Category: music

Women singers seem to be dominating World Music this year. “Not all of them are young, but their average age must be about 30. Ten years ago, the idea of a compilation of women’s music would have smacked of political correctness – now it’s simply what’s happening. It is of course a truism that pictures of attractive young women sell newspapers, CDs, books and films better than just about anything else. So, are Western record companies simply choosing the acts that are most marketable? Or does the phenomenon of the young world diva reflect deeper global upheavals? And what, if anything, does this sudden upsurge in female creativity add up to musically?”

It’s been five years since Pinchas Zukerman took over as music director of Ottawa’s National Arts Center Orchestra. “Whatever the specific contributions of each of the current administrators, the National Arts Center Orchestra seems to be thriving, and this at a time when many Canadian orchestras are suffering much the same economic woes as their American counterparts. True, it operates on a relatively small scale. With 50 permanent members, it is about half the size of the largest North American orchestras.”

Denver Post pop music critic G. Brown resigned from the paper Friday after editors discovered he had “used language” lifted from other reviews of a Simon and Garfu8nkle concert without attribution. “Post editors learned of the matter last week when a reader contacted the newspaper and pointed out similarities between language in Brown’s Oct. 26 preview of a Simon and Garfunkel concert and phrases in an article that had appeared earlier on a website.”

Brita Brundage wonders about the complexion of Hartford’s music scene: “I’ve noticed that groups playing traditionally black music forms in the area – be it jazz, funk, blues, Latin, even reggae and hip-hop – are made up almost entirely of white musicians. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with white musicians playing music of any style, the question of legitimacy has started to gnaw at my ability to appreciate the music.”

As some music companies lower CD prices, everyone from artists to record store owners are wondering what the effect of the cuts will be. With profit margins down, for instance, will small indie record stores offer esoterica that stays around for a long time? And the recording companies… who knows what they’ll even look like six months from now?

Charlotte Higgins is unequivocal: Classical music is institutionally racist. The extent to which it is dominated by white faces – audiences, performers, administrators and critics alike – is overwhelming. Black taxpayers may be paying their share of the bill for an important tranche of Britain’s cultural life, but few are either participating in it or enjoying it. British theatre may be witnessing a flowering of extraordinary black acting and writing talent, but classical music remains determinedly white.
This lack of participation, however, does not reflect lack of appetite.”

“The future of the album – both in its physical form and as a grouping of related songs – is being pondered by everyone from bands who refuse to provide their music to online services to technology analysts, who predict that the CD will become passé within the next five years. It’s a pressing concern, given the decline of record sales since 2000 and the popularity of downloading singles by a public tired of paying $15 for an album with one hit and lots of padding.”

John Gidwitz, president of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 1984, has announced that he will step down from the position at the end of the current season. During his tenure with the BSO, Gidwitz (along with music director David Zinman,) was credited with building the orchestra’s reputation from that of a small, regional ensemble to one of America’s top orchestras.

Suburban Chicago-based Northwestern University has established a new $100,000 prize for composers, instantly making it one of the most lucrative awards in the industry. “The winner of the biennial Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize in Musical Composition, one of the world’s largest awards for composers, will also be given a four-week residency at the School of Music and a performance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, in addition to the cash prize.”

A lost setting of a mass Mozart wrote for his wedding, has been reconstructed and will be performed for the first time since the ceremony. “Passages plundered for later works, after Mozart decided not to finish the piece, have been re-assembled and a final section written. The jigsaw puzzle has taken two years of research and composition, using records of Mozart’s work.”