Category: music

An alternate model? “A musical curator, someone who comes in for one year perhaps. Isn’t there something kind of exciting that someone could come in and talk about pop programming and jazz programming as well as chamber music recitals and what goes on at the CSO? For one summer? [They could] start working three years in advance, and we’d see what comes of it. I think we should explore that model.”

“You’re never really told how to feel when you look at a chart, even though it may have to do with something that is very human like income inequality or climate change. It ends up being just information that you don’t really internalize or contemplate. So I wanted to figure out how to take something like a chart but curate an experience in which you’d feel a certain way while listening to the song.”

That would be Harry Partch’s Delusion of the Fury. “For many years there was essentially only one set of instruments” – the ones the composer built himself – “capable of playing Mr. Partch’s largest works, which meant the pieces were rarely performed. But a few years ago Ensemble Musikfabrik, the German contemporary music group, decided to revive … Delusion of the Fury, and turned to Thomas Meixner, a percussionist and instrument maker, to build a new set of Partch instruments.”

“The app is perfectly modern and delightful. It’s called Steve Reich’s Clapping Music. It is available only for iPhone or iPad, and it’s free. It is simple: It plays a famous piece of experimental music composed by Reich in 1972.”

“We show that in-school music training changes the course of adolescent brain development. Our results support the notion that the adolescent brain remains receptive to training, underscoring the importance of enrichment during teenage years.”

A spokesman for the Woodruff Arts Center, the ASO’s parent organization, “said early numbers show revenues exceeding expenses by a ‘solid six figures.’ ASO musicians, who went nine weeks without pay during the lockout [that began the season], will share 22 percent of the surplus.”

“Nothing wishy-washy or overly enthusiastic: [Klara Berkovich] was practical, very clear, and knew exactly what could be improved. … [Jascha Brodsky] didn’t believe in shortcuts: At 85 years old, he took it upon himself to learn a new concerto in order to teach it to me as well as possible.”

“It is very difficult to argue that China is not the most important market for the future. There are between 60 and 100 million Chinese people learning either the piano or the violin.”

“No one is saying, ‘Have you got anything creative to say? Have you made anything that’s worth putting out that you feel proud of?’ I’m old enough to know that it was a long time coming and that’s OK, I’m fine with that.”

“As it was a court instrument, the bass instrument was made for a chamber setting, with softer strings and gentler tones.”