“Could we lose the orchestra altogether, as happened in Miami and Honolulu in recent years? Of course we could. These things always seem impossible until they happen. There is a cascading effect flowing from the lockout. We are losing subscribers. Donors are angry. The crisis feeds on itself.”
Category: music
Atlanta Symphony Musicians Appeal To Board In Frustration With Woodruff Arts Center
“Yet after only two days of participating in the mediated negotiation process (October 7-8), the WAC’S representatives … left the table to await further guidance and instruction from the WAC Governing Board [and have not returned] … Clearly, once again, they arrived at the table with neither proposals nor the ability to authorize a deal.”
Beethoven Changed *Everything* About Classical Music, And Not All For The Better
Alex Ross: “He not only left his mark on all subsequent composers but also molded entire institutions. … How did Beethoven become ‘BEETHOVEN’? What prompted the ‘great transformation of musical taste,’ … the shift on the concert stage from a living culture to a necrophiliac one?”
Cuba Struggles With A Violin Shortage
“Before Cuba’s 1959 revolution, many students played violins, violas, cellos and bass from European workshops. After it, the Soviet Union provided violins and cellos, along with many other goods. Now, as Cuba struggles to revive its stagnant centrally planned economy, students must make do with violins from China that too easily pop strings and lose their tone.”
Why A Street Criminal Stole A Strad
“It isn’t every day that a street criminal – a high-school dropout with two felony convictions – is accused of stealing a centuries-old violin worth as much as $6 million. But nothing about the heist of the Lipinski Stradivarius, which galvanized the music world last winter, was normal, or even logical.”
Catching Up With San Diego Opera, Now That It’s Been Saved
James Chute gives a progress report.
Tobias Picker’s Big Plans For Opera San Antonio
Says the composer, now artistic director of the reborn company: “I would like to do a range of repertoire from Monteverdi to the present day. … American repertoire is extremely important. We’re living in a golden age of American opera. There’s a tremendous amount of opera being written today. … [I’d like] to get to the point where we can commission a new opera [every year].”
Why Does “Klinghoffer” Opera Still Roil Protests?
A look at the Met’s website suggested that ticket sales for “Klinghoffer” have been sluggish, but it is unclear what role the protests have played. The company’s latest marketing campaign seeks to turn the controversy to its advantage. Its tagline runs: “See it. Then decide.”
Battle Of The Unlikely Ukelele Bands
“To the anger of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, a group established in 1985 which moved from strumming in folk clubs to packing out the Royal Albert Hall with unlikely cover versions of songs such as Wuthering Heights and Smells Like Teen Spirit, the similarly named UK Ukulele Orchestra will perform its first UK show at Lincoln’s Theatre Royal on Wednesday.”
Ulster Orchestra Could “Cease To Exist” By Next Month, Warns Lawmaker
A member of Northern Ireland’s Legislative Assembly has said that, in just a few more weeks, the orchestra “will not have enough income to meet their outgoings. It’s a very bleak picture for them.” The province’s arts minister acknowledged that the ensemble’s finances have gone “from scary to scarier”.