Category: music

“By September 2020, I will have been at the League for twenty-two years and CEO for twelve,” Rosen said in his remarks to delegates during the League’s 74th National Conference in Nashville. “I’ve had an enormously fulfilling experience, but it’s time to begin thinking about the next chapter. ” – Broadway World

“The donation, by a couple wishing to remain anonymous, places $50 million into the orchestra’s endowment plus $5 million for general operating costs.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer

“The string players sat in concentric semicircles, with odd-looking tangles of wires running between the players’ feet. … As the lights dimmed, long drifting skeins of sound emerged, which coalesced into warm major chords and then drifted apart again, but what really seized my attention were the fluctuating patterns of light winking in the gloom.” Ivan Hewitt checks out the Aurora Orchestra. – The Telegraph (UK)

Before Thomas W. Morris became artistic director in 2004, the Southern California contemporary music event was respected but somewhat, as Zachary Woolfe puts it, “insular and Eurocentric … If high modernism could be cozy, this was it.” Morris opened Ojai up to the ever-more-lively American new music scene and brought in as visiting music directors (a new one each year) a range of starry, even hip artists such as Mark Morris, Eighth Blackbird, Vijay Iyer, and (this year) Barbara Hannigan. – The New York Times

“We’re trying to create a balance between things we know are really good and things that we maybe aren’t sure about but don’t ‘fit in’ to the typical new music ideal. It’s tricky — there are just certain kinds of music that neither of us has any experience evaluating. We’ve had to draw some boundaries based on logistics and our own level of knowledge.” – San Francisco Classical Voice

In late May, the Hong Kong Philharmonic’s management dismissed Lam Fung, a local composer who took the position in 2017 and had received a good performance review as recently as March. “[The administration] did not offer reasons for Lam’s sudden dismissal, only saying in a statement that the orchestra ‘remains committed to the support and development of local talent.'” – South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)

Festivals are expensive. Toronto’s an expensive city. Lots of entertainment choices. And what if people don’t buy what you’re offering? – Toronto Star

The Berlin State Opera, where the 76-year-old conductor is general music director, has extended his contract for five additional years to 2027. Some doubts about Barenboim’s future there arose in February when reports surfaced of his ill-treatment of some musicians, though musicians’ representatives now say they have always been in favor of Barenboim staying on. – Deutsche Welle

City officials are especially sensitive to the possibility of losing the Sarasota Orchestra after the recent relocation of two other cultural institutions outside of the city. Sarasota Herald-Tribune