A four-piece band of 20-somethings won a Battle of the Bands in Pittsburgh this month, thrilling the audience with their up-tempo, energetic performance and enthusiastic devotion to rocking out. Nothing unusual about that, right? Well, in this case, the four performers were all classically trained cellists, the band is called Cellofourte, and the songs they play are “energetic instrumentals that sounded like a mix of Vivaldi baroque and speed metal.”
Category: music
Hey, It Beats All-Day Muzak
When Center City Philadelphia’s department store, Wanamaker’s, was bought out, first by Hecht’s and then Macy’s, music aficionados worried that the store’s famous (and famously incongruous) pipe organ would be seen as an unnecessary frill. But Macy’s has embraced the unusual tradition of the in-store organ, and this year, the company allowed “devotees of the instrument [to] put in 61 more pipes and [gave] them thousands more square feet to set up an organ repair shop.”
Opera For All (And They Mean It)
Boston has a new opera company, with a different sort of mission. “The impulses that underlie the organization are squarely democratic: They are committed to making opera accessible to all, and not just artistically… Productions will be either free or inexpensive,” and shows will be scaled down to a chamber-style performance that fits in a more casual space, featuring an accompanying orchestra that may be no larger than a string quartet.
What Really Happened In Atlanta?
The managing editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has been working overtime to dispel the perception that the paper was planning to gut its cultural coverage and eliminate the position of classical music critic. (In fact, the critic’s title was merely tweaked.) Alex Ross, for one, is mostly convinced of the paper’s sincerity. “The AJC is indeed seriously committed to arts coverage, whether or not you agree with its stance toward criticism.”
False Alarm: Atlanta Classical Music Critic Keeps Job
It was widely reported that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was cutting its classical music position. But critic Pierre Ruhe’s job was never in danger, says Hank Klibanoff, the paper’s managing editor. The AJC recently cut staff through buyouts, Klibanoff said, and then the paper’s management decided staffers would have to reapply for existing jobs. That means technically Ruhe could have been replaced. But as Klibanoff told me: “I love Pierre’s criticism and I love Pierre and there was no interest in changing that job.”
Formerly Great Tchaikovsky Competition Opens
“Next week brings with it the opening of the 13th installment of the International Tchaikovsky Competition, once considered the world’s most prestigious showcase for young musical talent, but during recent times mainly notable for its scandals and its failure to attract much in the way of truly outstanding contestants.”
New York Concert Scene Booming
Recording sales might be down, but at least in New York the concert business is expanding. “In New York heated competition among concert promoters has driven a building spree of small and midsize spaces over the last two years. And a pivotal player in this behind-the-scenes contest has emerged in the Bowery Presents, a promoter that has grown steadily from crowded downtown boîtes to the big leagues of the concert industry.”
Jazz Fest Gets A Perfectly Timed Gift
The Montreal Jazz Fest, which lost all of its federal funding this year, is getting a CAN$6 million boost from aluminum giant Alcan. The company will become a co-sponsor of the event, along with General Motors. This year’s festival begins June 28.
Big Raises In Store At KC Sym
“The Kansas City Symphony and its musicians have ratified a contract that will provide a 19 percent salary increase over the next four years… It represents a notable change from the three-year contract the players ratified in 2003, which included a pay freeze for the first year and increases of only 2 percent in subsequent years.”
Where’s The Sibelius?
It’s been fifty years since the death of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, but in a music industry obsessed with celebrating anniversaries, Norman Lebrecht says that you’d think no one had ever heard of Sibelius. “His jubilee year might have afforded a chance for universal reassessment, but the orchestral industry flunked it, fearing that long lines of symphonic development without an inherent narrative would deter an impatient, aging audience with a shortening attention span. Sibelius was declared off-message this year, his fall from grace complete.”