Category: music

Due to the unexpected cancellation of a grant, “Make Music New York, the non-profit behind an expansive one-day music festival that takes over the city on the first day of summer, has issued a plea for emergency financial aid before its forthcoming edition on June 21.”

Gradually I learned the truth about the working world: except in a few narrow areas of expertise, your undergraduate college major has very little influence on your career path — or your success. On the other hand, a kid with the strong muscles every young musician grows will be able to prosper in life. Following the tough road of a music major will make your daughter more sturdy and flexible than kids who drift through “safe” degree programs.

“He learned to practice by changing the rhythm of the piece. He learned to play one note at a time with a tuner. He learned to play each measure with a different metronome timing, and then he played the piece so slowly it took 20 minutes instead of just four. During these insane lessons where Amy and my son spent one hour on five notes, the more we worked on the art of practicing the more I saw that practice is a method to do anything ambitious and difficult. He learned to create a system and process instead of just focusing on the goal itself.”

“Ginstling arrives at a time of significant transition for the NSO. He will start his tenure at the same time as Gianandrea Noseda, who will officially be welcomed as the NSO’s music director at a free concert on the Mall on July 29.”

“Installing and tuning the Earth Harp is a two-day process. On this day, [inventor William] Close is getting ready to drop 42 strings, weighted by water bottles, off the edge of the 700-foot building. His tech, Jonathan Golko, will catch them and attach them to the harp’s main resonating chamber. The following day, Close will tune the harp, a process that he’s got down to a science. He can vibrate four notes out of each string.”

“There is so much new life and affluence crowding the Brooklyn waterfront that traditionalists like Mark Peskanov, the master violinist who runs the Bargemusic concerts of chamber music aboard a handsomely converted coal barge, hard by the Brooklyn Bridge, might be tempted to move. Which he has no intention of doing.”

Okay, it ended up not being the full orchestra, and “plans changed almost by the hour,” as David Patrick Stearns reports. But there was a performance and workshop for kids in the impoverished ger district, a master class for the national military band, an unannounced visit by the entire Mongolian State Philharmonic Orchestra to a rehearsal, a read-through of a Mongolian ballet score, and an outdoor concert by the brass players in (yes) Beatles Square.

Changes in leadership are in process…

Like the agreement reached last year, the new one, which begins Sept. 11 and runs until Sept. 9, 2018, includes a pay raise. Minimum weekly scale will rise from $1,560 to $1,591.20.