Category: music

“Once the deal was reached at 3:15 a.m. after a marathon bargaining session, the Met dropped its threat of a lockout and announced that its season would open on schedule on Sept. 22… But while there was a palpable sense of relief that the Met had pulled back from the brink of a serious crisis, challenges remained.”

“[The American Music Project’s] goal is simple: to broaden the exposure of American classical composers to the public at large. But does the world really need another classical music nonprofit? AMP’s founder Johnson clearly thinks so, and his reasons for feeling this way are compelling.”

“The unions representing the orchestra and chorus recognized the financial fragility of the opera house and agreed to their first pay cut in decades, while management abandoned its toughest demands and agreed to make significant reductions of its own, with independent oversight.” (emphasis added)

Suffering from bladder and respiratory infections, the tenor-turned-baritone has pulled out from the remaining three sold-out performances of Il trovatore with Anna Netrebko as well as a concert with Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.

Following a midnight deadline and overnight talks, a Federal mediator announced that Met management has settled on contract terms with Local 802 of the AFM (instrumentalists) and AGMA (choristers, some soloists and stage managers).

“The photographer has now turned her hand to Opera, creating La Trashiata, which features dopplegangers of Charles Saatchi and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, among others.”

“David Ramadoff’s 33rd season holding the baton for the Vallejo Symphony Orchestra will be his last. Suzie Peterson, third-year VSO board president, said the organization seeks ‘a different direction’ after a 10-0 vote to replace the maestro following the third and final 2014-2015 concert on April 12”

This orchestra had lost the high profile and wide admiration it had during its glory days under the late Maurice Abravanel. Now music director Thierry Fischer is determined to get them back, both nationally and within the state – so he and his players are touring beyond Salt Lake City to five of Utah’s most scenic locales.

Sasha Frere-Jones: “With his parodic versions of hit songs, this somehow ageless fifty-four-year-old has become popular not because he is immensely clever – though he can be – but because he embodies how many people feel when confronted with pop music: slightly too old and slightly too square. That feeling never goes away, and neither has Al, who has sold more than twelve million albums since 1979.”

The “Commando Squad” was Virgil Thomson’s American version of Russia’s “Mighty Five”, and it included himself (of course), Roger Sessions, Walter Piston, Roy Harris and (commander) Aaron Copland. The New York Times chief music critic dreams up a musical festival focusing on their lesser-known works.