Category: music

Anne Midgette: “Gone are the days when there was a fixed canon of ‘good’ composers (or, worse, ‘approved’ ones), and a critic told you what you were supposed to like. Today, musical taste has blown wide open.”

“Not so many months ago, the Chicago cellist and viola da gamba player Craig Trompeter … thought: Why not start a local company specializing in ‘authentic’ stage realizations of neglected as well as familiar operas from the 17th and 18th centuries?” So he did, and Haymarket Opera will debut in September, with a second production next February.

“The leaders of the Sacramento Opera and Sacramento Philharmonic are discussing a merger as a way to secure their futures – and potentially grow – despite a troubled economy.”

“Daniel Barenboim, the world-renowned conductor and pianist, led a peace concert performed by the West -Eastern Divan Orchestra in Imjingak near Korea’s Demilitarized Zone on the country’s Independence Day.”

After finishing the Korean DMZ concert, the maestro proposed “an open-air concert by his orchestra of Jewish and Palestinian musicians on Tahrir Square, the symbolic home in Cairo of Egypt’s Arab Spring uprising.” Barenboim said,” We would like to play in the Gaza Strip, on Tahrir Square in Cairo and in Israel too.”

“The deal, which covers songwriting rights, paves the way for YouTube and Google to begin monetizing user-generated videos that contain music written by artists represented by the NMPA.”

“In a stunning rebuke to the official leadership of the Philadelphia Orchestra, musicians have rejected a strategic plan prepared by president Allison B. Vulgamore and management leaders.” The letter to the board of directors communicating the rejection was signed by 80 out of 100 musicians.

“Lyric Opera of Chicago and the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) reached tentative agreement Tuesday night on a contract for the 2011-12 season. No details of the settlement were forthcoming.”

“On the heels of the Pittsburgh Symphony musicians taking a 9.7 percent pay cut for their new contract, PSO music director Manfred Honeck announced today he will take a 10-percent reduction in his salary.”

“In roughly five years, the company has morphed from a conservative, standard-repertoire-based organization to a haven for new opera with a speed that astounds even those who made it happen. ‘Think about it: We have four [operas] under active commission and two others that we’re working on,’ said general director David Devan. ‘We have a composer-in-residence program’.”