Category: music

More than 1,000 accordionists have landed in Washington DC for the “world cup” of accordian playing…

After searching for a new concertmaster, the Seattle Symphony says it will have four. “How very Seattle! This is the city where there’s often a reluctance to make the tough decisions, whether in transit controversies or sports issues; the city where we seem to take forever to reach consensus, and the result is two major sports stadiums, side by side.”

“General director Peter Russell and artistic director James Robinson announced Thursday they will step down after shepherding the organization into a new opera house while boosting its national reputation and annual budget.”

“Music is everywhere; we have more of it, available in more forms, more often, than at any time in human history.” But “for us to be able to enter the world that music creates for us, we need a silence within which to listen.”

The first CD produced was The Visitors by Abba. Since then, “more than 200 billion CDs have been sold worldwide since then and it remains the dominant format despite the growth in digital downloads.”

“Although no other U.S. orchestras employ more than one concertmaster, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra announced Thursday that it has hired four for its new season, starting Sept. 24. … ‘There’s no such thing as four (concertmasters) at one symphony in the U.S. or even two,’ said Gerard Schwarz, SSO music director. ‘In Europe, it’s the opposite.'”

“A ground-breaking study sent to Mayor Richard Daley and city officials this week concludes that Chicago lags behind smaller cities in nurturing and profiting from its homegrown music community. Despite having one of the most lucrative and vibrant music scenes in North America, the University of Chicago study describes Chicago as ‘a music city in hiding.'”

“Michael MacLeod is the epitome of the new broom that sweeps clean. His first season as both general and artistic director of Glimmerglass Opera has created a giant buzz in the music world. The four new opera productions and one concert opera are all based on the theme of Orpheus, and there is not one warhorse in the bunch.”

“A shake-up to this year’s prestigious Gramophone Awards will see music fans in 13 countries take part in a global vote to find the artist of the year. Sixteen classical radio stations and more than 10 million listeners are expected to take part in the vote, alongside Gramophone magazine readers.”

“In a surprise reversal of what appeared to be a deteriorating relationship between the Philadelphia Orchestra management and outgoing music director Christoph Eschenbach, the orchestra announced late yesterday that Eschenbach will have extended residencies in Philadelphia through the 2009-2010 season.”