Category: music

“The ordinance as it stands requires independent promoters to apply for a license at a cost between $500 and $2,000 every two years, submit to fingerprinting and a criminal background check, secure as much as $300,000 in liability insurance and be at least 21 years old. These requirements add an additional layer of bureaucracy and expense on promoters who are working at venues that have already met Chicago’s insurance and licensing requirements, which are some of the most stringent in the United States.”

“The United States government is honoring opera. The National Endowment for the Arts said on Tuesday that it was establishing yearly Opera Honors awards, and named the first four recipients: James Levine, the Metropolitan Opera’s music director; the soprano Leontyne Price; the composer Carlisle Floyd; and Richard Gaddes, the general director of the Santa Fe Opera.”

“In an age when we can create our own album in a few rapid mouseclicks – we’ll decide what the best of Radiohead is, thanks very much Mr Hands – the contract-filling compilation seems increasingly obsolete. Few will mourn its passing. It has always been the runt of the album litter; they’re not ‘proper’ albums, after all. Just cheap, cynical exercises in making money from old rope.”

David Byrne is transforming New York’s Great Hall of the Battery Maritime Building by “connecting devices to beams, pipes and other structural features. At the heart of the ‘instrument’ will be an antique organ which will control vibrations used to make the sounds.”

“Coldplay has become the latest band to discover that giving away your music – even a little bit for a little time – may, in the long run, end up being worth more than the conventional model of only selling it.”

“Duke Ellington’s Queenie Pie, the jazz opera he left uncompleted at his death in 1974, some infectious music, a strange libretto and a satiric opera buffa style pose a considerable challenge. The consistently ambitious Oakland Opera Theater has taken it on in a fitfully engaging, overstuffed production, under Tom Dean’s artistic direction, that opened over the weekend at the Oakland Metro Operahouse.”

iPhone users use their phones for music. Much more than users of other cell phones. The music industry sees big possibilities in mobile music streaming.

A 12-year-old trombonist last night became the youngest winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year award.

“The temperamental violinist Nigel Kennedy pulled out at the last moment when the organizers refused last-minute changes. There was another surprise when the pregnant soprano Anna Netrebko collected her award for Female Artist of the Year in an eye-popping baby-doll white dress complete with floaty fur trim. It looked like a short nightie.”

“You can’t blame City Opera regulars for worrying about what Gerard Mortier has in mind. Not many American opera buffs have direct experience with his work, which has been seen predominantly in Europe. But those who follow the field have certainly heard about him, especially from his 10-year tenure as director of the prestigious Salzburg Festival, which ended in 2001.”