Peter Dobrin talks to composer Hannibal Lokumbe (currently composer-in-residence with the Philadelphia Orchestra) about his new oratorio, Crucifixion Resurrection: Nine Souls a Traveling, which premieres on the second anniversary of the massacre in the historic Charleston church.
Category: music
If Strads Lose In Blind Tests With New Violins, That’s Good News For Musicians
With Stradivarius instruments being found to sound no better than top-quality new violins in test after test, Hazel Rowland argues that violinists can be free of the tyranny of limited Strad supply and seven-figure prices. (Even so, as Rowland acknowledges, the power of the myth will persist.)
Pat Metheny, Dianne Reeves Among NEA’s 2018 Jazz Masters
“The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Jazz Masters award, which comes with a $25,000 prize, is widely described as United States’ highest honor for jazz. Today, the NEA announced its four newest recipients of the prize: pianist Joanne Brackeen, guitarist Pat Metheny, singer Dianne Reeves and producer Todd Barkan.”
Alain Trudel Named Music Director Of Toledo Symphony
“The Toledo Symphony Orchestra named noted Canadian conductor-composer Alain Trudel as its new Music Director this morning, less than a month after its last maestro, Stefan Sanderling, officially vacated the position.”
How The Concertgebouw Is Changing The Audience Experience
“The challenge is to show the world that everyone is welcome at the Concertgebouw and to bring more people through the doors that haven’t visited before – but that would love to come irrespective of their backgrounds. I think at all times we should avoid thinking that we should change our artistic core to attract more audiences – eschewing, for instance, those fusion concerts and crossover concerts that seldom seem to work out well.”
Why Alan Gilbert’s Time At The NY Philharmonic Mattered
“I reckon his tenure was at least 80 percent successful, though in a recent interview with the Times he seemed dissatisfied. “To a degree I lost my stomach to fight for things,” he said, “because I thought we were doing good work generally, and musically things were going in the direction I wanted them to.” That startlingly candid statement suggests that, in Gilbert’s mind at least, the Philharmonic registered his prodding not as an incitement to inventiveness but as a form of artistic nagging. It balked at too much reinvention.”
A South Korean Pianist Wins The Van Cliburn Competition
Yekwon Sunwoo is the first South Korean to win the annual competition. After he played his final performance, he said, “I went out for lunch at Sundance Square actually right at the time my performance was being played [on the big screen] from last night. … That was kind of strange to have lunch there and see yourself playing.”
Can A Tweet Record A Sound?
Audio or it didn’t happen? “A loud bell rings. Its waveforms are so thick it’s as if you can see them floating in the misty San Francisco air. The bell is all stately gravitas. Even if you didn’t know that the nearby school is parochial, you’d sense the bell’s churchly vibe. And then, suddenly, there is silence: Recess has concluded. The bell has marked a juncture.”
Nero Rock Opera Is Not So Welcome In Rome
So state officials allowed a 3,000-person theatre to be constructed smack dab in the middle of one of Rome’s main archaeological sites so the opera could run this summer. “This may not be the first grave abuse perpetuated against Rome’s monuments, but it is certainly the most serious.”
How An Obscure Eastern European Symphony Sold A Million Copies And Changed The Classical Record Industry
William Robin traces the history of Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No. 3, from its unhappy premiere at a French avant-garde festival 40 years ago (allegedly, Pierre Boulez shouted “Merde!), through the release, 25 years ago, of the surprise hit recording by conductor David Zinman and soprano Dawn Upshaw, to the major labels’ attempts to repeat the work’s success.