Jaap van Zweden: “If you see Dallas, it’s a real sports town. If you see Hong Kong, it’s a real business town. And I think we are both very fortunate because New York is a real arts town. That is a big plus for us.”
Yannick Nézet-Séguin: “At the same time, in New York we should always — and I know this is true for the Met — we should always be listening and watching what’s going on elsewhere in the country, so we can represent it better.” – The New York Times
Category: music
Baltimore Symphony Board Sets Date For End Of Lockout, Pays Health Insurance For Locked-Out Musicians
Contributions from board members and others will cover the cost of the health insurance for July and August, and management will end the lockout on Sept. 9 if no contract agreement has been reached by then. – The Baltimore Sun
Director Who Transformed California Symphony Resigning
In five years as executive director of the Walnut Creek-based orchestra, Aubrey Bergauer used a data- and diversity-driven approach to turn a languishing institution around, with ticket sales, donor base, budget, and number of performances all more than doubling. – The Mercury News (San Jose)
Mariss Jansons Cancels All Summer Performances
On doctors’ orders, the 76-year-old chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, formerly music director of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony, has withdrawn from concerts with the BRSO in Munich as well as appearances at (among others) the Salzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, and Riga Jurmala Festivals and the BBC Proms. – OperaWire
Large Study: Students Who Study Music Do Better In Other Subjects
“It is believed that students who spend school time in music classes, rather than further developing their skills in math, science, and English classes, will underperform in those disciplines. Our research suggests that, in fact, the more they study music, the better they do in those subjects.” – Pacific Standard
The Hottest Attraction At England’s Biggest Rock Festival Is Not A Band
It’s a 140-ton, 100-foot crane that used to lift freight at the docks in Bristol. Now — decked out with multiple speakers that shoot flames into the air, all powered by a generator that runs on recycled frying oil — it’s the center of the nighttime dance floor at the Glastonbury Festival. – The Guardian
Thinking About Music As Not Just The Notes But The Cultural History In The Performance
Jeremy Dutcher incorporates in his live and recorded music an unusual and affecting act of legacy, playing transcribed wax recordings from 1911 by an early anthropologist of a tribal elder singing and speaking, and following the melodies with his own heldentenor voice and mellifluous keyboard compositions. – San Francisco Classical Voice
Baltimore Symphony Nearly Doubled Its Debt In Less Than Two Years
“The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra owed its vendors $2.1 million as of late April … That’s almost an 81% increase over the $1.2 million the orchestra owed to merchants as of Sept. 25, 2017.” – The Baltimore Sun
Report: Classical Music’s Future As A Streaming Service
This vicious circle of song optimization / playlist optimization may be the path of least resistance but it can ultimately lead to an unsatisfying overall music experience. Classical music provides an antidote to the algorithm-defined mainstream, and of the status update driven chaotic maelstrom that is digital life. Now we are starting to see the signs of a new generation of Classical music fans searching for a refreshing, reassuring alternative to the tumult and homogeneity of mainstream. – Music Industry Blog
Hospital As Sound Experience: A Musician’s Critique
It may take a musician’s vocabulary to identify the devil’s interval, but it doesn’t take a musician’s ear to notice that hospitals are acoustically stressful places. Noise is one of the top complaints in hospitals. – The Atlantic