Category: music

“Youth orchestras get to have it both ways. If they play brilliantly, they get accolades; if they do not, they get points for inspiring young players. The NYO-USA is trying to be many things, to many people: the best players, yet the most well-rounded; a national orchestra, but heading to Russia with a heavily Russian program and a Russian conductor.”

“No one on our staff can recall ever receiving a press release from a Dallas organization disavowing a volunteer. This was strange.”

“In North America, 71% of all our listed concerts from 2008 to 2012 began between 7.00 and 8.00; the figure for the UK is slightly lower, at 69%. And yet this is prime time for evening meals and supervising young children, surely closing the events off from huge numbers of potential audience members.”

“The Phoenix-based company, which mounts performances in Tucson and Phoenix, was facing $3 million in long-term debt, including about $1 million owed immediately to its vendors. It also had no endowment to fall back on.”

“It was in Brazil last week that Alsop fell in her hotel room, damaging her wrist. Called a minor injury, it nevertheless forced her to cancel numerous appearances in July, and yesterday, on her doctor’s advice, she withdrew from conducting at Cabrillo in August as well.”

“The Minnesota Orchestra has canceled six concerts that had been scheduled for July 20 through Aug. 3 … [The programs] were to feature music originally planned for the regular season, including Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Dvorák’s ‘New World’ Symphony, with music director Osmo Vänskä conducting.”

The Los Angeles station’s tally of listeners rose nearly 16% from May to June this year. But the station’s president suggests that the rise in ratings may be a result of changes in the panel whose listening habits form the basis for the ratings.

“Researchers in Sweden monitored the heart rates of singers as they performed a variety of choral works. They found that as the members sang in unison, their pulses began to speed up and slow down at the same rate.”

“Normally, one would expect the mayor, or the state’s governor, or perhaps the state’s US senators, to get involved in a negotiation that’s garnering so much negative national publicity. But politicians need donations, and most certainly don’t need the fourth or fifth largest bank in the country opposed to them.”

“It would be great if our definition of “excellence” in today’s opera-land could open up again and look beyond the boxes that conservatories and young-artist programs and teachers expect their students to fill in.”