Category: music

“Jazz doesn’t get much coverage in the mainstream media, and hasn’t for many years. But something strange has happened during the last four months. Over a period of just a few weeks, a host of high profile periodicals have published smug, scornful dismissals of the music. Is this just coincidence, or has something changed in the cultural dialogue?”

“As they approach a negotiating session with a federal mediator on Wednesday, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra management and players are closer to a deal than they have been during a two-month musician lockout or in eight months of talks that preceded it.”

“In a more mundane way, we might think of conductors as the musical equivalent of sports team managers. You can’t quantify precisely what it is that they do – but you know it when you see it. … So what it is, exactly, that they do? Whether visibly or invisibly, consciously or unconsciously, here are some of the myriad things they get up to on that podium …”

When a group bringing classical music to cafes and bars calls itself Classical Revolution, well, naturally Mother Jones will be there.

“Dejan Lazic calls Midgette’s column “slightly defamatory” and argues that such criticism can have damaging effects beyond his own career. Midgette counters that she does not write reviews for musicians but for the benefit of her readers, and she hopes that her criticism will spark enlightened discussion.”

“Gary Hanson, executive director of the orchestra since 2004, announced Tuesday, Nov. 4, that he will retire from the post in October 2015. When he retires next fall, Hanson will have worked with the orchestra for nearly 28 years.”

“Music-evoked sadness can be appreciated not only as an aesthetic, abstract reward, but (it) also plays a role in well-being, by providing consolation as well as regulating negative moods and emotions.”

“The Ulster Orchestra is hanging in the balance because of cuts in the arts sector over the past three years. The orchestra, which costs around £4.6 million a year to run, has appealed for £500,000 from Belfast City Council to help keep it afloat.”

Muti: “To take another position as music director of an opera house means that your life is finished. You have to deal with problems with singers, the chorus, the theater in another part of the world.”

“On Oct. 30, [Dejan Lazic] sent The Washington Post a request to remove a 2010 review by Post classical music critic Anne Midgette that – he claims – has marred the first page of his Google results for years. It’s the first request The Post has received under the E.U. ruling. It’s also a truly fascinating, troubling demonstration of how the ruling could work.”