Category: music

“Work is set to begin in Miami Beach on the New World Symphony’s $200 million addition designed by architect Frank Gehry… To be completed in 2010, the new building will house a 700-seat, state-of-the-art performance space with capacity for recording and webcasts and 360-degree projections.”

“This new breed have assumed the thinking person’s mantle, recognising that music can be a crucible for grand gestures and condensing big ideas nicked from literature, history and cultural icons into simple mantras.”

“Project Inclusion, as the initiative is called, will provide African-American, Asian and Latino musicians with apprenticeships lasting from one to two years. Participants will rehearse and perform with the orchestra, receive mentoring from senior members of the ensemble, attend master classes and mock auditions, and receive job-placement assistance after leaving the program.”

Leaders of British orchestras gather to talk about the state of their business. “The old issue of funding was a constant ghost at the feast, and another imminent concern was the European Noise at Work regulations that finally come into play in July.”

The Pittsburgh Symphony is off to Europe on a three-week tour. The orchestra works as an advertisement for its city. “Those intangibles included the region’s amenities — a comparatively low cost of living, short commutes, top universities and schools, excellent medical care, high-quality arts and sports teams and Pittsburgh’s relative proximity to other cities. But ‘the music factor was a puzzle piece that brought the puzzle together’.”

“Filtering serves a social purpose. People don’t have time to listen to all the music that’s available, but do you rely on corporations to filter that through? Do you trust the wisdom of crowds to do it? I think (choice) is a good thing. It makes the business model much more complicated, but culturally, it’s a great thing.”

“Peer-to-peer file sharing has far outstripped legitimate sales; 50 billion files are shared annually in America. That’s a robust business, a sign that music has never been more popular. But it’s a business that has essentially turned recorded music into a marketing tool for an artist, rather than a revenue stream. With that shift, a whole bunch of 20th Century business constructs — the record label, the record store, publishing companies — are in serious jeopardy.”

“The president of Turkmenistan says he will now permit operas and circuses to be performed, reversing a decision by his predecessor to ban those forms of expression.”

“If critics often bemoan the state of the pipeline that delivers new works for the American theater, at least there is a pipeline. Opera has more of a pipette, or a tear duct: only a trickle emerges, and only after prolonged suffering.” The new opera “Elmer Gantry” sees light in Nashville and demonstrates the difficulty…