Category: music

Muic education in schools today largely consists of “drive-by” performances as arts education money has dried up and arts groups have taken up the slack. But these programs are often inneffective. What we need, writes Allan Kozinn, is to take a look back at the way things used to be…

For a season, the company will be out of its Lincoln Center home.”The opera company faces significant challenges in meeting costs, keeping subscribers and maintaining faith with a public that has come to depend on its mix of less expensive tickets, operatic chestnuts, interesting productions and American-tinted casts.”

“It is not the job of the New York Philharmonic to enact foreign policy, much less to besmirch its own honor by taking part in what, in a previous column on this topic, I called ‘a puppet show whose purpose is to lend legitimacy to a despicable regime’.”

In New York, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, new music directors were announced. Several other orchestras are still looking…

“The top 20 tours generated $996 million, down 15.6 percent from the year before, according to preliminary data issued on Friday by Pollstar, which covers the concert business. The previous low was $951.1 million in 2004, when Prince and Madonna topped the box office.”

Last spring, Peter Gelb met with the chancellor of the Department of Education, Joel Klein, to propose expanding the high-definition transmissions to public schools. “Today, 2,500 students will spend their last day of school at the Met’s first student open house, watching the final dress rehearsal of “Hansel and Gretel” and learning about how the sets and costumes are made.”

“About 65 full-time musicians, as well as part-timers and other staff members, were told late last week that the Honolulu Symphony Society did not have enough money to meet its $60,000 biweekly payroll.” The musicians, who are among the lowest-paid in the American orchestra business, say they will continue to play.

It’s been a brutal year for the recording industry, but Oprah Winfrey provided a nice Christmas bonus when she gave her endorsement to a Josh Groban Christmas album. Groban’s CD has now sold close to 3 million copies, and is officially the best-selling album of the year.

Joseph Hokai Tang was taken into custody just after a performance in Eugene, Oregon, and charged with “bilking Bay Area violin collectors and dealers out of thousands of dollars in the sale of fine instruments.”

“The chasm between musical experts and everyday musicians that has grown so wide in our culture makes people feel discouraged, and for some reason this is uniquely so with music.” New books tackle the description of music from the objective and subjective ends.