Category: music

“Curtis has seen a significant bump in Chinese applicants, reflecting the growing ranks – and aptitude – of classical music students in China. This spring, 32 Chinese students traveled to Philadelphia to audition for openings at Curtis. A decade ago, there were only six applicants from China.”

“Since 2003, labels have filed more than 28,000 lawsuits against individual file sharers. Only one suit has reached trial. Jammie Thomas, a single mother who was ordered by a federal jury in Minnesota last October to pay $222,000, is waiting for the federal court’s decision on her request for a new trial. Despite the RIAA’s efforts, data suggest that demand for pirated content remains strong.”

“KUSC already had the largest audience of any nonprofit classical station in the nation despite a decline in its membership numbers and audience in recent years. Its latest average quarter-hour share of the total radio audience in Los Angeles and Orange counties, a key statistic in radio ratings, more than doubled from the same period a year ago, from a 0.8 to a 1.9.”

“The New York City Opera has commissioned Charles Wuorinen to compose an opera based on Brokeback Mountain, the 1997 short story by Annie Proulx that became the basis for a 2005 movie that won three Academy Awards.”

“So how does Gerard Mortier propose to fight back against the 10,000-pound gorilla next door? By offering the public a megadose of modernism. And he might be right, too, since under-40 classical-music fans appear to be more open to new sounds than their parents.”

“China is buzzing with once-forbidden Western classical music activity, building world-class concert halls and expanding its conservatory facilities. According to Chinese music-industry executives, more than 40 million youngsters are currently studying the piano or violin.”

“The era of the commercial classical record label is past. These days, if you are an orchestra and want to record, you do it yourself.”

“Acts with large audiences and established brands like Radiohead, Madonna and the Eagles no longer need the labels’ star-making clout. They have calculated that they can do better, and have more options, outside the old system.”

LA’s Disney Concert Hall is five years old and thriving, and the LA Philharmonic has significantly boosted its profile as a result. “But while the Music Center is aglow over Disney Hall, it shows no pleasure writing checks. Anything the center can do on the cheap, it does. Disney is not well cared for.”

“With its devotion to the jazz avant-garde, [the New York-based Vision Festival] serves as a gravitational center, pulling musicians in from the margins. Its programming… confirms the continuing vigor of experimental improvised music.”