Category: music

Ticket revenues were down, but total attendance was up slightly. New partnerships and outreach programs brought in nearly 3,000 first-time patrons.

“It is striking to contrast the rise and rise of Shostakovich with the more ambiguous status of the Soviet Union’s other major composer of the 20th century, Sergei Prokofiev. While Shostakovich has managed, in death, to break free of Stalinism’s shackles, Prokofiev remains caught up by them.”

David Robertson’s first year as music director of the St. Louis Symphony has been, in musical terms, an unqualified success. Robertson’s programming was innovative, his concerts well-received, and critics noted a sharp uptick in the orchestra’s playing. But ticket sales slumped badly for the SLSO this year, a possible after-effect of a musicians’ strike in 2005, and the organization is still struggling to find a way to make itself relevant and appealing to a broader audience.

The art of the mixtape – a homemade collection of songs from any number of artists – may have peaked in the early 1990s, but even in the age of the iPod, the phenomenon remains strong, particularly in the hip-hop industry. “These days they often seem less like shady contraband, circulated by samizdat, and more like vital extensions of slick marketing campaigns.”

Composers draw inspiration for their work from all corners of their world, and even works with a universal appeal can have highly personal experiences at their core. This weekend, a new music ensemble in Pittsburgh will debut a new work by Brett William Dietz, entitled Headcase, that takes the idea of personal inspiration to the extreme. The piece is a musical journey through a major stroke that Dietz suffered when he was 29. “The composition incorporates recordings of electronic sound and Dietz talking… There are projected images of Dietz’s MRI scans, showing the areas of the brain that were damaged, and pieces of paper given to him in the hospital to write on in an attempt to communicate.”

“The centrepiece of this year’s festival is a new Ring cycle – a great event at any opera house, at Bayreuth something akin to the second coming. The production is in the hands of conductor Christian Thielemann, Bayreuth’s favoured son, and director Tankred Dorst, an 80-year-old playwright who, despite never having directed an opera before, was appointed two years ago when Lars von Trier pulled out. Who says Bayreuth is conventional?”

In 1958, Saul Levine built his own classical music station in Los Angeles. Now 80, he still owns and runs the station and programs classical music even though he could probably sell for $100 million. “Whenever I get an offer I call my wife and she tells me to tell them to go away. She doesn’t want me hanging around the house, and I would go nuts.”

Peter Dobrin wants to know: “So where is the billionaire so in love with orchestral music that he or she wants to make all the difference in the life of an orchestra? Where is that hybrid philanthropist-music lover who wants to add $100 million or $200 million to the endowment of the Philadelphia Orchestra so it can stop fearing deficits; activate a range of education programs that can really inculcate children with classical music; and take a chance once in a while on edgy repertoire or the cultivation of a young unknown guest artist without fear of box-office repercussions?”

The New Jersey Symphony is dipping significantly into its endowment to pay off a deficit. “Paying off the debt for the instruments, which stands at about $12 million, has prevented the orchestra from dealing with an accumulated operating deficit of $4.2 million. The endowment draw and some intricate financial restructuring will reduce the debt payments to $1.1 million a year, from $1.8 million, the orchestra said.”

“Much of today’s sound art wasn’t possible until recently, for lack of appropriate technology. ‘Sound art is one of the simplest and most complex things. By moving air, you can make people get very emotional’.”