“The notion that jazz is or isn’t is actually antithetical to the spirit of this music and all of the artists who have pushed its boundaries. Trying to make this music fit into a neat little box just can’t happen. And that’s tough for some people. We crave definitions for our art, and when we can’t describe or compare it, many get frustrated. Hence, the Jazz Police.”
Category: music
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra To Tour All 28 EU Member States
“In each country, the Concertgebouw will perform one opening work side by side with a local youth orchestra, and members will give masterclasses and tuition to young musicians. Daniele Gatti will conduct the first concerts of the tour.”
Dudamel And His Kids To Play The SuperBowl
“Could anything be more natural than Dudamel and YOLA at the Super Bowl? The inspiring youth orchestra, which Dudamel initiated in 2009 when he assumed his post with the L.A. Phil, is composed of mainly African American, Asian and Latino inner city kids. And after seven years of instruction and rigorous practice, they now represent the best of who we are as a society and of our future.”
Fabio Luisi Is Next Music Director Of Florence’s Opera House
The Genoa-born conductor “has been named as the new music director designate of Florence’s Opera di Firenze and its annual spring festival, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, in what appears to be something of a shakeup at the Tuscan company. The position of music director is a new one within Opera di Firenze, and an office that was reportedly created especially for Luisi.”
Violinist Leonidas Kavakos Wins Sonning Music Prize 2017
The award, worth DKK 600,000 (currently about $88,000), “is Denmark’s highest musical honour and has been given annually to an internationally recognised composer, instrumentalist, conductor or singer since 1959.”
What Jaap Van Zweden Did In Dallas
The city’s arts community has entered “its 2.0 phase,” says Catherine Cuellar, an official at the Communities Foundation of Texas and former CEO of the Dallas Arts District. The arrival of such energetic figures as van Zweden, 55, credited with transforming the Dallas orchestra into one of the best in the country, and Anderson, 59, who devised ambitious programming and reinstated free general admission at the DMA, proves the arts community has turned a corner, Cuellar said.
Kamasi Washington’s Giant Step
“With his popular, political, uncategorizable jazz, the young saxophonist has become something his genre rarely produces anymore: a celebrity.”
From The Inside: The Many Flaws Of El Sistema
“It’s not really an educational system, because…if you do something 22 or more hours a week, at some point, you’ll start getting good at it, that’s all.” Extreme working conditions were the norm.
Fort Worth Symphony Reportedly Decides Not To Implement Musician Salary Cuts
“Last week, musicians voted to authorize a strike and also rejected what management had called its final offer. A news release issued by the FWSO on Friday said the final offer would be implemented on Monday. … According to the [musicians’ union], the concessionary terms, including a more than 8 percent pay cut, have not been forced on musicians.” Management won’t comment.
Tommasini: Van Zweden A “Safe” But “Feisty” Choice For NYPhil
“Mr. van Zweden is an accomplished artist and a feisty podium presence who exudes energy. Those of us who want this institution to thrive should offer congratulations and wish him success. Still, my feeling lingers that his appointment represents a safe course.”