Category: music

“Out of money and having failed to reach a new labor agreement with the musicians, the orchestra’s board of trustees said today that it is canceling the summer Picnic With the Pops and Popcorn Pops series and most likely its 2008-09 season, scheduled to begin in October.”

“Are MP3s degrading music? Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and Coldplay don’t seem to think so, as each have distributed their music, for free, online and it’s worked out tremendously. For other bands, the ‘leaked album’ has proven a true scourge.” And then there’s the sound quality issue…

Cleveland Orchestra music director Franz Welser-Möst has disengaged himself from a Zurich Opera production of Die Fledermaus, citing artistic differences with the opera’s director. What could Welser-Möst be objecting to in the staging? Well, the vampires, for a start…

“Maverick violinist Nigel Kennedy says he has been ‘prevented from performing’ at the Classical Brit awards… Organisers confirmed that ‘artistic differences’ with Kennedy had ‘proved insurmountable’, while the star’s manager said he was ‘dumbfounded’.”

“Whether it works or not at first, Kings Place represents a credible alternative to the state-funded arts elephant and its discredited zoo-keeper, the Arts Council. It marks the start of a cultural economic revolution. There is no turning back.”

Alex Ross says that there’s no reason for the New York Phil to be lamenting the loss of Riccardo Muti to Chicago. “After two music directors of the elder-statesman type, it was time for a younger leader, one alert to the challenges and opportunities of presenting classical music in modern America… [Alan] Gilbert now has more room to make his mark, without the shadow of a jet-set celebrity conductor hanging over him.”

“If you had to pick a pair of musical genres furthest apart from each other, opera and hip hop would be a fairly safe bet… Nonetheless, these star-crossed genres are coming together in a performance called The Hip Hopera, a new collaboration by the Canadian Opera Company and the Royal Conservatory of Music.”

Not everyone is happy about the Chicago Symphony’s appointment of Riccardo Muti as music director – the New York Philharmonic, for instance. “I felt there was a relationship here, and he had committed to us,” said Irene Breslau, a Philharmonic violist. “All of a sudden, it’s like somebody going out with your best friend and marrying them.”

In April, Philippe Quint became one of the recent mob of violinists to leave his invaluable fiddle behind in public – in this case, in a New York cab. Quint got his instrument back when the alert cabbie turned it in, and in gratitude, Quint spent part of a day this week playing a private concert for the cabbies at the Newark Airport.

“In April, the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and will be turned over to a trustee, its assets parceled out to creditors. This deals a body blow not only to Jazz educators in this country but around the world.”