Category: music

Could the relative length of two of your fingers determine whether you’d be a good musician or not? Scientists say it’s possible, and the same finger length ratio could be linked to athletic skill, hormone exposure, and osteoarthritis risk.

“The New World Symphony, which broke ground in Miami Beach Wednesday on a new $200 million hall designed by architect Frank Gehry, is getting more than a new home. The orchestra also received a $5 million grant, from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, to advance its use of digital technology and transform the way audiences experience classical music.”

The Royal Philharmonic is on a 21-city tour of North America, and the San Diego stop is promising to be a memorable one. There, the Philharmonic will share the stage with the San Diego Symphony, first in a sort of “battle of the bands” first half, then as a combined mega-orchestra after intermission.

The Met is scheduled to transmit eight operas live to movie theaters worldwide this season. Thirty days after each broadcast, the performance was to have been made available through on-demand services provided by cable television companies.

The New York Philharmonic’s concert in North Korea next month is to be broadcast live worldwide, the orchestra announced Wednesday.

“It is generally accepted that the dog-and-horn type organisation that has controlled the distribution of music for 110 years is on its last legs. A decade ago, six labels held 77 percent of recorded music sales worldwide. Today, those six are down to four – Universal (31%), Sony-BMG (25%), Warner (15%) and EMI (9.5%)- and none has got to grips with the internet revolution that has ravaged their complacent and often collusive dominance.”

At a time when many orchestras have given up on making studio recordings because of the high cost of paying musicians, the Raleigh-based North Carolina Symphony has signed a two-disc deal with the well-regarded BIS label, and lined up designated contributions to pay for it.

The orchestra’s music director and some of its musicians are at odds, and finances are precarious. “We probably aren’t that different from other orchestras in the country. I wouldn’t say disagreements between conductors and musicians are particularly new. Ours have just become rather public, that’s all.”

Violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg has been named the New Century Chamber Orchestra’s music director. NCCO has been searching for a new director for nearly two years, with numerous candidates “auditioning” as guest concertmasters

Despite his clear place as one of the 19th century’s most influential composers, Brahms can be a hard composer to like, says Anne Midgette. “I greet his appearance as you would the entrance of a person at a party whom you’re not all that eager to talk to, even though you may have had intense and intermittently rewarding conversations over the years.”