Category: music

A member of the Minnesota Chorale notes that the important parts involve an exchange, and that the Orchestra and Chorale are working with “750-800 local musicians and 20 music ensembles. At least 11 South African composers will have their works performed.”

Principal horn player Philip Munds was with the orchestra the last time they went abroad in 2005, and he’s missed it: “It’s really good for the orchestra to play in different places. … It makes you step it up. It broadens our awareness and gets us hyper-focused.”

Wesley Morris breaks the album down, and says it was made for a time when albums meant something. This album still does. “Her going for the max maxes you out. This is what virtuosity should do — leave you knock-kneed, perform the unthinkable.”

In the final entry of his 18-year column “Resonant Frequency,” Mark Richardson writes about the joys of a life lived with music blasting through headphones (and for him, those joys are very real), and his middle-age exploration of silence, culminating in a visit to an anechoic chamber.

“The Cleveland Orchestra released a statement Thursday detailing the group it has appointed to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against suspended concertmaster William Preucil.”

“The [Sept. 6] reading session in Verizon Hall isn’t open to the public. But by inviting select decision-makers such as conductors and artistic administrators from other orchestras, the organizers aim to encourage further exposure and opportunities for these composers.” What’s more they’ll each get to keep a recording of the reading, and a sample recording played by the Philadelphia Orchestra will make quite a calling card.

Volker Hagedorn: “You might think you’re just there for the music, but the fact is that you are still participating in an entirely invented, cultish religion. … For me, Bayreuth nowadays is more of a curiosity than anything else. A gigantic hamster wheel, with directors racing each other to prove their relevance; an exhausted Dracula, sucking the lifeblood from artists from outside the music scene; a museum of local history, starring an international elite of singers, who appear to be of the opinion that no one needs to understand the words.”

“If your reaction to hearing the name Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is a shrug, even a smirk, you’re not alone.” Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim visits the Bard Music Festival, dedicated to the man Richard Taruskin calls, yes, “the most underrated composer in history.” Responds CdFW, “I can’t say that’s a judgment I quite came to share … But I left Bard with a newfound appreciation for a quality I had never before considered as a factor in music: shame.”

“Over time, everywhere that you might want to enjoy music—in different rooms of your house as well as outside the home—we want to have a product that serves that scenario really well, and also any content that’s relevant to you. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to summon that up wherever you are. All of our work is going into those areas. And again, when I say content it’s not just music. It’s sonic culture umbrella in general: podcasts, entertainment, TV soundtracks, things like that.”

According to the National Association of Music Merchants, a trade organization in the music industry, the demand for American-made guitars rose year-over-year with unit sales increasing by 7.03%. And overall, the total retail value of guitars sold — $1.3 billion in 2017 — indicates a rebounding industry.