in Disney Hall are black.”

“Glyndebourne opera company has won its battle against local opposition to erect a 230ft high wind turbine, which will cut its carbon emissions by 70%. The wind turbine will cost about £700,000 and will be funded through sponsorship and general income. It is hoped that it will reduce the organisation’s energy bills by £150,000 annually.”

“In quality and reputation, Estonia pianos are giving Steinway & Sons a serious challenge. And many discerning musicians say that owning an Estonia piano — almost completely made by hand — is akin to owning a Stradivarius, the iconic violin famous for the high quality of its sound.”

“The number of full-time music positions that pay a livable salary and provide benefits are rare and hard to get. They are primarily university positions and orchestra posts.”

The arrangement violated the musicians’ union contract. The orchestra has picked a single concertmaster, going back to a traditional model.

“While the rest of the world goes on about swimmers, discus-throwers and China’s insufferable air pollution, some of the world’s finest classical musicians are visiting Beijing this summer for quite another reason. It’s called the Musicathlon, and will see the Chinese capital filled with classical concerts, lectures and masterclasses for two weeks prior to the start of the Olympic Games.”

“Cognitive and neuroscience research on music has been exploding these days, driven by techno logical breakthroughs in brain imaging and a newly widespread openness toward music as a legitimate field of scientific study. It’s hard to miss the reverberations.”