“The cost of good violins has risen faster than the price of houses, leaving new talent dependent on wealthy relatives or admirers to find them an instrument of equal pedigree. Not necessarily a Stradivarius, which starts at a million-plus, but the product of an 18th century Italian or French master workshop that best suits their character and capability.”
Category: music
Record Companies: Digital Doesn’t Make Us Whole
“Record companies’ digital sales jumped to $2bn (£1bn) in 2006 from $1.1bn a year earlier and continued to take market share, according to the latest update from the global industry group IFPI yesterday. Downloads to mobile phones, computers and music players now make up a tenth of global music sales but as sales of physical formats such as CDs continue to fall, digital has not come to the rescue.”
Schwantner – Made In America
Joseph Schwantner has been chosen as the second commissioned composer for the Made in America” project in which 150 orchestras around America jointly commission a piece. “His as yet untitled work will be premiered in fall 2008, by the Reno (NV) Chamber Orchestra. Both Schwantner and [Joan] Tower [the project’s first composer] favor a mostly tonal, and in any case accessible, style of writing.”
Violins Amid The Bombs
It’s difficult to imagine anything healing the religious, cultural, and political rifts that dominate life in the Middle East, but a Belgian charity is betting that an influx of donated musical instruments can at least make life better for Palestinians who can’t find or afford them at home.
Becoming A Concertmaster
Being the concertmaster of a major symphony orchestra is both a powerful and lucrative gig, but getting there frequently means following a very different path than that followed by other orchestral musicians. Some music schools have even begun offering separate courses of study for high-level students interested in learning the musical and personal skills necessary to lead an orchestra from the first chair.
Kim & The Conductor: The Dust-Up That Wasn’t
The story spread like wildfire across the Pacific Rim this week: North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il had been courting superstar conductor Seiji Ozawa to lead the North Korean national orchestra, and Ozawa had repeatedly rebuffed him, saying that “the political environment in North Korea is not one that would allow me to focus on music.” The only problem with the story is that it apparently isn’t true: Ozawa’s representatives say he has never been contacted by Kim, and that the news reports were the first he’d heard of the situation.
Why Does Gergiev Need The London Symphony?
Valery Gergiev is taking over leadership of the London Symphony Orchestra. But skeptics have “wondered about the wisdom of appointing Gergiev when the LSO made the surprise announcement last year. Would he have time to devote to the nurturing of his London orchestra? Why did he want yet another string to add to his already amply furnished bow?”
Unsigned And Successful – The Way Of The Future?
The first band without a record contract has cracked the UK Top 40 chart. “Koopa, a punk pop three-piece from Colchester, made history on Sunday by entering the chart at No 31 with a download-only single Blag, Steal & Borrow.” This could be the start of a tend…
Where Are All The Canadian Composers?
The Canadian Opera Company has unveiled its 2007-08 season, and Robert Everett-Green can’t help but notice that, for the second year in a row, not a single Canadian composer is in the lineup. One Canadian work had been scheduled, but was postponed due to the composer’s health problems. Meanwhile, the COC’s British-born general director says that he won’t pander by programming just any Canadian opera: “I have to do something first-rate. It has to convince our audience that contemporary opera matters.”
Location, Location, Location
Several Boston-based classical music organizations have begun to offer performances at pubs and nightclubs, in an effort to broaden their reach beyond the traditional concert hall audience. “It’s not a pops concert; it’s just a popular location. And it’s more intimate, in every way.”