“[W]hile albums and singles remain the mainstay of the music industry, technologists, innovators and composers are coming up with new tools to help modern listeners engage with the songs they love.” Among them are programs that let people “mix their favourite tracks in virtually any way they like,” then “share their creations.”
Tag: 02.04.10
In Portrait Gallery’s Past: Rat Stomping & A Murder-Suicide
“According to the records, 34 rats were captured and killed between 1940 and 1946, with the staff’s boots being the main weapon of choice. The events surrounding [a] 1909 murder-suicide, in which a man shot his wife then himself in one of the galleries, minutes after they had been seen looking at portraits together, are recorded in detail.”
How To Entice Audiences To Adventurous Fare?
“[T]he ‘butts in seats’ mantra that has long been intoned by many marketing directors skirts the issue of what kind of audience you’re getting. Yet the audience’s tastes … are key to the future of the field.”
Teens Don’t Tweet
“Think of the millions of text messages that teens send. Think of their endless hours on Facebook. Twitter has not caught on in nearly the same way — and experts suggest the difference is that most teens want to socialize with their friends and peers, not broadcast to the larger world.”
The Music Alan Lomax Found In Haiti
“Lomax’s microphones,” being of 1930s vintage, “tended to emphasize the higher notes,” but “some of the music is amazing. Lomax’s Holy Grail was the search for musical traditions as close to Mother Africa as he could find.”
When Marin Alsop Opened The Orchestra Up To Amateurs
“Alsop’s staff initially thought she was a little crazy. Major international orchestras work hard to be the best at what they do and be admired by their audiences, not mingle with them. Would amateurs be good enough to play with professionals? Would anybody be interested in such a scheme?”
London Philharmonic Wins £2.3M Judgment Against Embezzler
The verdict was entered against the orchestra’s former financial director, 35-year-old Cameron Poole. “It is claimed Mr Poole used orchestra cheques and credit cards to pay for work on his house in Herne Hill, South London, and also to buy jewellery and artwork.”
Lincoln Center Theater To Build New Black Box Space – Atop The Beaumont
The 131-seat venue, expected to open in 2011-12, will feature work by emerging artists, with all seats priced at $20. Preservationists argue that a building on the Beaumont’s roof will despoil architect Eero Saarinen’s original design; the new theater’s architect, Hugh Hardy – who worked with Saarinen in designing the Beaumont in the 1960s – says the worries are misplaced.
Iran’s Hapless Musical Diplomacy (If That’s The Right Word)
The Tehran Symphony Orchestra has just completed a five-city tour of Western Europe featuring Majid Entezami’s Peace and Friendship Symphony, which Michael Kimmelman describes as “a four-movement jeremiad of martial bombast and almost unfathomable incompetence and silliness.” The audiences were embarrassingly small; almost the only people to show up willingly were protesters.