Category: music

“A Swiss musician sees colours when she hears music, and experiences tastes ranging from sour and bitter to low-fat cream and mown grass, astounded scientists say. Zurich University neuropsychologists were so intrigued by the case of ES, a 27-year-old professional musician whose full name has been withheld, that they recruited her for a year-long inquiry. They say she is the world’s most extreme known case of synaesthesia, the phenomenon whereby hearing music triggers a response in other sensory organs.”

Quen Elizabeth believes her musical tastes have been unfairly disparaged. “We are not philistines. Philip and I are interested in music and we’ve had this terrible press,” she says. So she’s announced a new music prize: the Queen’s Medal for Music. “To be awarded on St Cecilia’s day, November 22, the winner will be someone who has had a “major influence on the musical life of the nation”, and may be of any nationality. St Cecilia is the patron saint of music.”

“Composer Michael Nyman is mounting a challenge to the record industry with the launch next month of his own label, MN Records. Citing frustration with the major labels that have released his work, Nyman will inaugurate the imprint with a solo piano album.”

“La Scala is being paralysed by a crisis of Verdian theatricality that has led to rebellion and strikes, and is now prompting a head on clash between two of the titans of contemporary opera.
From his tranquil villa-cum-studio near Rome, Franco Zeffirelli has watched the goings-on in Milan with growing alarm…”

“According to the European Commission, musicians are losing up to $25 million a year in revenue as a result of the USA’s ongoing failure to comply with copyright obligations established with fellow members of the World Trade Organisation. Now British Music Rights, the national umbrella group representing composers, songwriters and publishers, has begun lobbying the UK government to ensure that British artists receive a fair deal when their music is played across the Atlantic.”

The Auckland (NZ) Philharmonia is in terrible shape. And the woes don’t just extend to funding. “According to a consultant’s report, it is wracked by internal conflict “verging on dysfunctionality”. All in all, the Philharmonia’s 25th year has become far from the celebratory occasion it should be. It need not have been this way. The orchestra’s funding difficulties can be laid, in large part, at the door of miserly local authorities.”

Washington, D.C. is one of America’s legitimate centers of classical music, with excellent venues, a top-ten orchestra, a major opera company, and countless smaller ensembles. But the nation’s capital is missing one crucial element of a thriving classical scene: music students. “Most of the country’s great orchestras draw enormous energy from their close relationships with nearby world-class schools, and eager concertgoers can engorge themselves on their endless stream of open recitals.” The District’s Kennedy Center is attempting to fill the void with a series of recitals put on by top music schools from around the country, and so far, the results have been impressive.

The musicians of the St. Louis Symphony have ratified a new contract with a 56-36 vote following a bitter 8-week work stoppage which was settled only after a local office of the National Labor Relations Board declared it an illegal strike. The new contract, which runs for 3-1/2 years, calls for modest pay raises, and also contains unusual signing bonuses for the players in place of more significant pay hikes. However, the conflict may not be over yet: at the same meeting in which they ratified the contract, the musicians overwhelmingly approved a vote of no confidence in SLSO President Randy Adams.

Months after announcing that it had paid off all its debt and balanced its annual budget, the Cincinnati Symphony is preparing to launch a major capital campaign which could reach $60 million. The CSO’s recent budgetary success has come at a cost – the cancellation of a popular summer festival – and balance was only achieved through extraordinary donations from an anonymlous supporter. The money raised in the campaign will go to bolster the orchestra’s endowment, which currently stands at $67 million.

When Clear Channel Communications Inc. dropped $4.5 billion five years ago for SFX, the giant concert promoter, the idea was to boost growth in fast-growing entertainment while the company’s core radio audience matured. Instead, the once-promising acquisition has become Clear Channel’s problem child, with consumers expressing dismay — and staying away — because of high ticket prices and poor service.” Now the company hopes it has found its turn-around artist…