Category: music

The troubled Long Island Philharmonic has special challenges attracting an audience. “People who have moved out here have made a conscious decision. They’ll go to New York City to take in an orchestra or a Broadway show. We’re an audience known for renting movies. My competition isn’t Tilles Center or Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, it’s Blockbuster Video and the couch.”

David Bowie isn’t concerned about piracy of his music. In fact he’s encouraging it and says he’ll give a prize for the most creative remix of his work. “The musician’s Web site urges fans to mix classic Bowie songs with material from his latest album, “Reality,” to create a “mash-up” — a track that uses vocals from one song superimposed over the backing tracks of another.”

The Colorado Symphony chooses Jeffrey Kahane as its new music director. “The Los Angeles native, a finalist in the 1981 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and winner of the 1983 Rubenstein Competition, remains most widely known as a virtuoso pianist. But his reputation as a conductor is quickly catching up.”

“The Billboard Latin Music Conference celebrates its 15th birthday in Miami Beach this week. But instead of the coming-out festiveness typical of a quince, conferencegoers will wrestle with the financial and creative crisis facing an industry that makes Miami-Dade County its home.”

Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory unveils a $27 million redo of its campus. “It is a good time for Peabody. The endowment has reached $70 million, and an association with Johns Hopkins University has proved beneficial for both institutions. Not bad for a place that came perilously close to bankruptcy a mere 27 years ago. Much of the credit for Peabody’s renaissance must be given to Robert Sirota, a composer and conductor who has been the institute’s director since 1995 and oversaw the renovation.”

A new study on music downloading reports that “an estimated 6 million people have stopped downloading copyrighted music from the Internet over fears that they may sued by the recording industry, but the overall number of Americans who download music is rising with the popularity of iTunes, Napster and other legitimate online music services.”

Jerry Springer – The Opera” is making its US debut in 2005 in San Francisco. “The show has the distinction of being the only one ever to win all four major London awards for best musical.”

Jerry Springer – The Opera will open on Broadway in October 2005. “The production, which features bad language, tap-dancing Ku Klux Klan members and a man wearing a giant nappy, may be something of a gamble in the US. Despite an increasingly conservative approach to indecency, producer Jon Thoday has vowed the material will not be toned down. Either it will be the most enormous hit or audiences will walk out in horror.”

John van Rhein has some very definite opinions on the subject whom the Chicago Symphony ought to select for its next music director. “Audience numbers have fallen during the Barenboim years, internal morale has sunk and the orchestra remains an orphan of the airwaves and recording studio. The CSO badly needs a music director who can restore the orchestra’s luster in these and other areas. The eyes of the music world are upon Chicago.” Chief among van Rhein’s criteria: the new guy needs to be an American.

Alan Artner would like to see the Chicago Symphony abandon its decades-long fascination with “superstar” conductors in favor of a leader who truly understands the importance of engaging the community. “Absenteeism does nothing to encourage audience identification and involvement with an orchestra,” but the biggest names in conducting invariably spend most of their time somewhere other than Chicago. “Musicianship, inquisitiveness and commitment to the city are what counts — the three together. And if they’re not all present, the CSO should not engage.”