Category: music

Vijay Gupta To Leave LA Phil And Concentrate On Street Symphony

The violinist, who won a MacArthur “genius” grant this year, has decided to leave his seat as one of the orchestra’s first violins. He said, “The L.A. Phil saved my life when I was a 19-year-old kid. It was the way that I was able to continue being a musician and to continue growing as an artist. … And I’m really excited to take that artistry beyond Los Angeles and beyond the work of being in an orchestra.” – Los Angeles Times

Did Dvorak’s New World Symphony Waken Americans To American Music? Nope

Surprisingly, the premiere led to perplexed disappointment. Listeners agreed that the music was magnificent, but many did not hear anything “American” in it, after all. “Some of those who applauded most loudly,” wrote one Brooklyn critic, “thought the Indian and Negro themes would have been as effective if picked up in Siberia.” – The New York Times

Igor Says: Orchestras! Take Risks!

We think we’ve learned not to overlook outsiders. Yet the orchestral scene today remains in thrall to safety. It favours those who’ve studied with the right people, at the right schools and universities and have the right profile and publishers. Composing in the approved idioms is always preferred over something more raw, exploratory, problematic or new. Look at the recent major orchestral commissions, or the annual Proms new music programme. – The Guardian

Our “Algorithmic Music Culture” Is Making Music Poorer

On the consumer side, streaming and social-media platforms have transformed the nature of music discovery, which was previously more proactive by necessity—requiring manual effort to open up a newspaper, dig through crates at a record store, or attend a live show. Nowadays, “discovery” can be as easy and passive as scrolling mindlessly through a personalized feed or shuffling an algorithmically -curated playlist in the background of a holiday party, without help from a critic or other human guide. Because of its inherently passive nature, algorithmic curation has also made one core function of criticism defunct. – Columbia Journalism Review

St. Paul Chamber Orchestra In 2017-18: Small Surplus, Attendance Very Slightly Down, Young Listeners Up

“About 10 percent more young people caught an SPCO concert than the year before, according to a new annual report. Those young concertgoers are a big focus for the nonprofit: Since 2016, the chamber orchestra has lured school and college students with free tickets. The number of unique households attending, too, hit a record high in the fiscal year ending in 2018.” — The Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

This Year’s Additions To The Rock Hall Of Fame

Since 1986, the Hall has added 323 inductees to its rolls; they include 220 performers, 33 “early influencers” (a category largely composed of rock and roll’s African-American founding mothers and fathers, such as Lead Belly, Robert Johnson and Sister Rosetta Tharpe) and 34 non-performers (generally music-industry executives, but also songwriters, producers and instrument makers). – NPR