Category: music

“It often feels good to listen to Aretha Franklin to lift our spirits, or croon along with Adele to make sense of a breakup. But is it also possible to listen to music in ways that sabotage our mental health?”

The silver and ebony mounted violin bow, made by Francois Xavier Tourte, was purchased on Monday for a world record auction price of US $288,960.

Says the veteran rocker, who’s doing the narration for an update of the Prokofiev work titled Peter and the Wolf in Hollywood, “These classical writers were insane, when you think of how crazy they were. These guys were out of their minds. They were just eaten by this music, they were mentally insane over it. They were the rock stars of their time. But I think they would have been a lot crazier than we were.”

Personally, I have the greatest sympathy for whoever wins CBC Music’s “Canada’s Greatest Music Class” because it will not ring true. The winners could have been called “Canada’s Newest Pop Cover Stars” or something similar. That would have been wonderful, authentic and worth celebrating.

“Jay Alan Zimmerman discovered he was losing his hearing when he was in his early 20s, trying to make it as a musician on Broadway in New York. As his hearing worsened, Jay considered other professions, but ultimately he couldn’t imagine a life without music. … Jay has to decide if he wants to be a part of the experimental phase of [a] new treatment, or if the potential risks are too great. Meanwhile, he’s found ways to keep composing with the little bit of hearing he has left.” (podcast)

“At the Royal Opera, 44% of tickets in the 2014-15 season cost £50 or less; 33% of the tickets for Welsh National Opera’s The Marriage of Figaro cost £25 or less; and 500 English National Opera tickets are available at £20 or less for every performance – and with various schemes that ENO offer, these £20 tickets can be for some of the best seats in the theatre.”

The 33-year-old pianist – who, along with rival Lang Lang, has megastar status in their native China – was performing Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with David Robertson and the Sydney Symphony in Seoul when he took a wrong turn in the music and got lost; he and the orchestra had to stop briefly and start again. So far, so human. Then Li suffered one of the downsides of megastardom …

Those dates included Fröst’s debut as artistic partner of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, in Minnesota and on an Asian tour. He has been diagnosed with Meniere’s Disease, “a disorder of the inner ear which causes severe vertigo, sickness, and tinnitus.”

The Rio-based orchestra gave its now-former chief conductor no formal sendoff: first his title was quietly changed to Conductor Emeritus on publicity materials, then (apparently in response to inquiries) an official statement noting that his contract had expired in August was given to the press. Minczuk’s decade with the organization saw a widely acknowledged improvement in musical standards – and conflicts over his leadership style that culminated in a player revolt in 2011 that cost him the title of artistic director. (Perhaps coincidentally, last month it was also announced that Minczuk is ending his ten-year tenure as music director of the Calgary Philharmonic this season.) (in Portuguese; click here for Google Translate version)

“Opera Sacra, which focused on operas with religious themes, has presented many professional-quality productions over the past four decades.” Said director Father Jacob Ledwon, “I have decided that 40 seasons is a good run.”