Category: music

Vladimir Jurowski is the Londo Philharmonic Orchestra’s dashing new music director. “With his commanding podium manner, brooding good looks and mane of black hair, he is the very image of a modern maestro, with the added allure for an orchestra, and the public, that he has a 12-year international career behind him. His obvious charisma and the maturity of his music-making have clearly endeared him to orchestras, critics and public alike.”

Violinist Jacques Israelievitch is stepping down as the concertmaster for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra after 20 years at the post.

Orchestras have long believed that the best way to get their audiences to feel personally connected to the organization is to introduce them to individual musicians. In Houston, that philosophy has taken an unusual turn, as the Houston Symphony unveils a set of 33 trading cards, complete with the personal “stats” of the featured musicians.

Promoters of new American music have long decried the reluctance of stateside ensembles to put their homegrown talent front and center, ahead of overplayed European masterworks. But in Detroit, this is looking like a distinctly American season. “It’s not clear why American music is suddenly taking center stage, though there is some evidence that local classical music leaders are beginning to connect the dots between contemporary music, revitalizing the largely staid repertoire and appealing to a wider audience.”

“Johann Sebastian Bach’s ‘Air on the G String’ has become one of the most frequently aired pieces on Korean MTV recently, while girl groupies scream out of sheer joy at Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, noticing that their favorite boy band will soon come out on the stage to sing. Though it may sound impossible, classical music has become a major source of inspiration for the country’s songwriters, through the means of sampling.”

“Musically speaking, the classical genre has proved to be ideal for a digital era. The classical customer is technologically savvy and more likely to buy in bulk, and the viral nature of the Net has allowed the music to be heard by new audiences, fueling overall sales.”

Zdenek Mácal has quit as conductor of the Czech Philharmonic after its September 8 concert. “He reportedly decided to quit because he was angry over a review in the Prague newspaper Lidové noviny the previous day.”

In 2005, the orchestra replaced outgoing director Mariss Jansons with three conductors. PSO president Larry Tamburri said the experiment “was really good for us. It gave us the opportunity to hear the orchestra in different ways.” But now it’s time to move on…

The Pittsburgh Symphony has has financial difficulties in recent years. It’s waiting for a new music director, and it’s about to negotiate on a difficult new contract with its musicians. Still, ticket sales that are their best since 1998-99, and last fall got a $29.5 million pledge from the Richard Simmons family, the fifth-largest gift to an American orchestra. “The truth is, the 2007-08 season that starts this month could go a long way toward determining whether the organization can maintain the stride of a first-rate orchestra or fall behind.”

“Small orchestras with modest budgets are proving to the classical-music world that the wealthiest donors don’t always belong to the big orchestras. They are borrowing fund-raising tactics from their larger competitors and successfully enticing managers of hedge funds, private equity firms and investment banks to donate millions of dollars.”