Category: music

The Wales Millennium Centre says it won’t bow to demands from religious leaders to cancel performances of “Jerry Springer, The Opera.” “Monday’s letter, signed by representatives of more than 100 churches in Cardiff and across south Wales, called on the venue to cancel the show. ‘Christians in Cardiff and south Wales are deeply offended that a national venue paid for by our tax money is being used to mock God and his son, Jesus Christ, in the most vulgar way’.”

“For the past few decades, James Conlon has been the classical music world’s most noted American abroad. He’s held musical posts in Rotterdam, Cologne and most recently Paris, where he spent nine acclaimed years as principal conductor of the Paris Opera; his main foothold in his homeland has been the Cincinnati May Festival, a choral festival he’s led since 1979. But now, at 56, Conlon is coming home. He’s taken over the helm of the Ravinia Festival, the summer home of the Chicago Symphony, and in the fall he’ll succeed Kent Nagano as music director of the Los Angeles Opera.”

“Most of those who operate in music’s lower registers are hardly making the most of their time. The finger-stretching that once characterised the best bass-playing has all but disappeared: these days, rock’s remaining bassists tend to find out what chords the guitarist is playing, memorise what are known as the “root notes” and thrum along.”

Wal-Mart may be ending its ban on selling CDs with parental advisory stickers. The retailer is a major force in the recording business, but only sells “clean” versions of songs. “People seem to think that Wal-Mart is revisiting that decision. There are indications that the new regime is more open to change.”

“After keeping a foot on each side of the Atlantic for a few years, the Minnesota Orchestra’s music director will leave his post as chief conductor of Finland’s Lahti Symphony at the end of the 2007-08 season, concluding a two-decade tenure that began when he was named the orchestra’s music director in 1988.”

The National Symphony has been looking for a replacement for music director Leonard Slatkin, but Mark Mobley has a suggestion. “The NSO needs a radical new strategy. It’s time to diversify the product by hiring a series of guest conductors. Put more emerging musicians, especially more Americans, on the podium, and let the players and staff set a course to lure patrons and improve the concerts.”

A new website “allows fans to trade music discs for just $1 plus shipping, pledges to give a fifth of its sales to all the musicians, including lesser-known session studio players, involved in the making of CDs exchanged on its site. In a move that is certain to stoke controversy with music promoters, the founder of the Silicon Valley startup said la la will circumvent traditional copyright and royalty payment systems to compensate identifiable working musicians.”

Warner Classics is no more. “Warner Classics is being rolled into Rhino, Warner’s reissue division, though it is unclear at the moment of the parent company’s ambitions in the classical music world. This move by Warner reduces the so-called majors in the classical record arena to just EMI, Universal and Sony-BMG.”

“When he took over five years ago, leaving his post as director of BBC News to do so, Hall was described in the press as having taken on the ‘dirtiest job in the arts’. The opera house was emerging from a particularly dark period; indeed, the television fly-on-the-wall documentary series The House had shown it as chaotically organised and financially in tatters.” Now “the ROH has now balanced its books for the seventh consecutive year and Hall, once the arts world outsider, has just renewed his five-year contract.”

Scottish Opera is trying to revive itself after a series of financial setbacks. “I don’t see it as a need to ‘rebuild’ audiences, more a need to ‘reconnect’ with them. The issue is not that we haven’t connected with Scotland, we just haven’t been noticed.”