Category: music

A culture ministry official said that “the decision to drop Nazareth was mainly owing to budget constraints, as the ministry could not meet Nazareth’s salary demands. But [he] also cited conflict between Nazareth and members of the symphony and Culture Ministry as a reason for the conductor’s dismissal.”

“Finland will officially open the Helsinki Music Centre concert hall Wednesday, a state-of-the-art building which has taken more than a decade to complete and costs 188 million euros ($271 million).”

In his mid-fifties, Kennedy is still capable of behaving like a hotel-wrecking rock star from the Woodstock generation. How does he regard his thirtysomething self in hindsight? “If I hadn’t been like that, I’d just have been some f—er being exploited by the British music establishment playing for 150 quid a night, y’know?”

“Carlos Kalmar, the Oregon Symphony’s music director since 2003, has renewed his contract through 2015. His current contract ran through 2013.” The most recent of the orchestra’s successes was a rapturously received concert at Carnegie Hall in May.

Next July, ACO violinist/director Richard Tognetti – already known in Australia as a serious surfer – “leads a band of intrepid musicians and surfers from Darwin to Perth via Ningaloo Reef to explore the relationship between surfing, music, desert and ocean” for a multimedia project Tognetti sees as the sequel to his 2008 project Musica Surfica.

“While ticket sales revenue increased modestly last season, the orchestra received approximately $1.7 million less in funding from public sources than two years ago, said PSO board chairman Richard P. Simmons. The economic downturn also was a contributing factor, decreasing the amount of the PSO’s draw on its endowment.”

“The Kentucky Opera rebuffed an offer by the musicians from the Louisville Orchestra to play for the opera’s upcoming performances of Carmen at the Brown Theater, which comes during ongoing dispute between the orchestra’s management and the musicians in negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement.”

“After a $3 million upgrade, the historic theater now boasts a $1.3 million eco-friendly air conditioning system, larger, more comfortable seats, tripled capacity in the women’s restrooms and doubled capacity in the men’s restrooms. A new color scheme and lighting honor the building’s past but bring it into the 21st century.”

“Visual cues we pick up from watching musicians in action significantly influence our judgment of their playing, according to newly published research.”

After a day of rehearsals, the orchestra’s concertmaster called the new space “one of the greatest halls I’ve ever played in.” Another violinist says the acoustic “has a warm colour to it, not metallic, not harsh.” A veteran clarinetist exclaimed, “People were on Cloud Nine.”