“Boston Symphony Orchestra music director James Levine has withdrawn from the remainder of this season due to his lingering back problems, meaning the orchestra will now have to find conductors to lead it during an upcoming tour of the East Coast.”
Category: music
How a Rapper Helped Launch North Africa’s Revolutions
“For years, [rock] musicians in Tunisia and Egypt were terrified of aggravating the authorities. Then a song by a little-known rapper showed it was possible to protest and survive.”
Is Manfred Honeck The New Model Of Orchestra Music Director?
The Pittsburgh Symphony leader has a different approach to the job…
Strike-Plagued Detroit Symphony Loses Entire Percussion Section
“When the Detroit Symphony Orchestra strike finally ends, the orchestra will have to march to the beat of an entirely new set of drummers. All three of the percussionists in the orchestra have announced plans to leave.”
Columbus Symphony, Musicians, SIgn Up For Pay Raise
The orchestra and its musicians “have reached a new four-year contract restoring a portion of the wages lost since 2008, when a financial crisis spurred a five-month shutdown.”
What Would It Take For London To Have A Berlin Philharmonic?
“This visit has asked of audiences: what would it take for London to field an orchestra as great as this? An orchestra in the international super-league, as excellent as those of Berlin and Vienna; an orchestra that defined the cultural identity of London, a source of pride way beyond its regular audiences? The answer partly lies in its musicians.”
What Explains Chopin
“The hallucinations of Frédéric Chopin is in the tradition of what some call neurotheology, the attempt to medically explain spiritual experiences. The not-always-subtle subtext is that unexplainable visions, or other divine madnesses, have no place in our enlightened, modern world.”
Needed: A New Model For Orchestras
“There is no dialogue about what type of musicians music schools are preparing, how the paradigm needs to shift, and what new skills orchestras should be considering for the future. I cannot think of another industry where there is no relationship between the employers and the trainers.”
NY Philharmonic Scores Home Runs In Fundraising
“Even as most arts organizations have struggled through a brutal few years for raising money, the New York Philharmonic not only has met its fund-raising-campaign goal of $50 million, but has nearly doubled that figure.”
Boston Symphony Unraveling In Levine’s Absence?
“The larger issue remains Levine’s regular and repeated absences. His artistic choices demand the most from audiences and orchestra members alike, but if he is not there to give them shape, where does the future of this orchestra lie?”