Category: music

Last week the artistic director of the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival quit. “Julian Armour is credited with turning the Festival into an event that draws top-name performers from around the globe. He’s also been a driving force behind the proposed $30-million Community Concert Hall on Elgin Street in Ottawa.” So supporters are trying to get a mediator to bring him back.

New software “reads” old piano recordings and learns how to recreate those recordings on contemporary instruments. So is that really Glenn Gould you’re hearing? Alas, not quite, writes Edward Rothstein. But it comes close…

Toronto Symphony conductor Peter Oundjian and Mony Python comedian Eric Idle are cousins. So how might the cousins collaborate? How about an oratorio called “Not the Messiah”? Idle: “What can I do with an orchestra that’s more than just singing my funny songs? What can we do that creates a plot?”

Cleveland’s Rock n Roll Hall of Fame is misnamed, writes Ann Powers. “It’s time to shake things up. Today’s most compelling stars — Shakira, Timbaland, the Dixie Chicks, the ever-evolving Kelly Clarkson — are natural cross-pollinators who rock without necessarily being “rock.” The underground is alive with mongrels and mutations, because its denizens grew up with samplers and guitars. ‘Rock ‘n’ roll’ is dead; long live whatever’s next. And let’s hope our Hall of Fame finds a way to name it.”

“Unlike baseball, you can’t accurately measure musicians just by statistics. But it is interesting to turn to the Rolling Stone Album Guide, whose ratings are more reliable than the magazine’s because the guide’s editors have the luxury of looking at the old albums with a historical perspective. The most striking thing about the book’s evaluation of the Hall of Fame inductees’ recordings is that more than one-fourth lack a five-star album or even a five-star “best of” collection.”

CD sales continue to plummet; some predict a drop of 15-20 percent this year. Clearly digital downloading is the future.”So what are labels doing other than licensing their music to digital services that they hope will become successful? According to many service providers and industry analysts, the answer is — nothing.”

“Police in Paris say they have recovered two violins, together worth more than $250,000, stolen from a musician with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in December. French police were notified by a Paris dealer when an American man tried to sell them for $65,000 US earlier this week. The instruments were recovered on Thursday. The seller is an American who lives in Amsterdam and could be extradited.”

An anonymous donor has promised $90 million for the Frank Gehry-designed future home of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Fla., one of the largest gifts to a classical music institution.

Sebastian Currier wins this year’s Grawemeyer Prize for Music Composition for his quintet Static, written in 2003. “The prestigious award includes a cash prize of $200,000 and is eligible to any composition ‘in a large musical genre’ by a living composer based anywhere in the world receiving its premiere in the past five years.”

“The turning point is hard to pinpoint. But after 30 years of growing popularity, rap music is now struggling with an alarming sales decline and growing criticism from within about the culture’s negative effect on society.”