Category: music

Here are answers from half a dozen contributors: conductors Peter Phillips (The Tallis Scholars) and Harry Christophers (The Sixteen, Boston Handel & Haydn Society), a documentarian, an atheist, an archbishop, and a prominent rabbi. (And no, they did not walk into a bar.)

“English National Opera is to begin broadcasting productions live to cinemas – only 18 months after its artistic director, John Berry, suggested that he was far from enthusiastic about the idea.”

“The Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra revealed details of 10 concerts they will produce and play between January and May.” Erstwhile music director Osmo Vänskä will conduct four of them, and a couple of very well-known soloists will perform for greatly reduced fees.

“The city of Detroit may be in bankruptcy, but the Detroit Symphony Orchestra is back in the black. … The newly released figures suggested that the orchestra is recovering from a corrosive six-month strike that ended in 2011.”

“A big boost in donations and hefty cutbacks pushed the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s annual budget into the black for the first time since 2007.”

Salonen (or his work) is nominated in three different categories. Other nominees include the familiar (Rattle, DiDonato, Bartoli; Wagner, Beethoven, Pärt), those we should know better (Lutoslawski, Palestrina; Maria João Pires, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir), the up-and-coming (2013 Pulitzer winner Caroline Shaw; New York Polyphony), the little-known (Leonardo Vinci, not to be confused with that mirror-writing Mona Lisa guy), and the beleaguered (Osmo and the Minnesotans).

“A winner of 20 Grammys, including two last year, Corea, with his latest album The Vigil, was shut out Friday night in this year’s list of nominees, which again offered a welcome blend of relative newcomers and familiar faces.”

“Retailers are fine-tuning their stores’ playlists as they wake up to the power of music to communicate a brand message and put shoppers in the mood to spend. One shopper’s favorite song can make another shopper cringe.”

“The Minnesota Orchestral Association gives a dumbfounding report of its financial situation.”

Board chairman Jon Campbell believes this says something about the “business model”.