Category: music

“The reality is that a lot of our students are not going to waltz out of here into solo or orchestral careers, and we have an obligation to help them invent careers for what we know of the 21st century as it is evolving. This building is a laboratory for students.”

As the mad mathematician says in A Beautiful Mind: “What’s the use of being nuts if you can’t have a little fun with it?” For a composer, what’s the use of dying if you can’t get a couple of good pieces out of it?

Tori Amos couldn’t quite make the Peabody Institute work for her, but in the middle of her successful pop career, Deutsche Grammophon called — and she answered.

“In a contract extension that was effective Dec. 1, orchestra musicians agreed to waive $616,000 of their salaries this season, with a total waiver of $1.1 million over the next three seasons. From 2008 to 2015, when the current extension will expire, the musicians will have endured $3.8 million in salary cuts.”

“The concept that musical performance is a sport is somewhat different from the concept of the artist who says ‘I work in a medium.’ If the understood medium involves technology, then it would seem to me that any manipulation you have would be fair game.”

A look at three London orchestras who play with Alex Ross’s idea of a “‘great fusion’: intelligent pop artists and extroverted composers speaking more or less the same language.”

“Contract talks between New York City Opera and its two main unions broke down on Thursday shortly after midnight, leaving little immediate prospect of an agreement and raising the possibility of a strike by the orchestra and chorus.”

“With music downloading – authorized or not – an inescapable reality today, a growing number of artists, managers and industry figures are looking for new ways to take advantage of technology – seeing it not as a hindrance, but as an invaluable tool.”

The American Federation of Musicians and Employers Pension Fund is run jointly by the union and about 7,000 orchestras, media companies and other employers. Those employers have to make up the money the Philadelphia Orchestra is pulling out of the fund – which is why the dispute over how much the orchestra owes as a withdrawal penalty is so bitter.

Due to cardiac issues, the Italian conductor has withdrawn from high-profile concert and opera engagements in Valencia, Munich, Leipzig (where he is essentially the city’s music director), and Boston, where he is thought to be a leading candidate for Boston Symphony music director.