Category: music

Milwaukee’s Skylight Opera has tapped an executive with Shreveport Opera as its new general and artistic director. Eric Dillner, “a tenor by trade, sang with many opera companies, including the New York City Opera… The company, which has a budget of about $3.2 million, produces operas and musical comedies, always in English.”

The BBC is launching a celebrity/reality program in which well-known personalities will train to conduct choirs and symphony orchestras, with the winner being tapped to lead the actual BBC Symphony at this year’s Last Night At The Proms.

“The Detroit Symphony Orchestra already has one of the most extensive music education programs of any orchestra in the United States…But a five-year, $1-million gift from Honda being announced today will allow the DSO to reach deeper into Detroit neighborhoods and, for the first time, put violins and other string instruments into the hands of beginning students in grades 3 through 6 and teach them to play.”

“The anatomically improbable, plastic queen of the toy stores has a new mission. She’s out to introduce classical music to a young generation of fans, aged three upwards, in a touring concert programme called Barbie at the Symphony.”

The Los Angeles Opera’s upcoming season will feature several productions directed by famed filmmakers including Woody Allen, David Cronenberg and William Friedkin.

Down 14 percent in 2007, “album sales were hit by a catastrophic decline, according to new figures, and experts predicted that plans to legalise the copying of music between formats could soon render the CD redundant.”

“Ovation TV, the arts-themed network that relaunched last year with a focus on making the arts more accessible to viewers, has acquired Universal Music Group’s 24-hour music network International Music Feed.”

The British government proposes to change copyright law to allow consumers to copy cd’s onto their computers. Intellectual property minister Lord Triesman said the law should be changed so it “keeps up with the times”. Music industry bodies gave a cautious welcome to the proposals, which are up for public consultation until 8 April.

Tasmin Little’s first recording in four years will be released on the internet, downloadable free. “Classical music, for some reason or another, has this reputation that you need a certain kind of education to listen to it, you need to be a certain colour or live in a certain place and I’m a bit fed up with that. I wanted to take away any possible barrier and see if it makes a difference.”

“Jazz education has become a standard part of the music curriculum in high schools and universities around the world. It has been a revolution in music education, and a fairly recent one at that.”