Category: music

The Young Orchestra Exec Who’s Turned Her Orchestra Into A Growth Industry

When Aubrey Bergauer arrived in 2014, the California Symphony was on the brink of financial collapse. Now, ticket sales have increased by 70 percent, concerts are frequently added to keep up with the demand, and the number of donors has nearly quadrupled. As orchestras around the country deal with aging audiences and search for ways to stay relevant—with midsize symphonies facing greater financial challenges than their big-city, big-donor counterparts—the California Symphony has succeeded by taking bold risks without compromising its musical integrity.” – Southwest Magazine

The Next DJ: Mixing Code That Mixes Music That Makes You Dance

It’s “live coding” and it’s already happening. “The code on display is used to control software algorithms. The musician synthesizes individual noises (snare hits, bass blobs) on their computer, then instructs the software to string those instrumental sounds together based on a set of predefined rules. What comes out bears the fingerprint of the artist but is shaped entirely by the algorithms.”  – Wired

To Increase Access, English National Opera To Reduce Lowest Ticket Prices And Introduce Early Start Times And Relaxed Performances

The London company has held its highest ticket price at £125 and cut its lowest to £10 and is expanding its free-balcony-seats-for-under-18s from Saturdays to Fridays and opening nights. In addition, the company will offer its first-ever relaxed performance (with accommodation for learning-disabled and autistic attendees), and at least one performance in each run of an opera will end by 10 pm. – The Stage

Recorded Music Revenues Up For Fourth Year In A Row, Soar To Global Record

Streaming revenue grew by 34.0% and accounted for almost half (47%) of global revenue, powered by a 32.9% increase in paid subscription streaming, according to the report. There were 255 million users of paid streaming services at the end of 2018, with paid streaming accounting for 37% of total recorded music revenue. Growth in streaming more than offset a 10.1% decline in physical revenue and a 21.2% decline in download revenue. – Variety

In Minnesota, The First-Ever Opera About The Hmong

For its young people’s training program, Minnesota Opera has commissioned an adaptation of Hmong-American author Kao Kalia Yang’s The Song Poet. Hmong-American playwright/performer composer Nkeiru Okoye will write the libretto, composer Nkeiru Okoye the score; Rick Shiomi, co-founder of the Twin Cities company Theater Mu will direct the production, planned for 2021. – The Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

English National Opera Sees Some Box Office Success, With One Show Last Year Its Best Seller Ever

“[The company’s] figures showed it had brought thousands of new people to the art form during recent months. It has achieved 75 per cent capacity in its 2000-plus seater Coliseum with 47 per cent of its bookers by first-timers. The 2018 production of Porgy and Bess was its highest grossing show ever.” – The Times (UK)

“La Forza Del Destino,” “Alice in Wonderland,” And A World-Gone-Mad Brexit

“Everything is in confusion,” sings Fra Melitone. That was also true for the world outside of the opera house during Brexit week. As many have commented, English political life is hurtling “down the rabbit hole,” and it’s perhaps worth noting that “La Forza del Destino,” in 1862, was an unlikely cultural sibling of that quintessentially British masterpiece “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” which Lewis Carroll began writing in that same year and was published soon after, in 1865. Brexit is the maddest of mad tea parties, and, if, somewhere, the Cheshire Cat is grinning at the confusion, we are unlikely to enjoy the humor anytime soon. – The New Yorker