“The move comes after HMV could no longer make payments on its crippling debt to the tune of $39 million. The chain was profitable up until 2013, but after a significant decline in sales it has not made a single payment on the debt since November 2014.”
Category: music
How Do We Make Jazz More Viable? Harvard Business School Takes Up The Case
“The dilemma here is how do you get young people at any age to start being interested in jazz? There is some research that says that people imprint on music in their romantic years, the time that they’re dating. That would be high school through college, more or less. Jazz is losing generations of young people because they’re not exposed to it during that time. Jazz is no longer the music of rebellion, hip hop is. This is not something that’s easily solved.”
The Corporatization And Consolidation Of New York’s Music Scene
“But in the increasingly consolidated concert business, the reality is that corporate dollars are taking over, even in the clubs that for decades seemed to embody rock music’s anti-establishment ethos.”
Report On The State Of British Orchestras: Playing More, Earning Less
“The total number of concerts and performances staged by these organisations increased by 7% between 2013 and 2016, and audiences grew by 3%. Outreach programmes for children and young people saw a 35% increase in participation… Despite the growth in performances, total income among the group studied fell by 5%, with earned income, contributed income and public funding all showing decreases. Earned income continues to account for 48% of all income, while the proportion raised from public funding fell by one percentage point to 34%.”
Technology That Can Show You What Your Brain Looks Like When Its Processing Music
“Joe showed me the color-coding and the lines so you could see alpha waves in one color, and theta and delta waves in different colors. We saw this incredible spectacle, with groups of lines wavering in a kind of order. It was phenomenal — we were looking at the rhythms of the brain. At that moment, the idea of Portrait of Your Mind was born.”
St. Louis Symphony Signs New Five-Year Contract With Musicians
“The main points of the contract are financial. There will be pay increases averaging 2.8 percent annually, for an increase in the minimum scale from $86,053 in fiscal 2017 to $98,304 in fiscal 2022, and a half-percent increase in the pension contribution rate starting in the contract’s third year. Work rules will also be adjusted, permitting more flexibility in scheduling and in how the orchestra is used, more efficiency in rehearsals, adding personal days for the first time, and increasing flexibility in touring rules.”
Clarinettist On Tour With Yo-Yo Ma Has No Idea If He Will Be Allowed Back Into The United States
Kinan Azmeh, a Syrian clarinettist who has lived in the US legally for 16 years and acquired a green card three years ago, flew to China three weeks ago to tour with Yo-Yo Ma. “I have my apartment. You know, 16 years is not a short time, you accumulate lots of stuff. … But what is not replaceable is all the friends who are incredibly supportive.”
For Philip Glass’ 80th Birthday, An 11th Symphony
Glass, responding to a question: “I’ve done quite a few operas, and probably close to a third to a half of them have political themes. It’s only really in the opera house, or in the theater, and sometimes in the dance hall, that the composer can initiate a discussion about social justice and politics. Mostly, we’re just writing. Symphony No. 11 doesn’t have any of that: It’s just about music.”
Now, Conservatories Need To Train Students To Speak As Well As They Sing
As composers embrace a wide variety of vocal styles, “introducing budding opera singers to the experimental side of the genre isn’t necessarily a fool’s errand.”
What Does A Conductor At Carnegie Hall See From The Podium?
NYT in 360 has the answer, or rather the view, as Daniel Barenboim conducts the Staatskapelle Berlin.