The Academy had discontinued music shortlists after 1979 – but then it brought them back last year, claiming indies and small films from the first half of the year would have a better chance in the song and score categories. Oh really? – Variety
Category: music
For Opera About Tibetan Saint, Composer Searched For Sounds She’d Never Heard Before
Andrea Clearfield added Nepali and Tibetan bells, conch shells, and singing bowls to the Western orchestra for Mila, Great Sorcerer, but even those were sounds she already knew. So she got an instrument maker to create seven entirely new instruments, from, as David Patrick Stearns puts it, “an ethereal tricked-out music box to a drone that suggests something primeval welling up from the center of the Earth.” — The Philadelphia Inquirer
Anne Midgette Reviews The IRS’s On-Hold Music
“Background music has to walk a tricky line. We want something inoffensive yet meaningful, and you’d better believe that we — the consumer masses — will barrage customer service with complaints if the balance tips too far in one or the other direction.” — The Washington Post
Get Ready: Musician Holograms Are Coming To A Concert Near You
The experiment has already dipped into some North American venues where the virtual likeness of deceased crooner Roy Orbison received mixed reviews a few months ago. Opera singer Maria Callas was also resurrected in a performance some critics say looked more like she was a floating ghost than a physical entity. Glenn Gould will be added to the hologram circuit in 2019, with the late Canadian pianist accompanied by live orchestras as part of a tour organized in co-operation with his estate. – Toronto Star
Music As Universal Language? It Starts With Something Local
“Conceptually, one might argue, Western classical music is tailor-made for global promulgation since a score written in country A in year X could theoretically be rendered equally well by musicians in either country B in year Y or country C in year Z. But, of course, thanks to the advent of recording technology well over a century ago, those folks in A, B, and C can now easily listen to each other. As a result, any locally made music has the possibility of reaching a global audience. ” – NewMusicBox
Cleveland Orchestra Musicians Have New Contract
The three-year agreement “includes 2-percent annual increases in minimum weekly compensation, a higher level of seniority pay for long-term members, and annual increases to retirement, life insurance, and long-term disability benefits.” — The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
19-Year-Old Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason On His Life-Changing Year
He rocketed to fame after performing at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding. “If his star was already in the ascendant before 2018, becoming the first black instrumentalist to win the BBC’s Young Musician of the Year in 2016, it has entered another stratosphere. “- The Guardian
Chamber Music Collective Brings Classical Music To Teenagers In State Custody
Reporter Cintia Lopez joins members of the Boston ensemble Sarasa for one of their performance/workshops at a Massachusetts Department of Youth Services facility. — WBUR (Boston)
Five Projects That Are Diversifying And Strengthening Classical Music In And Outside The Concert Hall
Of the five that WQXR has chosen to cite and congratulate, one is well-established and well-known, one is newer but has made the news, one’s unglamorous but very useful, one’s an outreach idea we’d never thought of, and one’s not really a project at all (but it involves a lot of heros). — WQXR (New York City)
“Bird Box” Has Taken Over Netflix (And The Internet, Apparently)
Netflix claimed on Friday that the movie had been watched by approximately 45 million accounts since its Dec. 21 debut — the best first seven days ever for a film released on the platform. – Washington Post