Category: music

The Colburn Conservatory of Music is only a decade old, and used to be a “well-kept secret” in L.A. That was before they hired a guy who knows how to brand.

“They’re asking us to make a giant investment in the Minnesota Orchestra, per player over $60,000 per year. We need to know what we’re investing in if we’re going to entertain any offer like that or come back with any further offer.”

“By far the biggest offence is the idea that the “long player” has withered on the vine without the plastic disc to support it. As if, with the vanishing of high street record shops such as HMV we’ll move to a shuffle-only culture of individual tracks.”

“Just as conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin suggested a year ago, the Philadelphia Orchestra will follow him onto the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon recording label this spring, though so far only one disc is assured.”

“To the musicians from Mali here, the attempt by terrorists associated with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) to suppress music in their country’s north goes beyond politics and religion: It’s an offense to the soul of the nation, where music is more than entertainment, it’s essential to life.”

“Details of a new awards initiative for opera have been announced, with the inaugural prize-giving ceremony to be held in London on April 22. The International Opera Awards have been conceived by businessman Harry Hyman as ‘the first truly international set of prizes in the operatic world’ and are being supported by Opera magazine.”

Actually, it did pretty well…

“As a curtain-raiser, the Dallas Opera will present the world’s largest screening of “What’s Opera, Doc?” The 1957 Warner Brothers cartoon, directed by the legendary Chuck Jones, stars Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd in what’s the best known, even best loved, send-up of Wagnerian opera.”

The proposal, to which the musicians’ union must respond by next Monday, would run through June 30, salvaging the final third of the season. Management locked out the players in October and has subsequently cancelled all concerts until late March.

“The chair of the Minnesota House Legacy Committee says she is considering reallocating funds currently designated for the Minnesota Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra … [to fund] continuing concerts that the locked-out musicians have organized themselves.”