Category: music

“The day was warm and humid. The air was soft and thick. The very diverse audience included students and parents, rich and poor, children as young as 5. Attire could be anything: jeans and T-shirts, suits and mini-skirts. Kids carried musical instruments. Teenagers danced and necked on the plaza. Vendors sold delicious local chocolate wrapped with portraits of Gustav Mahler.”

The BBC’s Radio 3, during a an eight-day stretch entirely devoted to Schubert, will “finish” one of the several symphonies the composer left unfinished at his death.

“Sarah Lutman, president and managing director of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, will leave the orchestra to start an independent consulting practice, the SPCO announced Friday.”

When 15,000 viewers watched a webcast of the DSO, they set a new record – one that the DSO hopes to overturn. “‘Our goal is to be the most accessible orchestra on the planet,’ Scott Harrison, the orchestra’s executive producer of digital media, said in a statement.”

New studies confirm that classical listeners often respond differently to female conductors – but that’s not always a bad thing. (Also, those thinking about a random string of numbers during a performance won’t be distracted by gender. Really.)

“In the last few months, dozens of brass sousaphones — smaller tubas used in marching bands — were taken from schools in Southern California. Though the police have not made any arrests, music teachers say the thefts are motivated by the growing popularity of banda, a traditional Mexican music form in which tubas play a dominant role.”

The restructuring largely slashed the Grammy trophies for ethnic and minority genres, though some pop, rock, country and R&B categories were consolidated as well (for instance leaving male and female artists to complete in a single category).

“Videos submitted by instrumental soloists will be up for anyone to watch. The top four vote-getters will get a chance to audition for musical director and conductor Manfred Honeck. The winner – if Honeck picks one at all – gets $10,000 and a paid trip to perform with the orchestra at Heinz Hall this fall.”

“The Louisville Orchestra has issued a formal offer to its musicians to arbitrate for a resolution to the labor impasse in negotiations for a new contract.”

“My aim is to bring a personal belief to everything I do, and avoid routine and duty as much as I can. … What I want to avoid is the dutiful rendition of a new piece placed first in the programme so it can be got out of the way quickly. That attitude was all part of a certain corporate feel, which [the New York Philharmonic] has suffered from in the past, and which I’m keen to get away from.”