Category: music

“Pending approval from bankruptcy court, the nonprofit Symphony Exploratory Committee will pay $210,000 for the assets, which consist of the 110-year-old symphony’s music library and a variety of instruments, including two grand pianos.”

Tom Moon on how his journalism affected his musicmaking: “When you listen to a lot of music as a critic, what you’re ultimately doing is shaping your aesthetic – shaping your knowledge base in music theory but also seeing who has a way of expressing themselves that you respond to.”

“Despite his resounding title, Mr. Fernandez is not a critic in the ordinary sense of the word. His blog … is an online magazine that runs feature pieces about the orchestra and its activities in Miami. In addition, Mr. Fernandez invites concertgoers to post their own thoughts on the orchestra’s performances.”

Says one fullback-turned-bass-baritone, “When you stand in front of a man, jaw to jaw and toe to toe, and you have to determine how you can break this man’s spirit and do it again and again despite physical exhaustion and mental anguish, that requires a spirit that aligns itself to the opera.”

“You cannot negotiate a labor agreement on the social media. It doesn’t work. It’s just a poor execution and a poor use of social media as a tool.”

“Several years ago, the work, [Striggio’s] Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno, was rediscovered in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, where it had been miscatalogued. In 2007, it was given its first modern performance at London’s BBC Proms. Now, a new recording of the work has made its debut on the pop charts at number 68, beating the likes of Bon Jovi, George Harrison and Eminem.”

Two years after a Sistema-style music education program was launched in one of the country’s most troubled public housing estates, “a new report commissioned by the Scottish government has concluded that the project, Sistema Scotland, has the potential ‘to achieve social transformation’.”

Says an official with the program’s administration, “We’re generally seen as an arts project – but we’re not. We would have used pole vaulting if we thought it would work. The orchestra is a place where children can learn to live in a community and co-operate with other. An orchestra only works if everyone works together.”

“Health problems have forced the celebrated Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa, who is suffering from cancer of the oesophagus, to cancel appearances until January next year … He [had] made a brief return to the concert hall in September last year and again in December.”

“One of the top awards in the field of classical music, the Birgit Nilsson Prize honors singers and conductors for their career achievements. Placido Domingo was the first recipient of the award in 2009.” This year’s award, the second to be given, goes to conductor Riccardo Muti.