Category: music

A new educational initiative sponsored by the Chicago Symphony’s Ravinia Festival combines the classics with modern pop music overtones, in the hope of making the genre less intimidating. It’s a strange effect, but John van Rhein says that if it works, it’s worth it. “If such tactics are what’s needed to turn on kids to a 173-year-old symphonic masterpiece, so be it… The project is one of many comparable initiatives undertaken by classical music organizations across the nation… In so doing, they are taking up some of the slack from an educational system that has failed miserably to keep classical music in the public school curriculum.”

At a lakeside resort in Central Maine, the wait staff are no ordinary foodservice types. Quisisana, a resort catering to New England’s well-to-do, decided to kill two birds with one stone by recruiting its service staff almost entirely from the nation’s top music conservatories. Students from such prestigious institutions as Juilliard and New England Conservatory bus tables and wash dishes by day, then throw on tux and tails in the evening to provide entertainment for the resort’s guests. It may sound a bit exhausting, but for music students who would otherwise have to sacrifice their summer practice time in order to make money, it’s the perfect summer job.

One of the recording industry’s recent efforts to stem the flow of illegal music downloads on the internet was to issue subpoenas to dozens of American colleges and universities, demanding that the schools turn over the names and addresses of students known to be trading copyrighted material on school servers. But this week, two Boston schools have filed motions to quash the subpoenas, claiming that the industry failed to give the schools a reasonable amount of time to inform their student bodies. One Boston College administrator insists that the motions to quash are not designed to protect students engaged in illegal file trading, but to make sure that the law is followed to the letter.

“In what is being touted as the largest legal action of its kind, a Spanish law firm has announced plans to file a copyright-violation complaint against 4,000 individuals who allegedly have swapped illegal files over peer-to-peer networks in that country.” The law firm says it will demand the maximum sentence for every software pirate it convicts. That sentence is four years in prison.

When Robert von Bahr started recording classical music 30 years ago for his own label, BIS, he hauled his own equipment, begged record stores to carry his products, and generally did all the things that plucky little doomed labels do to try to stave off their inevitable demise. But the doom part never happened, and today, BIS is one of the most respected labels in the world of classical music. It has an astonishing array of high-quality artists and repertoire in its catalog, a commitment to new music and little-known composers, and a reputation as the leading purveyor of the music of Jean Sibelius, thanks in large part to an ongoing partnership with Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä, considered to be the leading living interpreter of that composer’s work.

“The Mercury Music Prize is on the way to becoming the wounded beast of music awards ceremonies. Its raison d’etre is to reflect the best in British music, not just that which sells, but perhaps it has not yet recovered from Alan McGee’s lambasting of the 2000 shortlist as a bunch of ‘bedwetters’… But a bigger problem for the Mercury is the public’s dwindling trust in it as a recommendation of what to buy. It seems ages since a Mercury victory could propel a relatively unknown artist to national success, but the panel has only itself to blame for rewarding a series of worthy but unlistenable albums.”

“To call the first in a series of New York Philharmonic summer residencies at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival a milestone in Colorado’s classical music history does not overstate the magnitude of the event.” The Phil has come to Colorado under a new agreement which, the festival hopes, will see it performing in Vail for decades to come. Kyle MacMillan reports that, despite some lackluster playing in the opening concert and the familiar acoustical problems associated with outdoor amphitheatres, New York’s legendary band is a stunning addition to the state’s cultural scene.

The shortlist for this year’s prestigious Mercury Music Prize is out, and it includes pop music acts from Radiohead and Coldplay to soul duo Floetry and club mixer Dizzee Rascal. Although most Americans are unaware of its existence, the Mercury Prize, which is judged by a panel of music industry experts, is often a springboard to mainstream success in both Europe and the U.S.

This week, Spiro Patanikolatos made his solo debut at the Hamptons Music Festival in upstate New York. His instrument of choice was a 10-car locomotive. “The westbound 8:05 p.m. train out of Bridgehampton and its 20-second-long roar have become something of a festival tradition, one that soloists… have tried to somehow ‘play around’ by adjusting their phrasing.” But this year, the festival held a competition in which composers wrote works specifically designed to feature the rumbling train. “The audience of several hundred watched the train go past and cheered. Mr. Patanikolatos sounded its long, loud whistle, and the featured instrument of the evening disappeared down the track.”

When Dame Judy Mayhew takes over the reins of London’s Royal Opera House, she will have her work cut out for her. The head job at Covent Garden has always been a notoriously tricky one politically, and the ROH is not exactly flush with cash at the moment, either. Mayhew is upbeat about the future, but realistic about the short and long-term challenges that lie ahead of her: “The reality is that we have to find a way of squeezing another £1.4m out of next year’s Covent Garden budget, and we have to find ways of doing it without damaging the core product.”