Caetano Veloso: “Bossa nova is a sacred music for many Brazilians. It’s political and nationalistic and poetic. … It was possibly the first popular music where the themes were existential. It’s part of what makes it high art. … It’s a form of high modernist art that somehow became one of the most popular musics on earth.”
Category: music
What Did in NYCity Opera? Look To The Board…
and a board chair who spent down the company’s endowment.
The Struggle Of Musicianship
“I never had the makings of a prodigy. I had something else. Easy to say that I have this in common with thousands of others who took up, or were persuaded to take up, and eventually to put down, perhaps with some relief, a musical instrument.”
Why Is The Music Business Broken? It’s Not Trying To Sell Music
“The old music industry may have had a lot wrong with it, but at least it was clear how everyone in the food chain — the artist, record label, music distributor and physical retail stores — could stay in business. The music had to be created, recorded, manufactured, distributed into stores and… SOLD. Not so in the new music industry.”
Verdi At 200: A (Long, Playful, Thoughtful) Appreciation
“I can’t explain to you why you should like Verdi, because I can’t believe you won’t hear it for yourself. It’s hardest for us to teach, or explain, the things that come most naturally to us, and for me Verdi has always made perfect sense. Something about his work accords with my sense of how life works, and how stories can be told and experienced.”
What Happened When Osmo Vänskä Conducted The Minnesota Orchestra Musicians For The Last Time
“In typically self-effacing fashion, he asked the audience to withhold applause at the end, and listeners filed out quietly, many in tears.”
Milwaukee Symphony Declares It Has To Reinvent Itself
“We have a growing recognition that a long-term ‘fix’ is now critical for survival.”
Classical Music’s Very Bad Week In America
“Washington’s shutdown drama is not the only one currently on offer: classical music in America is enduring its own hell week, the most significant crisis to affect the industry since the Great Recession took hold in 2008.”
Women Conductors Are “Counter To Nature”, Says (Another) Russian Maestro
Yuri Temirkanov: “As Marx said, in response to the question ‘What’s your favorite virtue in a woman?’ – ‘Weakness.’ And this is correct. The important thing is, a woman should be beautiful, likable, attractive. Musicians will look at her and be distracted from the music! … The essence of the conductor’s profession is strength. The essence of a woman is weakness.”
George Steel On Trying To Save NY City Opera: “It Almost Worked!”
“When I arrived in 2009, the … $30 million budget included $16 million of income that just wasn’t there. There really wasn’t enough money to do five operas at Lincoln Center. So we had two options: Close, or do something radical to save the company. And it almost worked! It gave us two more full seasons and two balanced budgets. Our first season away from Lincoln Center we sold every ticket to every show.”