More about Tunis, following my earlier post on what I presented at the conference there.This is about the group that presented the conference, the International Music Council. And about international issues in music. The IMC was founded long ago, in 1949, by UNESCO. It considers international music issues, and advocates positions on them. So what are the issues? I won't claim to be an expert, but I noticed two. One is music advocacy, which we're certainly familiar with here in the US. And, in particular, advocacy for music education. Here we … [Read more...]

Well, I'm back. I attended the Third World Forum on Music (as in the third they've held, not a forum about third world music), sponsored by the International Music Council. More later about what that all is, about the international music scene I learned about (with some major issues being debated, one of them involving the US in not a very pretty role). And about Tunisia, a westernized culture whose Arab roots are never all that far below the surface. And about all kinds of crosscultural moments, including a distinguished older singer from … [Read more...]

Here's another riff from my book -- or, rather, again, a riff on what's going to be in the book. It continues the last riff I posted here, as I gradually riff my way from the beginning of the book to the end. Comments are more than welcome, as always. And an apology for not keeping up with the comments many of you have recently posted. I've been a little crazed with many things, including preparations for my Tunisia trip. Here's the riff: Rebirth: The Future of Classical Music by Greg Sandow [Again from Chapter I, Rebirth and Resistance, … [Read more...]

Besides Rebirth, my book on the future of classical music, of course. (Go here and here for that) I've been -- and I'm honored by this -- appointed Artist-in-Residence in the College of Arts and Humanities of the University of Maryland, for this academic year and 2010-11. I'll be working with students and faculty of the School of Music, and with the staff of the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, to find new ways of giving classical concerts. I'm especially interested in finding ways for students to reach an audience their own age. Of … [Read more...]

..."Technology or culture" entry, which I posted yesterday. As I didn't quite get around to saying,  it's that technological changes, these days, are also changes in our culture. Which means that classical music institutions can't just use new technologies as if they were just more tools for doing the same old things. I've also thought of a much shorter way to make my point about Magnus Lindberg. But I'd better catch up with the comments first. There's a lot of book stuff happening behind the scenes, and of course it's eating at my time. … [Read more...]

Fascinating New York Times piece on college student blogs -- and how colleges and universities are flaunting these blogs on their websites (with MIT in the lead), even if the students don't always say favorable things about the schools.Why is this happening? Because high school students trust these blogs. They want to know what various colleges are really like. That's how they decide where they want to go. And who better to tell them, than students already there?Some schools resist this, though. They want to control their message. They want … [Read more...]

I got beat up by some of my valued readers when I said -- in an earlier post -- that Magnus Lindberg's music "plunged me back into the Second Vienna School." Or, more broadly, that Lindberg composes "in a style that, broadly speaking (and whatever may have been added to it since) was new around 1910." Nor did I help myself by mistakenly saying he's Swedish. Finnish, rather. And OK, I did admit I was exaggerating. But when I said that the Philharmonic -- where Lindberg is now composer in residence -- is thirty years behind in its approach to new … [Read more...]