Category: music

At a Major League Baseball game on Tuesday night, a member of the pop-opera group The Tenors, without warning his colleagues, changed the words of Canada’s national anthem to add the words “all lives matter” – and, of course, all hell broke loose. Said tenor evidently had no idea that “all lives matter” is an anti-#BlackLivesMatter backlash slogan and thought he was being inclusive. And so the jokes begin …

“Four of the [eliminated] jobs were in the marketing department, and a fifth was cut from the education department, symphony spokeswoman Julia Kirchhausen confirmed in an email.”

“Austria’s Grafenegg Festival, now approaching its tenth year as a destination summer event, with preliminary events beginning July 16, has appointed Leon Botstein as artistic director of the Grafenegg Campus and Academy, effective in 2018. The position is a new one, not to be confused with artistic director of the festival itself; that is Rudolf Buchbinder, in the job since the event’s beginnings in 2007.”

“Compared with earlier years, songs in 2010 were more likely to include the singer referring to the self by name, general self-promotion, and bragging about wealth, partner’s appearance, or sexual prowess,” the researchers report. “A similar, albeit nonsignificant increase, was also seen for bragging about musical prowess and demands for respect. Overall, the most popular music from 2010 contained more self-promotion than music from 1990 or 2000.”

“[Eric] Kujawsky is the director, founder, and inspiration behind the Redwood Symphony, which he has recently nicknamed ‘the Bernie Sanders of Symphonies’ because of their steadfast commitment to a progressive approach that embraces ambitious and contemporary music. If you wonder whether that includes a chip on the shoulder; yes, it does.”

“Founded in 2007, JACK has become an important ensemble with a reputation for adventurousness and for championing new work. … The personnel change adds a new wrinkle to the quartet’s name. JACK is an acronym made up of the first letters of the first names of its original musicians.”

“After a series of Google searches along the lines of ‘classical music black lives matter,’ it became clear to [Eun Lee] that no such project existed. ‘It just hit me,’ Ms. Lee said, ‘that, as much as we were seeing a response from rap musicians and folk musicians and now more and more pop musicians, there was no such response from the classical music community.'”

“On Saturday, 7,548 musicians assembled in a Frankfurt sports stadium to smash the world record for largest musical ensemble. … The orchestra performed the 9th symphonies of Dvorak and Beethoven, as well as lighter numbers by Andrew Lloyd Webber and pop music composer John Miles.” (includes video)

“After spending last season trying out candidates, Orchestra 2001 says it has hired a new artistic director: Jayce Ogren. He starts the job at the group’s concerts in late October.” He is only the second director Orchestra 2001 has ever had.

“Enrique Carreón-Robledo has been named the new general and artistic director for Opera San Antonio. He will step into his new role Aug. 1. He succeeds composer Tobias Picker, who left the company in January 2015.”