Category: music

“Labels have backed away, and that’s created a complete DIY [do-it-yourself] environment. A lot of artists now, on top of being an artist, have to wear tons of hats, from being a manager to a booking agent to a graphic artist to a producer.”

“Using MRI scans, a Canadian team of scientists found that areas in the reward centre of the brain became active when people heard a song for the first time.”

“The BBC is in a bind after opponents of Margaret Thatcher pushed the song “Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead” to the top of the British charts in a posthumous protest over her divisive policies.”

“The orchestra’s second China residency will feature master classes, workshops, pop-up performances in public places, hospitals and schools, as well as playing alongside local orchestras in Hangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, and Macao” – where they’ll appear at the enormous Venetian casino complex.

Impresario Leo Schofield recounts how he discovered a little jewel-box of a theatre in the island’s capital – and managed to convince state ministers, wealthy philanthropists and even Covent Garden’s music director to help launch a festival of Baroque music there.

“The RPS awards are the most respected classical music awards, judged by performers, composers, curators and critics.”

Vinyl recorded “$171 million in global vinyl sales in 2012, up 52 percent from the year before. That echoes other reports, including Nielsen’s most recent Soundscan, which have found strong growth in vinyl sales over the past five years — not to mention a steady uptick in vinyl-related Kickstarters and analog fan blogs.”

“An hour after the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra announced a tentative contract settlement with its locked-out musicians on Wednesday, Michael Henson, president of the Minnesota Orchestra, expressed cautious hope his orchestra’s locked-out musicians would respond in kind, with an offer to start negotiating a new contract.”

“At first glance, you might think that the field of contemporary classical music doesn’t have a whole lot in common with the high-powered corporate tech world. And you might also think that, in the arts, women have an easier time rising to the top. But in the art music world outside of the American orchestral scene, it’s harder to quantify how far women have or haven’t come. “

“When is an agreement not an agreement? The short answer: if it’s not ratified. The long story, of course, is more complicated.”