Category: music

“Classical music is good for the soul and maybe the heart too. Mice with heart transplants survived twice as long if they listened to classical music rather than pop music after their operation. … Mice exposed to opera fared best.”

“A humanitarian group is working to bring the National Symphony Orchestra of North Korea on a tour of the United States – with the full blessing of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, one of the most repressive countries in the world.”

“During the last week at the South by Southwest Music & Media Conference, that question was pondered over bites of barbecue and swigs of Shiner Bock. The answer, the industry types figured, had something to do with the cloud, and online streaming music services like Spotify, and making the right deals to build your band into a brand.”

“Star performers don’t generally become involved in the operations of major arts organizations, but about a year after the CSO and Music Director Riccardo Muti named Ma as creative consultant in December 2009, the Lyric gave Fleming the same title. Yo Yo Ma and Renee Fleming have sought to help their respective organizations reach out into the broader communities, but otherwise their work hadn’t overlapped any more than the CSO’s and Lyric’s efforts have in recent years.”

“Sunday’s sundry cellos swelled fabulously, and they exhaled just as fabulously. Cello vibrations seemed to infuse all the senses, not just hearing. The hall shimmered. The cellos could be felt through the skin, tasted, smelled.”

“Like the resale value of a new car the moment it leaves the dealer’s lot, the PR value attached to a new piece of music plummets immediately after its premiere. The difference, a cynical composer might respond, is that there’s a market for used cars.”

The company, first formed in 1996 by San Francisco Opera choristers who wanted their own turns at center stage, had to suspend operations in 2009. Now SFLO, with a new focus on chamber opera, is relaunching with a staged version of David Lang’s the little match girl passion.

“When singers sing high notes, their eyebrows go higher than when they sing low notes. While that may not be an absolute physiological rule, a team of Danish and American researchers discovered that it happens pretty consistently.”

“Based in a set of former cowsheds in the Yorkshire Dales, a team of experienced piano salesmen is travelling to Germany this week to launch the first of a range of uprights and grands which will have a production run of 50 in its first year. Cavendish pianos, named after the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, who own the premises in Bolton Abbey, bring British-made instruments back to the high street market for the first time since Yamaha moved production of its Kemble pianos to the far east in 2009.”

“British artists accounted for 11.7% of all albums sold in the US in 2011, the BPI said, up from 9.8% in 2010. Adele’s second album 21 led the pack, selling 5.8 million copies, followed by Mumford and Sons’ Sigh No More, which sold 1.4 million. A total of 30 albums by UK acts sold more than 100,000 copies in the US.”