Category: music

Want to know what a person is really like inside? A new study says looking at a person’s music collection will give you the best idea. “Almost anything about a man or a woman – from their looks, intelligence and fitness, to politics, wealth and even conversational ability – can be gleaned from the tunes they enjoy most. In the study, psychologists from the University of Texas questioned 3500 people about their individual musical preferences and then matched them with their personality traits.”

The financial crunch at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra may be easing a bit, with orchestra officials announcing that they have closed their budget gap for the fiscal year just concluded, and are having good success with new fundraising tactics designed to make donors feel more involved in the PSO’s season. “For donors of amounts under $250, we used to just give them a receipt for taxes. Now [we give] them thank-you cards and invitations to events and prints their names in programs or on its Web site. We are doing some very simple things better, and for a fund-raising program in transition, with a lot of staff turnover, it is a big success.”

When a small band of plucky choristers and musicians from the nearly-disintegrated Florida Philharmonic launched an independent effort to save their orchestra, they raised a million dollars in pledges in only a couple of weeks, and their apparent success was trumpeted across the region. But now, with a bankruptcy deadline fast approaching, the revitalization effort has seriously stalled, with an additional $1.5 million still needed to bail the organization out.

When the Louisville Orchestra struck a last-minute contract deal with its musicians last month, everyone involved cheered publicly, and congratulated each other on their success. But Andrew Adler sees little to get excited about. “We’ve heard all of this so many times before, whenever castastrophe for this orchestra has been barely averted. A contract is signed, three or four years of labor-management-board harmony is promised, a new day is at hand, etc., etc.” Labor peace aside, the Louisville Orchestra’s endowment remains far below what it needs to be, there don’t seem to be any real big-money donors for classical music in the city, and artistically, the ensemble has chosen an infuriating “play it safe” strategy which sacrifices anything but the most innocuous music.

The San Antonio Symphony had less than $500,000 in assets when it filed for bankruptcy protection last month, and more than $1 million in unpaid debts, according to court filings recently released to the public. Creditors include a telemarketing firm, an instrument insurance company, and radio giant Clear Channel.

A new survey conducted by a market research company suggests that people who illegally download music online are more likely to buy recorded music later. “The survey’s findings oppose the music industry’s long-standing argument that internet downloading is responsible for a slump in CD sales, with album sales falling 5% in the last year… Asked why they download music, the respondents were most likely to say it was ‘to check out music I’ve heard about but not listened to yet’ (75%) and ‘to help me decide whether to buy the CD’ (66%).” The recording industry has a survey of its own, and claims that 65% of respondents download music ‘because it’s free.’

Montrealers get their first look at plans for a much awaited new concert hall. So what’s it look like? “The design selected for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra looks like a cross between an office building and a big-box store. Music is imaginative and airy, qualities that many concert halls try to evoke architecturally. But this design squats rudely on de Maisonneuve Blvd. and Jeanne Mance St. like a massive whoopie cushion.”

French pianist Francois-Rene Duchable plans to “destroy two pianos and set his formal recital clothes on fire in a three-concert finale to his professional life, starting at the end of this month. He’ll bring the first program to a close “with a grand piano crashing into Lake Mercantour, the second with his suit in flames and the third, in August, with the explosion of a piano in mid-air.” Why?…

Sales of jazz and blues recordings in Canada have gone up, says a new report. But all other genres of music have experiences declining sales. “Sales of recordings by Canadian artists totalled $138-million in 2000, down 10.4 per cent from 1998. Canadian artists continue to represent about 16 per cent of the market, by sales, a situation Statistics Canada said has remained a constant since the mid-1990s.”