Category: music

Recent incidents have “raised new questions of how airlines set their own rules about which musical instruments are allowed on board. Cellos are particularly problematic, not being able to fit in overhead bins and generally requiring their own seat.”

“[Frédéric] Chaslin’s departure did not appear to have been anticipated. … Chaslin informed the company of his decision shortly after the summer opera season ended on August 25, and … he has now returned to his home in Paris.”

“While most artists I talk to are in it for self-promotion, a conversation with Tognetti is an intellectual ice bath.” The director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra “weighs his words with punctilious care and also politely dissects whatever I say. There’s nothing unfriendly about it – he’s eminently charming – but it’s the conversational habit of a man addicted to exactitude.”

“Without much of a fanfare, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and its musicians failed to come up with a new collective bargaining agreement, leaving them without contracts as the deadline quietly passed Saturday night.”

Company CEO Judy Lisi: “Rather than having the season from fall to spring, we thought we’d take advantage of the high season, when there are a lot of Canadians here and a lot of Europeans.”

“He already had an exotic, double-barrelled name that wouldn’t seem out of place alongside Björk, Madonna, Rihanna or Lady Gaga – and a daring performance style and aesthetic to match. But the classical chameleon formerly known as Hahn-Bin has changed his name to Amadeus Leopold in a bid to pay tribute to his violin idols.”

“In recent negotiations to sign a new contract (our current agreement expires Sept. 30) the SPCO management and board have proposed wage cuts of 57 percent and 67 percent, as well as reducing drastically the number of concerts involving our full ensemble.”

“Who are the string players? The divas. What do you call oboists? The orchestra neurotics. And the brass? Drunken bullies.”

“The tour takes 117 people — 101 instrumentalists, one music director, one soloist, one assistant conductor, a small stage crew and other staff, a music librarian, a doctor, a photographer and an embedded music critic — to four cities for four concerts in four days.”

“The rise of E.D.M. also reflects the shifting ground of the music industry, in which big record labels are no longer the primary career makers, and a young, hyperdigital generation of acts has its eyes on more distant and prestigious prizes like film scoring.”