Category: music

The Canada Council selects a crop of young musicians to whom it will lend valuable musical instruments, including a couple of Strads. – CBC

The New York Philharmonic lost out on its bid to hire Riccardo Muti as its next music director. But Zarin Mehta, the orchestra’s new top executive has some important orchestra-building of his own he’d like to accomplish. – New York Times

Isaac Stern is 80 and looking to teach. “What I can do best and what I think is most worthwhile is teaching the players how to think. I teach them how to listen to themselves and be honest, so they can become independent and go as far as their talent can take them, which is usually farther than they’ve gone at the time that they come to me. The main direction is teaching them not how you play, but why. Why do you want to be a musician?” – Los Angeles Times

The English National Opera, mindful of the many travails of Covent Garden with its extravagant theatre makeover, has embarked on a more modest plan for its infrastructure. – The Telegraph (UK)

Composer John Williams was startled to read in the press earlier this week that he is going to write an opera for Placido Domingo and the Los Angeles Opera. Williams concedes he’s talked with Domingo about a project but that nothing has been agreed upon. “Better minds than mine have tried opera and not been successful – it is an art that has had difficulty renewing itself, especially in this country. – Boston Globe

When you marry an orchestra musician, you’re marrying the whole orchestra. An orchestra wife writes about how she spent the summer. – The Guardian

A new British study finds that the kind of music played in stores greatly influences what consumers buy. “When French music was played, French wine outsold German varieties by five bottles to one. When German music was played, it outsold French by two bottles to one.” – The Age (Melbourne)

Houston Symphony names Hans Graf to succeed Christoph Eschenbach. Graf is currently music director of the Calgary Philharmonic and the Orchestre National Bordeaux-Aquitaine in France. – Houston Chronicle

Musicians of the Chicago Symphony sign a new contract, making them the highest-paid orchestra musicians in the US. Pay jumps to “$1,770 a week, or $92,040 annually, in the first year, rising to $95,940 the second year, $100,100 the third and $104,000 the fourth. – Chicago Sun-Times

Masur directs his first concert as principal conductor of the London Philharmonic on Saturday. “Listening to the greatest music is equivalent to what a Buddhist monk is doing if he meditates for hours, independent from the surrounding world. I would like to bring people to a point where they feel that they need to go to a symphony concert, just as a Christian needs to go to church.” – The Telegraph (UK)