Mike Ashman looks at the extraordinary number of key events that happened that year – events whose effects we still feel today.
Category: music
Salzburg And The Transformative Effect Of Festivals
Salzburg maintains that the $75 million spent on the festival generates four times as much in revenue for the city. The final report of this summer’s six-week festival, which ended Wednesday, said 97% of all tickets were sold. Attendance was 261,500, more than double the capacity of the Coachella music festival.
We Knew It: Study Says Trained Musicians Make Better Decisions
“In addition to the rich sensori-motor benefits early music playing may have on the developing brain, music training may also confer long-lasting benefits in complex cognitive functions,” writes a team led by Kirsten Smayda of the University of Texas–Austin. “The music classes offered during many children’s elementary and high-school education in America may result in improved decision-making ability as an adult.”
Top Street Artist Designs The Egyptian Palaces Of ‘Aida’
Anne Midgette meets Retna (aka Marquis Lewis), who created the sets for Washington National Opera’s new staging of the Verdi evergreen (co-produced with San Francisco Opera).
Berlin’s Fabled Staatsoper, Daniel Barenboim’s House, Finally Reopens (More Or Less)
“The work took much longer than expected – the company was originally scheduled to move back from its interim residence across town in the Schiller Theater four years ago – and the renovation costs spiraled from an estimated 239 million euros to 400 million ($473 million), half of which was covered by federal funds.” Even so, after a new production next month, the theater will close for another two months so technicians can master the new high-tech equipment.
Record Nerds Pick Their Favorite Recording Labels Of The 20th Century
“There were over 140 different record labels suggested by those polled, with the majority of labels receiving less than five votes. Not surprisingly, some of the larger “corporate” labels dominated thanks to the quantity and quality of their products, as well as their ubiquitous distribution, radio play and advertising.”
Will Houston’s Brilliant Jazz Scene Survive The Water?
The catastrophic wake of Hurricane Harvey has stretched across East Texas and into Louisiana, taking lives and uprooting tens of thousands of others, while causing billions of dollars in damage and disruption. But the flooding in Houston has been a specific worry for that city’s jazz diaspora, which includes some of the most important artists of the present era.
Which Pop Art Will Define The Trump Era? Enter Taylor Swift
Swift is a perfect, golden avatar of our moment, a child of the new century who understands celebrity as a form of constant curation of one’s brand the way that Madonna, a child of the old century, understood it as an act of persona creation. Whether or not she is a Trump supporter, she is an embodiment of Trump culture. And with this single, which broke a YouTube record in its first 24 hours, she has slouched in at the last minute to grab the title of Song of the Summer, or at least Song of the Summer We Deserve.
The Shaggs Have A Reunion Concert (This Will Never Happen Again)
The three New Hampshire sisters who formed a rock band because their father forced them to (when he died, in 1975, they stopped) developed a serious cult following, either despite or because of “deficits in what is commonly understood as standard musicality.” Five years ago, a Brooklyn musician did a Shaggs tribute concert; he’s since made meticulous transcriptions of their songs, and this summer he got the two surviving sisters to perform with him and his band at Mass MOCA. Howard Fishman was there.
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Receives Largest Gift In Its History
The $1.5 million donation, “called the ‘Allan Vogel Chair, endowed by the Henry Family,’ supports the principal oboe chair. … The gift is significant for LACO, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary season. The orchestra’s annual budget is $4.5 million.”