Category: music

“A free music education was one of the glories of the UK when I was a child. Too much has been sacrificed in the name of economic necessity. Learning music is a birthright. And you have to start young.”

“London, long a choral capital, is setting the tone with law firms, banks, accountancy firms, tech firms, even cosmetics giant L’Oréal now featuring company-supported choirs. A number have set up Google-style music rooms, and some even offer music lessons during the workday.”

Alexander Periera “was reflective about his struggles with the budget in Salzburg, where he arrived after more than 20 years at the Zurich Opera House to discover that the locked subsidies had created a large financial hole. ‘I was so charmed by being asked back into my home country that I didn’t do due diligence,’ he said. ‘And that was a big mistake.'”

“For those who don’t choose to make all their music on a chip, location still matters very much, though perhaps in different ways.”

“Whenever the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association finds a successor to former president Deborah F. Rutter, about to take leadership of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., that person will start with a clean slate in senior artistic management.”

“Either Mr. Gelb exaggerated the company’s plight as a negotiating tactic, or the unions ate his lunch. If he was exaggerating, then he’s made a fatal mistake.”

Ilya Demutsky’s New Jerusalem is about a vigilante who tracks down and kills pedophiles. Once a video trailer for the premiere was made and word got around, all hell started breaking loose.

In a 1,274-word online column titled “Classical Music Criticism in Dallas: It’s Time for a Makeover”, D Magazine’s Catherine Womack goes after The Dallas Morning News‘s Scott Cantrell for a 55-word blog post – a quick little kvetch about the word maestro – that Womack calls “insulting and condescending towards both enthusiastic audience members and The Dallas Opera’s newly appointed principal guest conductor, Nicole Paiement, who happens to be a woman.”

“The donations become part of the orchestra’s continuing recovery from large annual deficits and a bitter lockout. Administration leadership is changing, and board leaders are encouraging community groups to get involved in fundraising and auxiliary programming.”

Wonkette’s first sally into battle carries the memorable headline, “Wingnuts Will Save You Poor Jews From Getting Pogromed By Metropolitan Opera”.