Category: music

“One of the world’s cherished concert venues, where audience and performers alike praise the acoustics and say the spirit of musicians past seems to seep through the walls, the [Liszt Academy’s] ‘Large Hall’ in Budapest has been painstakingly restored during a four-year closure to its early 20th-century Art Deco style.”

“A Stradivarius that thieves once tried to sell for £100 may fetch more than £2m when it goes for auction in December, ending its long association with an internationally acclaimed violinist. The violin, then valued at a mere £1.2m, was snatched at a Pret a Manger cafe at Euston station, London, in November 2010.”

By themselves, mostly, they can’t. Enter the benefactor-investors.

“Today lots of young singers take roles that are far too big for their voices. Agents cheer them on, eager for their clients to enter the spotlight. Casting directors increasingly hire them, keen for comely faces. And opera houses looking to keep expenses low are grateful for the cheaper talent.”

“Since August, visitors to the Philharmonic’s website have been greeted with a ‘closed for maintenance’ message. Music director Alan Pierson’s contract expired in June and hasn’t been renewed. The administrative staff has left. An orchestra source, who declined to speak on record, says the group is experiencing severe financial difficulties due to a drop in fundraising.”

“With days to go before Glyndebourne opens only its second staging of the Britten chamber opera it premiered,” the renowned actress and budding director “reflects on bravery, burial and layers of darkness.”

“Lisitsa decided to try YouTube after realizing that she could not compete in a classical music business with so many talented pianists who studied in conservatory.”

Or could it be Android phones gaining on iOS phones? (Or perhaps sunspots? Does ANYONE know?)

“The violin that was apparently played to calm passengers on the Titanic as it sank was sold for £900,000 in just 10 minutes at auction in Wiltshire.”

For the new opera “Invisible Cities,” audience members wear wireless headphones and wander L.A.’s Union Station as the singers and musicians perform directly to them – and as dancers gradually reveal themselves.