Category: music

A lot, says a new industry report. “The rise in illegal piracy cost the UK music industry £1.1 billion over the last three years, despite the fact that the number of Britons downloading illegally has fallen since last year. But the dent to the music industry coffers has increased largely because those downloading music illegally are the individuals expected to spend the most on music.”

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma made an appearance before a U.S. House committee this week to ask lawmakers to consider relaxing temporary visa requirements for foreign musicians wishing to perform in America. Meanwhile the State Department continued to defend its policy on visas in the face of media reports of unreasonable delays and inflated expense.

The first major work of classical music to commemorate the flooding of New Orleans gets its debut in Madison, Wisconsin this week. But composer Luna Pearl Woolf didn’t want her “Apres Moi, Les Deluge” for solo cello and a cappella choir to be simply a one-hit wonder that would be forgotten once the shock of Katrina abates. “Message pieces are awful and I won’t do them. This is an allegorical text. We tried to eliminate forms that are so specific that they would only apply to this one case. As you move from this one case and how we feel about it, the event becomes more universal and more worthy of being set to music and being listened to.”

There’s been a rash of cancellations in the classical music world this year. A cancelling artist sends an orchestra into a frenzy of looking for a replacement. But it can also be an opportunity; orchestras plan seasons in advance, and a sudden opening can be a chance to check out someone new or hot.

“In the digital world, small record shops have to find creative ways to market their service. Sometimes, that means giving away their product for free in order to build traffic. Consider Tight Tunes—where, since July 2005, Queens natives Matthew Warren and James Reixach have been building a MySpace where artists can conduct monetary transactions.”

Pinchas Zukerman, who abruptly left his national Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa in mid-season, says he’ll return early from his announced break. “No reason for the return was given to subscribers. Christopher Deacon, the orchestra’s managing director, said yesterday that Zukerman first broached the idea of ending the sabbatical in a phone call from Europe 10 days ago. Details were firmed up last week.”

“The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry is taking legal action against nearly 2,000 song-swappers in 10 countries. The British music industry says illegal file-sharing has cost it £1.1bn over the last three years. Research firm XTN data said that illegal downloads in the UK have increased by 3% to 28% of music downloads since last September.”

So James Levine is out for the season at the metropolitan Opera? What does it take to replace him? Meet the five who will try…

It’s shaping up to be a dry summer in the pop concert business. Few of the bigname stars of the 60s and 70s are touring And “steadily rising ticket prices, lack of proper development for promising young artists, stiff competition from other forms of entertainment and even age-old headaches like traffic snarls and limited (overpriced) snack-bar menus, are just a few of the reasons some fans have been staying away in recent years.

So it turns out that classical music is popular in the download world, and retailers are setting up to serve classical music fans. Does that make classical fans happy? Well… there are a few things on the wish list…