Category: music

“Quite unexpectedly, this private, prayerful pursuit has made the Benedictines of Mary a chart-topping recording industry curiosity. After being named Billboard’s No. 1 Classical Traditional Artist of 2012 and 2013, the nuns released their third album, called “Lent At Ephesus,” Feb. 11 on the De Montfort Music/Decca/Universal Classics label.”

“While small clubs such as the Smell have long drawn adventurous young punks and Disney Hall gets an older classical crowd, these new spaces signal an audience of young residents for whom music is part of an urbane, walkable lifestyle.”

“Bringing Mr. Vanska back, if his demands are not unreasonable (and this outsider will not be the one to say whether jettisoning Mr. Henson would be reasonable), would go a long way toward rebuilding bridges to the players, to audiences and to, ahem, critics. The chemistry he obviously had with these musicians is rare, and some of them suggest that it could be even more potent if he were to return under these circumstances.”

“A female composer has never held the post, but if ever there was a moment to redress that injustice, this is it – a chance to make musical history, like Marin Alsop’s being the first woman to conduct the Last Night of the Proms last year, that it would be shameful to let pass.”

“Bonner stands on a wooden plank and is hoisted by six male performers who must coordinate their movements or risk having the star tumble onto the steeply raked set. They must then drop the plank from under his feet in unison at the moment of execution.”

“At 2 o’clock on Friday, November 22, 1963, the Boston Symphony Orchestra began a matinee program of Handel and Sydeman. A suite by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was to follow, but instead there was a pause.”

“The streaming service Pandora is squaring off against Ascap in a closely watched trial over royalty payments. Big music publishers like Sony/ATV and Universal are calling on the government to overhaul the system, and technology companies are accusing the publishers of trying to skirt federal rules meant to protect them.”

“Digital audio gives us the opportunity to control any sound with a bunch of buttons floating beneath a glass screen, but it also offers the chance to create instruments that take new forms and inspire new types of performances, unbound by strings, sound holes, hammers or acoustics.”

“Final regulations are due Friday, but the department hasn’t even started writing them. Transportation spokeswoman Meghan Keck said the agency hasn’t had enough money to do the work needed to write the regulations.”

“Every single step that they [the board and the school administration] have taken is counterproductive to music education,” he says. “It was like an abusive relationship. You only take so much for so long and then you ask, “Why am I killin’ myself here?”