Category: music

– has refused to play a concert at the Austrian Embassy in Washington DC in protest against the inclusion of the far right party in the Austrian government. – CBC

Connecticut’s Goodspeed Opera House, has for years talked about building a larger, state-of-the-art facility to complement his Victorian candy box of a theater in the town of East Haddam. Now the company is planning not just for a new theater but for the literal transformation of the town, with theaters, new retail space for galleries, restaurants and specialty shops, a pedestrian plaza, a possible musical theater school, a 30,000-square-foot scene shop, riverfront walkways and, most dramatic of all, a showboat with a 700-seat dinner theater cruising the river. – Hartford Courant

Just what is the world looking for in its classical music artists? How high can fees go? And what is the right supply/demand ratio for the musician world? New head of the London-based International Artist Managers’ Association has some ideas. – Sydney Morning Herald

New generation of music software effectively allows anyone with a computer to be a musician. “The current technology allows someone without any musical knowledge to effectively collage together music out of other people’s music,” says one software pioneer. “Forget about home studios and samplers. Increasingly sophisticated software and a slew of new beat-generating synthesizers have further democratized music-making, putting professional production tools in the hands of anyone, no formal training required. It doesn’t even cost much: Some of the software can be had for 49 bucks.” – Philadelphia Inquirer

If the modern symphony orchestra is in trouble, somebody forgot to tell the Boston Symphony. The orchestra is just finishing up its $130 million capital campaign, which it will “comfortably exceed.” Ticket sales are booming, and orchestra management is confident as it considers where it wants to go next. – Boston Herald

– and good times ahead. Digital downloading of music and film isn’t to be feared, says the president of the recording label BMG. Instead, it will create a new boom in the entertainment business. – Variety

A new MP3 music-sharing software program called Napster enables listeners to download music files from one another. Is this what the recording companies fear? – Salon

Embattled Covent Garden announces it will reduce some of its ticket prices, in response to mounting public criticism. – BBC Music Magazine

– but now comes the hard part – repairing relationships, and, perhaps more important, figuring out how an already-broke orchestra is going to afford an extra $5 million management agreed to pay its players over the next four years. – CBC

Government report calls Scottish Opera management “irresponsible and inadequate.” The company was saved from bankruptcy only by an emergency £2.1 million bailout by the government last year. Former SO director calls the charges “untrue and unfair.” – BBC