Category: music

Recording giant EMI says it is in talks to buy AOL Time Warner’s music business. “British-based EMI, which tried and failed to merge with AOL Time Warner’s Warner Music three years ago, stressed that the talks were not advanced and a deal may not materialize.”

Miami’s New World Symphony is a training orchestra that thinks different. “New World places great emphasis on being different, as it performs some of the most edgy repertoire in music. This season, New World will be performing works by John Cage, Steve Reich and Luciano Berio – in a preview of New World’s scheduled performance in Rome – and Sibelius’ Fifth, works typically never even penciled into a regional orchestra’s schedule. ‘We have never been in competition with anyone for audiences because we do very few programs. We’re not scared of putting on an evening where we only have 300 people there if the repertoire is as extreme as it sometimes can be.”

“At its core, hip-hop is about bragging; ostentation and one-upmanship have played a crucial role in a music that confers upon its stars the means to walk their talk. In the South, though, a new school of artists has largely rejected such mainstream models. As new albums by Bubba Sparxxx and Nappy Roots demonstrate, country charm is just as viable as urban grit, and these rappers are retrofitting hip-hop to their purposes and experiences.”

“Can a media blitz save the blues? Do the blues need to be saved? And if the blues were to be saved, what would be their 21st-century role?” These questions have arisen because of a congressional proclamation, a PBS documentary, and the general perception that traditional blues music is fast become a museum piece. “The blues was once as audacious as hip-hop, as intimate as emo and as insubordinate as punk. So there’s never a bad time to recognize the blues.”

The now-defunct Florida Philharmonic will soon begin liquidating its assets, signaling the final demise of the organization. But many are hoping that, as has been the case in so many other cities where orchestras have failed, a new ensemble will rise from the ashes of the old one. The musicians are still around, for the most part, and a new board could be cobbled together fairly quickly. But there is one piece of the old orchestra that almost has to be preserved if a replacement group is to get off the ground successfully: the library. An orchestra’s library is its paper trail, the only physical directions its musicians have. But the Phil says that no one in the area has yet come forward with an offer sufficient to acquire the library.

The musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, which has fallen on difficult economic times in the last few years, are set to vote this week on a new 3-year contract. The agreement calls for a hefty wage cut in the first year in order to allow the PSO to get its financial house in order, but by the third year of the contract, the musicians’ base salary would rise to 95% of the average of four of the highest-paid orchestras in the U.S., a percentage which could guarantee each musician a raise of nearly $20,000 in 2005.

As contract negotiations with its musicians were drawing to a close, the Pittsburgh Symphony also closed a deal which will bring New Jersey Symphony CEO Lawrence Tamburri to the Steel City as the new president of the PSO. Tamburri has a reputation as an administrator who places a high priority on building consensus among musicians, staff, and board members, but his skills will be severely tested in Pittsburgh, writes Andrew Druckenbrod.

The fabled Bottom Line music club in New York’s Greenwich Village has fallen on hard times, and is facing eviction from its legendary NYU location. The club is reportedly $185,000 behind on its rent, and the university which owns the building wants to turn it into classrooms. A court hearing this week could decide the matter.

“Steinway is the great name of the piano world, as anyone will tell you – not least, Steinway. This year is its 150th anniversary, which is worth celebrating if only because few companies survive making the same product, in the same way, for so long… And although Steinway isn’t the largest piano company in the world (it makes 5000 instruments a year, as opposed to Yamaha’s 100,000), it has certainly cornered the top end of the market – despite a top-selling price of $250,000 for the sleek, black, two-metre concert grand (the Model D) that only serious pianists, concert halls and bankers get their hands on.”

Last week, soprano Dawn Upshaw, who is famous for never cancelling engagements, cancelled an engagement with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, due to a vocal cord injury. It may be unusual for Upshaw to bail on an orchestra, but other soloists do it all the time, for any number of reasons. Some soloists are even as famous for their cancellations as they are for their performances. As for the jilted ensembles which are left to scramble for a replacement, many arts administrators pride themselves on their ability to come through in just such a situation.