Category: music

“Returning from financial retrenchment of past seasons, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia on Tuesday announced a four-year contract extension for music director Dirk Brossé and a new residency with Lincoln University, starting in the 2013-14 season.”

“After a strong dominance of Asian pianists in the 2009 contest, the United States will have the largest contingent — eight — this time.”

“Technology has created an unresolved and urgent question. Who owns pop’s past?”

“Louisville Orchestra has reached a three-year contract agreement with its musicians that freezes their wages for the next two years. … The agreement comes after a contract dispute that stretched for more than three years and silenced the orchestra for the 2011-12 season.”

“A panel of Czech judges ruled Tuesday that concert promoters – and not Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe – were largely to blame for the tragic death nearly three years ago of a teenage fan of the metal band, saying the singer’s actions did not constitute a crime.”

“A bill introduced earlier this month to the Russian State Duma to oblige concert organizers to obtain a special license and a 150-million-ruble ($4.9 million) bank guarantee has caused a commotion in the concert market.” Says one promoter, “It will impoverish the capital’s cultural life and completely destroy it in the regions. There will be no small clubs or young musicians.”

“The SPCO musicians rejected management’s latest ‘play and talk’ offer, which would have resumed the concert season while negotiations continued. However, … SPCO president Dobson West held out hope that the lockout, which began Oct. 21, may be coming to an end soon.”

“The next time orchestras are taken to task for being too European, too Caucasian, and too male-dominated, one might reference the new and growing generation of music directors who bring an inclusive sensibility and dimension to artistic leadership.”

Radiohead lead singer Thom “Yorke said he now feels In Rainbows experiment may have actually helped technology companies, such as Google and Apple, strip the value out of music for their own benefit.”

“Perhaps surprisingly, what remains of Sawallisch in the orchestra today has less to do with the internal musical dynamics of the ensemble than with the way he prodded the organization to relate more to the outside world. … his innovations not only live on, the orchestra’s current stewards embrace them as salvation.”