Category: music

“With mobile phones in many a teenager’s pocket, the rise of sodcasting – best described as playing music through a phone in public – has created a noisy problem for a lot of commuters.”

“Anything that introduces anyone to something they haven’t encountered before and then decide to take further is a great thing. Popstar to Operastar does that. Art forms like opera are shrouded in mystery and mystique and these programmes explain what the life of an opera star is like. There is an appetite for opera and now it can be seen in cinemas, people are going.”

“Bruce Haynes and Susie Napper of the Montreal Baroque Festival have come up with an audacious offering for the ninth edition of the festival: six ‘new’ Brandenburg concertos. … These so-called Brandenburgs are actually instrumentalized groupings of Bach cantata movements.”

Tom Service: “Spira Mirabilis represent a transformative vision of what a symphony orchestra can be. They are a revelation, proof that musicians can not only survive but prosper when liberated from the variously benign or malevolent dictatorships created by the world’s conductors.”

While the musicians have continued performing, their labor agreement expired on August 30, 2010. The sticking point is pay: base salary for an MSO player is currently C$72,128, less than for their counterparts in Toronto and Ottawa, who play shorter seasons.

“Pittsburgh Symphony, Inc. and orchestra members … have reached an agreement for a new three-year contract nearly three months ahead of schedule. … The agreement calls for a 9.7 percent wage cut in musicians base salary the first year” with no increase in the second year.

“ENO’s viral video advertising Nico Muhly’s new opera is a kick-ass three minutes of social networking lampooning. However, it’s got zippity-squat to do with the work itself. … If the wit of the film gets people to turn up to ENO for the show, so much the better, but anyone who buys their ticket based on the film is in for a shock.”

“If the contests of yesterday were filled with aspiring professionals being judged by experts, a significant new strain of the Big Serious Piano Competition has risen up, and it is a considerably different animal. This is a new age of the amateur, and these amateurs are challenging our notions of quality, established practice and process.”

“In an unexpected move, the Sacramento Philharmonic has decided to part ways with its Executive Director Marc Feldman, … [who] had led the orchestra since 2007.”

The professional ensemble based in the Seattle exurb where Microsoft is headquartered will give its final concert on July 4. In announcing the shutdown, the board president wrote, “”The organization is simply not sustainable due to lack of support by larger donors to create an endowment, as well as a shrinking subscriber base.”