Category: music

On the charges that he lifted material a colleague wrote for a film score: “There was this beautiful material. It didn’t work for the movie, but it worked for music. We decided both: ‘Let’s grab it. Each one can do what he wants.’ Joint ideas, joint material, same room.”

The city, whose government is nearing bankruptcy, has so many problems that it topped last year’s Forbes list of America’s most miserable cities. The Stockton Symphony’s commission of a new piece by composer Avner Dorman – and the local workshops and tryouts Dorman held as part of the process – are starting to break down some barriers between the beleaguered residents.

“In the 21st century – with fewer clubs, more big-ticket concerts and an increasing emphasis on box-office stars – emerging artists get a fraction of the stage time that past generations enjoyed. These players in their 20s struggle for the chance to mature in the best possible way for jazz: riffing before a live audience.”

Murky and vindictive politics in the Riviera metropolis have led to the first successful general director the house has had in years being completely undermined by a city councilor and his colleagues.

He’ll leave in 2015, ending what by then will be a 16-year run in the job. “Zukerman, who is known for expanding the Ottawa orchestra’s educational programs and the number of its full-time musicians, is currently in his fourth contract as conductor, a long run for a conductor with any orchestra.”

Over and over this season, the city has been treated to one bad production after another. While New York has never particularly been a capital of opera, this is a low point…

“Pity the poor accompanist, condemned to sit in the shadow of the great voices and the even greater egos of today’s singers. Being the pianist who plays for them can feel like the most thankless job in music.”

“The strings are said to have a ‘soft and profound timbre’ relative to traditional gut or steel strings. That may arise from the way the strings are twisted.”

Bell was on stage when someone who looked like him and claimed to be him got into his hotel room in Zaragoza, Spain. How did he get the hotel staff to open the room safe? That took some ingenuity, and a towel.

“Yes, classical musicians can be amazing, and their performances are the result of a kind of intense dedication (those hours of practice) that rightly inspire respect in those who don’t do it themselves. Yet all artists spend hours and hours making their art, and few other artists are greeted with the same kind of awe simply for doing what they do (‘You wrote a BOOK? All those WORDS? Wow!’).”