Category: music

“In Japan – a country that has prided itself on producing and exporting its own fantastical pop culture – Korean entertainment has come to gobble up massive portions of melodrama and musical market share. … Korean media, especially pop music, has exploded in the Land of the Rising Sun because the K-Pop architects have embraced everything that the Japanese music industry has shunned for years.”

The Italian conductor had to cancel a number of scheduled engagements to fill in for the ailing James Levine at the Metropolitan Opera. “Leading the queue of angry theatres is Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera, which is threatening to sue the Met after scrambling to find a stand-in to conduct Richard Strauss’s Elektra on 30 September.”

“It is the opinion of the Sustainability Study Committee that if the Colorado Symphony does not adopt all of the above recommendations in full and achieve success in their implementation, it faces a high probability of demise within the next two years.”

“Both schools seem to have an enlarged vision for what training musicians of the future might look like, Bard with its conservatory that emphasizes music’s connection to the other liberal arts, and Longy, with its focus on connecting musicians with the communities in which they live.”

“Day’s My Heart has gone in at number nine, 62 years after the 87-year-old’s debut album was released in the US. My Heart is a selection of recordings produced by her son, Terry Melcher, before his death in 2004.”

“The cake for all festivals is invariably the quality and the depth of what is below the headliner. If you only pay attention to the main act, then all you’ve got is a concert.”

A second record-breaking season for London’s Proms sees thousands of new ticket-buyers and 94 percent attendance.

Anne Midgette talks to “Tosca” soprano Patricia Racette. “Opera,” she said, “is such a rich art form. So even changing the ingredients — the singer, the costume — just changing it a little can make a huge difference in the perception of it.”

Bass-baritone Hao Jiang Tian gathered “20 emerging American and European singers … [to spend] a month learning to sing in contemporary Chinese operas as part of [his] I Sing Beijing program.”

“The 105,000-square-foot building, in the 1600 block of Locust Street, bridges a facilities gap between Curtis and other schools, giving it dormitories for half its 160 or so students, a cafeteria, additional chamber music rehearsal rooms, teaching studios, and a climate-controlled vault for rare instruments.”