Category: music

“Leonardo da Vinci dreamt up the Viola Organista in the late 15th century as a marriage of keyboard and string instruments. But he never built it, experts say. Virtually forgotten, it has come to life thanks to a Polish concert pianist with a flair for instrument-making.”

Courtney Pine: “We can’t let these geezers keep trying to control what jazz is.”

Forty wireless mics for performers, 160 sets of headphones, 15 in-ear wireless monitors – all of this tech “allows ‘Invisible Cities’ to break the boundaries between musicians, audience members and casual passersby, expanding the stage into the public space at Union Station.”

That includes scholarships to “students who, like Alpert in the old days, will have their own label – Herb Alpert Scholars.”

“One risk, it’s true, is that personal partiality may sway a reviewer to be overly kind to an undeserving work; but even more, there is a risk that a too-honest review can destroy a friendship.”

The $1195, 8-volume, almost 6000-page set of books no longer neglects country music – and expands its focus on Hawaiian, Native American, Asian American and Latino musicians.

“On that day, for those sitting in a grand concert hall in Boston and perhaps for everyone tuning in via the wireless, a society torn apart by an assassin’s bullets perhaps, in a small way and already, began to be restored, by music.”

“Top-end French piano maker Pleyel, whose instruments were used by the likes of Frederic Chopin, Claude Debussy and Franz Liszt, announced Wednesday it will end production by the end of the year.” Founded in 1807, it was the oldest piano manufacturer still operating.

“It is difficult to overstate the effect Tavener’s music has had on younger generations. There is much to be learned compositionally from careful study of his patience and surprise revelations, but I am more interested in how singing his music has enabled a generation of musicians to really enjoy stillness and circular structures.”