Category: music

The soprano writes: “I work with a group of sixth graders in the little school where I used to teach in Marissa, Ill. … I thought perhaps Britten’s piece might be a bit of a stretch for 12-year-olds, but was I ever wrong. Weeks before the rehearsals, I got e-mails from students with questions about the text.”

“While piano wire has changed over the centuries from iron to steel of varying qualities, researchers were surprised to find that the sound produced by the instruments’ wires has remained largely unchanged.”

“The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, began with more than 1,200 singers — aspirants in what may be the most technically demanding of Western arts — in local rounds across the country, in Grand Forks, N.D., and Philadelphia, in Little Rock and Boston.”

“Since the end of the epic six-month musicians strike in April, Detroit Symphony Orchestra officials have been sprinting — rebooting spring concerts, dropping ticket prices for the future by up to 50%, rebuilding next season and hashing out ambitious programs designed to broaden the orchestra’s reach.”

“Take a drive through the dozens of one-stoplight towns that are planted along highways that twist through this region’s blue hills and green valleys, and you’ll find that music is the manna of the community. If there ever was a place where musical authenticity was born and nurtured, “raised up” as the people around here say, the Crooked Road is it.”

Anthony Tommasini: “His 40-year association with the Met, all but two years in leadership roles, is a staggering milestone. But the time has come for Mr. Levine to make his next contribution to the company he loves and step aside as music director. The Met needs someone new in that demanding post.”

“[B]etween now and Aug. 31 – about 15 weeks – the orchestra must raise $3.3 million more just to reach [its campaign] goal. It’s only after that $3.3 million is raised that the orchestra can begin to put a dent in the deficit. In other words, to break even this year on its $46 million budget, the orchestra needs to raise $8.3 million in 15 weeks.”

“Even before the six-month strike that gutted the current season, ticket sales at Orchestra Hall were in a long downward slide. The moment the strike ended last month, music director Leonard Slatkin made it clear the orchestra under his personal leadership would begin taking the music out to the DSO’s audience – which largely means the metro area – in an effort to reconnect with the public.”

“Art is pure, right? Celestial. To soil it with base, terrestrial politics feels improper, even rude, especially when one considers just how awful politics really is. “Politics is about winning,” the political composer and activist Bob Ostertag says, “a concept meaningless to art.” So how are these things expected to mix, if at all, without the supposed purity and nobility of art being compromised?”

“A new hybrid approach is emerging, one where you own your music, but also can access it all from the cloud and stream it to many different devices via a Web browser or mobile app. This approach is typically called the ‘music locker.’ It is being developed because each of the two existing models has drawbacks.”