Category: music

New York City Opera’s annual opera workshop is the place new operas come to to be seen – a kind of coming-out party. “Portions of 10 new American operas be presented, including one by Lou Harrison, who died in February. This year’s other composers range from the young and unknown (Patrick Soluri, 28) to the decorated (the Pulitzer Prize winner Bernard Rands). All events are free and open to the public, offering a rare opportunity to catch a glimpse of the country’s operatic future. From a performer’s perspective there is nothing else quite like it in the country. Opera scouts and industry insiders have been present in past years, and there are stories of works being picked up at the Vox and slated for full production.”

A new study conducted by researchers in Iowa and Texas, finds “a link between listening to violent song lyrics and feelings of aggression and hostility, bolstering arguments that such content can lead to violent behavior – a finding that belies the notion that violent music provides a cathartic release for anger and negative feelings.”

Jeremy Grant reports that the Chicago Symphony’s financial fortunes are precarious and worrisome. “Due to factors mostly out of [music director Daniel] Barenboim’s control, the CSO faces possibly the most serious financial crisis in its 112-year history. With the US economy in recession, ticket sales are flat and subscriptions are falling. Plunging stock market values have eroded the value of the orchestra’s endowment fund and new corporate and individual sponsorships have all but dried up. This year’s budget is likely to balance, but only because of a one-off draw-down from the endowment. Management predicts the orchestra is likely to swing into a deficit of about $4m-$5m (£2.5m-£3.1m) next year, having slumped to $6.1m in 2002.”

“After more than a quarter-century of being one of the centers of the pop music world, the famous San Francisco scene has crumbled. While underground rock still percolates in warehouses and lofts around the Bay Area, this insular constituency breeds few mainstream breakouts. For years, the Bay Area music industry nurtured a steady procession of new and exciting rock talents – from Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead to Metallica and Green Day. Today, what’s left of the local industry has disappeared into a crater left behind by the dot-com crash and struggles of the recording business. The dissolution of the area’s music scene has occurred for two reasons: the economic hard times besetting the record industry as a whole, and the creation of new technology that has made recording studios all but obsolete.”

Clear Channel, which dominates the American radio business and is also a major concert promoter, is offering a new deal – go to the concert, then five minutes after it’s finished, buy a recording of the concert you just heard. “Although initially modest, involving only small-audience clubs and theaters in the Boston area, the venture could eventually extend beyond radio and concerts into music distribution. And that could prove troubling to critics, who already complain that the company’s rigidly formatted radio stations prevent diverse artists from reaching the airwaves and that its dominance of the concert business too often forces touring acts to accept unfavorable deals.”

National Public Radio has teamed up with KUSC in Los Angeles and CPRN in Colorado to begin offering a new classical music service. “NPR will offer the service to its 732 member stations, 472 of which already carry classical music. “We’re giving them more to work with. The service’s economy of scale will enable even small outlets to have high-quality announcing and programming.” The music service will compete with existing networks produced by Minnesota Public Radio and Chicago’s Beethoven Network.

The Pittsburgh Symphony is searching for a new music director to replace Mariss Jansosn. What is the orchestra looking for? “Whereas maestros Andre Previn, Lorin Maazel and Jansons were picked because they could be marketed, the next music director will have to do the marketing. At least, that’s the case in mid-sized markets such as Pittsburgh. A large part of the perception of the orchestra and its marketing ability flow through the podium. Previously, the maestro’s reputation leaked into marketing in an indirect way; now, he or she will be on the front lines of fund raising and ticket selling.”

What should Pittsburgh be looking for in a new music director? “An established star would garner respect and bring the orchestra to Europe, but he’d be expensive and unlikely to show up at chicken dinners to raise money. An energetic young American would come with a smaller price tag and the understanding of what it takes to market an orchestra, but he’d lack connections to soloists and venues as well as the name value to sit comfortably with the likes of Reiner, Steinberg, Previn, Maazel and Jansons.”

Andrew Druckenbrod runs down a dream list of candidates for the next director of the Pittsburgh Symphony. Dohnanyi? Slatkin? Dutoit? Tilson Thomas?…

The New Jersey Symphony hs been looking for a new music director since 2000. Now the orchestra “is considering whether the job of music director has grown larger than one person. ‘Life has changed; we need to get more people involved in artistic programming, and we also need to come to the realization that no one person can fulfill all the things needed of artistic leadership. We have evolved.”