“The pathways that were most affected were bundles of fibers that link the sensory and motor regions of the brain and the fibers of the corpus callosum that run between the hemispheres. In the dancers, these sets of connections were broader (more diffuse); in musicians, these same connections were stronger, but less diffuse, and showed more coherent fiber bundles.”
Category: music
The Man Who Was The Voice Of Met Opera Broadcasts For 29 Seasons Has Died At Age 96
Beginning in 1975, Peter Allen “delivered a kind of recitative, telling listeners what would happen as a given opera unfolded, and even what was happening before that, from the moment the lights went down to the moment the Met’s great gold curtain went up.”
The Striking Pittsburgh Musicians Say (Of Course) It’s About Quality
“The musicians, who have been on strike since Sept. 30, argue that management’s last proposal would do irreversible damage to the quality of the 120-year-old ensemble.”
Escaping Northern Ireland’s ‘Troubles’ Through Opera
Annilese Miskimmon: “Opera and theatre were, and still are, a safe place for open-minded, creative people from both communities, a defence against all the sectarian problems. Art united while religion and politics divided.”
The Gifts Of John Cage
“He opened doors—floodgates, really—and dissolved definitions; if most of his own compositions now seem less interesting than the ramifications of his ideas, there can be little doubt that his oceanic spirit changed the topography.”
Striking Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Musicians Play Free Concerts
“The musicians’ orchestral program on Oct. 9 features Antonin Dvorak’s ‘New World’ Symphony, which the musicians were scheduled to play Oct. 14 to 16 under Manfred Honeck at concerts cancelled by management.”
Venezuela Is In Systemic, Grinding Crisis, But Its Orchestra Is At Carnegie Hall
“For all the good El Sistema does, its closeness to the government has made many wonder whether it and the Bolívars are inextricable from — or even function as a kind of propaganda mission for — a regime that has dragged its people to disaster. And concertgoers might even ask how they should approach listening to this orchestra at this particular fraught moment.”
The Composer Who Sees David Bowie As A Muse
“Mr. Branca first crossed paths with Bowie in 1981, when they were working on projects at the same Manhattan studio, the Power Station, and would pass each other in the hallway. Bowie was aware of Mr. Branca’s work. On the title song of the album ‘Tin Machine,’ Bowie refers to the composer: ‘Fractured words and Branca-sonic/Anger trapped behind locked doors/And right between the eyes.'”
Pittsburgh Symphony Management Makes, Then Disavows, Threat To Hire Replacements For Striking Musicians
“The management of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has told its musicians that it ‘has an obligation to keep Heinz Hall open’ and may ‘hire replacement workers, either on a temporary or permanent basis, as will be determined by the business necessity we face.’ But COO Christian Schörnich, who sent the letter to the orchestra players on strike, said that statement is simply a legal formality … and that the organization has ‘no intention’ of hiring replacement musicians to play orchestra concerts.”
Bernard Labadie’s Chamber Orchestra, Les Violons Du Roy, Selects His Successor
Jonathan Cohen, a British cellist and harpsichordist who serves as one of William Christie’s associate conductors at Les Arts Florissants and runs the period-instrument collective Arcangelo, will become music director as of 2019. Labadie founded the Quebec City ensemble in 1984 and announced in 2013 that he would step down from its helm.