Category: music

“Professional musicians are slightly bemused at why you’d want to cut off sound, but musically it helps me a lot. It’s easier to get in touch with this idealized sense of music.”

“It’s part of a trend among music companies toward a straight, fee-for-service industry, in which the important task of moulding artists and shaping consumer tastes has devolved from record labels and is left mostly up to the artists themselves.”

“Details of the negotiations, which began in April, have dribbled out and reveal far-reaching proposals to trim the SPCO’s annual expenses, which totaled $10.9 million last year. The board’s initial proposal called for reducing guaranteed workweeks for most musicians [from 35] to 20 weeks per year, and in some cases to 15 weeks per year.”

“Soprano Janai Brugger, who recently graduated from L.A. Opera’s Domingo-Thornton Young Artist Program, took home three awards – the first-place prize, a zarzuela prize and an audience award.” The other two winners of the $30,000 first prize were fast-rising New York countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo and Mongolian baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat.

“This is a significant change for a town long known for its conservative musical tastes. It was not that long ago that German and French repertoire was considered exotic in an environment which equated opera with traditional Italian fare. Performances of 20th and 21st century opera had been even more of a rarity.”

“The decision was made after PSO music director Manfred Honeck, staff conductors, musicians and staff heard four finalists perform Monday at Heinz Hall. They were chosen through public voting on the PSO’s YouTube Channel.”

“The judge, after reviewing a list of procedural concerns, said he was approving the quicker-than-usual schedule in recognition of the case’s notoriety, suggesting that any interested parties were already aware of the bankruptcy. Ballots approving or objecting the plan are being sent to creditors and are due back by June 26.”

“The Israel Wagner Society is continuing in its efforts to find a venue for a concert of pieces by Richard Wagner, without much success. Last week, the society found a venue in which to hold a concert this coming Saturday, the Tel Aviv Hilton Hotel. A few days later however, hotel ownership changed its mind and cancelled the show.”

“Arts funding in Morocco is so poorly organized and endowed that King Mohamed VI and his government are trying to remedy the situation by handing some of their favorite singers or film stars licenses for buses and other businesses to subsidize their acting or singing.”

Two of the more exciting indie classical orchestras just released new CDs that show that a different operating model doesn’t diminish the music’s quality. Still, if orchestras like this are going to innovate on the operational side — more power to ’em! — I wish they’d also include more innovative and contemporary music in their programs.