Category: music

Opera Grand Rapids has changed its mission, said executive director Anne Berquist. “It’s a different approach, but it gives a new, fresh look at what opera should be in the 21st century. We’re still going to produce fully staged opera. That’s what we are. But we need to do other things to build our audience.”

“An extraordinary row has erupted between one of Europe’s most respected string quartets and London’s premier chamber music venue over the cancellation of a forthcoming concert. It has left the relationship between two major names in classical music in tatters.”

I can’t find one that’s widely available and ventures outside of the tightly programmed, not-so-distinct-sounding formats that its corporate overlords have decreed from the home office somewhere in not-Chicago. Indeed, I like to lump all those formats together into one uber format I’ll call “obvious music,” the songs you’ve heard before and expect to hear again from yesterday, today and, soon enough, tomorrow.

“The Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam joined the initiative, called Classical Live, which offers downloads for sale or streams music to subscribers.”

“In 1979, the Times investigated picnic habits among Central Park concertgoers, discovering cream of plum soup, pork loin à l’orange, lobster claws, and vichyssoise.”

“Most powerful for me was the depth of meaning to recreate something like this. Most all the original members went to Treblinka extermination camp. It just carries this weight.”

“Music programs are watching administrators race by, frantically chasing test scores and ignoring music in schools. So it may seem like a natural step to go running after the testing crowd hollering, ‘Hey, I can help with that, too.’ Don’t. Just don’t.”

“Kim Witman, 58, is celebrating her 30th year at the Wolf Trap Opera. When she started in 1985, she was a coach, new to the opera world, playing for rehearsals and earning intern-level pay. And even now that she’s leading the company — her official title is senior director of the Wolf Trap Opera and classical programming at Wolf Trap — no job at the center is beneath her. She does a lot of things that many general directors don’t do: accompanying singers, making casting and repertoire choices, and, yes, blogging.”

“Record company ignorance squandered billions in the early years of this century ­because the music people lost out to the tech people. The music people’s job had been to make hit records; technology was a tool to help this happen but nothing more.”

“While he was literally going voiceless on the stage, I was looking into the wings to see if they were telling me to bring the curtain down, because of course I had no communication with anybody,” says conductor Jonathan Darlington, who had the orchestra with him on stage rather than in the pit.