http://www.artsjournal.com/music.shtml Copyright 2009 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:14:20 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.33 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss "Digital downloading and distribution, illegally or otherwise, has had a greater effect on the recording industry than anything in its history. As the legal variety grows rapidly, driven most significantly by iTunes, so those old-school players are having to adopt radical new business plans to compete in the brave new world of music."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/how_downloading_1.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/how_downloading_1.shtml music Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:08:32 -0800 Director Francesca Zambello recounts the story (in both senses) of Cherevichki (a/k/a "The Tsarina's Slippers"), Tchaikovsky's only comic opera, which is based on a madcap Christmas Eve story by Nikolai Gogol. (Zambello is directing a new staging of the work at Covent Garden.)... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/tchaikovskys_op.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/tchaikovskys_op.shtml music Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:23:31 -0800 http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/the_composer_wh_1.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/the_composer_wh_1.shtml music Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:56:44 -0800 A newly rediscovered letter reveals the awful truth. "His skills were so poor that when the composer from Worcester started playing a specially inscribed trombone for a dear friend, she ran out of the room in a fit of hysterical laughter, leaving the composer swearing in frustration."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/edward_elgar_wa.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/edward_elgar_wa.shtml music Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:55:16 -0800 "They are more limited in terms of their experience, and to engage a new work is a major challenge," the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer says. "I've learned that you have to be patient; you have to give them an opportunity to digest this music and make it their own. But ... I've seen them rise to the challenge."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/what_community.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/what_community.shtml music Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:44:21 -0800 More than midway through her three-year contract as music director of the conductorless New Century Chamber Orchestra, "Salerno-Sonnenberg hinted strongly that she's inclined to stay a fourth year.... For now, New Century concerts have taken on the fascinating cast of a soloist meshing her distinctive traits with an integrated orchestral texture."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/nadja_salernoso.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/nadja_salernoso.shtml music Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:36:50 -0800 "The deficit is the result of shortages in ticket sales and annual fund donations, as well as declines in major one-time gifts and contributions from the ISO Foundation, whose board manages the orchestra's endowment." Musicians and staff took pay cuts earlier this year.... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/indianapolis_so.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/indianapolis_so.shtml music Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:08:35 -0800 "Colorado Public Radio (CPR) said Wednesday it will stage an unusual three-day on-air fundraising drive for the Colorado Symphony Orchestra (CSO) that will include a live broadcast of a CSO performance featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/colorado_public.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/colorado_public.shtml music Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:52:25 -0800 "Punters and employees at the Eros Centre in Leipzig [will] be treated on Friday to six musicians and a singer from the city's Forum for Contemporary Music (FZML) performing 'licentious and erotic' works."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/new_horizons_in.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/new_horizons_in.shtml music Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:38:21 -0800 "According to L.A. Opera, 'The 110 Project' tells the story of four central characters as it travels through 70 years of L.A. history" in communities along the freeway. "So what will the opera sound like? You guessed it: the music is said to be inspired by freeway sounds...."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/in_la_the_110_f.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/in_la_the_110_f.shtml music Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:59:36 -0800 "Composers and lyricists are among the few Hollywood creatives without a collective bargaining agreement. Services like orchestration, conducting and music performance are covered by American Federation of Musicians (AFM) agreements, but not the act of writing music or lyrics."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/hollywoods_comp_1.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/hollywoods_comp_1.shtml music Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:32:33 -0800 "Part of the appeal of percussion music is visual." Indeed, "the extramusical elements may be the reason percussion music is so popular with audiences, and often draws crowds that are substantially younger than average."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/between_classic.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/between_classic.shtml music Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:26:42 -0800 The Washington Post's classical critic answers ten questions about the decade past, covering such issues as the decline of record labels, the rise of the Web, hits (in both senses) at the box office, and the trajectory of classical radio. And she predicts the future. ("Classical music will survive. I predict that.")... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/anne_midgette_l.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/anne_midgette_l.shtml music Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:17:33 -0800 http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/the_history_of_3.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/the_history_of_3.shtml music Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:01:02 -0800 The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia has tapped Belgian Dirk Brossé, 49, to succeed pianist/conductor Ignat Solzhenitsyn, its music director for the past 16 years. Solzhenitsyn is departing "a year before the end of his current contract," becoming conductor laureate next season, when Brossé begins his four-year contract.... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/philly_chamber.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/philly_chamber.shtml music Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:49:51 -0800 The appointment "is the culmination of a three-year artistic courtship between Mr. Feinstein and Wynton Marsalis, the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center." The singer and pianist will direct a new popular music series as "part of a larger plan to broaden programming."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/michael_feinste.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/michael_feinste.shtml music Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:21:47 -0800 "The event was called to order by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, banging a gavel to quell the applause that greeted her appearance, and then provoking laughter with her witty (and knowledgeable) observations about the links between opera and the legal profession, citing all the operas that have courtroom or jail scenes."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/for_us_nea_oper.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/for_us_nea_oper.shtml music Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:14:35 -0800 "Sometime after moving to Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2003, Esa-Pekka Salonen decided to shake things up by placing the second violin section on the opposite side of the stage from the first violins, in what is known as European seating -- and it has stayed that way for the most part ever since." Then came Verdi's Requiem this month....... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/now_european_no.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/now_european_no.shtml music Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:55:59 -0800 Ezra Furman is "writing a song for every fan who buys his latest album, Moon Face: Bootlegs and Road Recordings 2006-2009. More than 100 albums have been ordered since it became available a few weeks ago. Each consists of 10 tunes culled from Furman's voluminous archive plus a customized song written directly to and for each paying customer."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/songwriter_offe.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/songwriter_offe.shtml music Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:37:24 -0800 "ITV1 is currently working on a new show following celebrities as they train to become opera singers. We'll find out who will be hitting (or not as the case may be) the high notes next year."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/growing_pains_w.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/growing_pains_w.shtml music Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:33:29 -0800 "This trend isn't just exhausted, it feels like a cruel perversion of a concert's real-time magic. Live music might be the last bastion of unpredictability in today's hypercurated mediascape: a fleeting opportunity to experience something unfiltered, spontaneous and really real. Instead, we're paying to see our greatest living, breathing, sweating, bleeding rock stars behave like iPods. And with no "shuffle" function!"... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/in_concert_band.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/in_concert_band.shtml music Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:01:28 -0800 Ever since 1996, when Sydney and Melbourne companies were merged to form the Sydney-based Opera Australia, Melburnian opera fans have complained that the national company gives their city too few performances of too few works with too few top-tier singers. New OA artistic director Lyndon Terracini plans to address their complaints, with more new productions, including a Ring cycle to start in 2012.... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/opera_australia_14.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/opera_australia_14.shtml music Sun, 15 Nov 2009 09:01:26 -0800 In the wake of the firing of Oleg Caetani from the Melbourne Symphony, apparently for unsatisfactory performance, and a very successful guest engagement by 18th-century specialist Reinhard Goebel (whom the musicians cheered), the MSO's chairman and other managers are considering doing without a chief conductor altogether.... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/melbourne_wonde.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/melbourne_wonde.shtml music Sun, 15 Nov 2009 08:57:31 -0800 "The idea of underground rock in a communist capital might seem like a culture clash waiting to happen, but it hasn't played out that way. Even as new bands emerge and become more popular, it's still just a blip on the government's radar."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/beijings_rock_r.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/beijings_rock_r.shtml music Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:34:38 -0800 "In a case of Hollywood-meets-Haydn, the star factory is busy at work on a rare subject: a 28-year-old Venezuelan conductor whose life revolves around scores, not scripts. With only a handful of concerts here behind him, Mr. Dudamel is more or less making this town swoon."... http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/dudamel_mania_m.shtml http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/11/dudamel_mania_m.shtml music Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:15:25 -0800