The 61-year-old conductor spent a dozen years as music director of the Milwaukee Symphony (1997-2009). “Once reportedly accustomed to a few sellout audiences a year, the orchestra reportedly sold out 30 shows within a year of his arrival.” – WXXI (Rochester, NY)
Music
Twenty-One Young Composers For 2021
Michael Andor Brodeur: “There is really no playlist to match this unstable, uncertain moment. And, honestly, right now I’m less interested in rummaging through the past for reference points. I’m just trying to find my way forward. In that spirit — and since we’re feeling all inaugural — please find below the first-ever class of 21 for ’21.” – The Washington Post
Metropolitan Opera Hires Harvard Law Dean As Chief Diversity Officer
“Marcia Sells — a former dancer who became an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn and the dean of students at Harvard Law School — has been hired as the first chief diversity officer of the Metropolitan Opera, the largest performing arts institution in the United States.” – The New York Times
Rare Violin Tests Germany’s Nazi Looting Restitution System
More than 80 years later, his 300-year-old violin — valued at around $185,000 — is at the center of a dispute that is threatening to undermine Germany’s commitment to return objects looted by the Nazis. – The New York Times
The Captain Of Sea Shanty TikTok Gets A Record Deal
You’ve heard “The Wellerman” by now, no doubt, since the Scottish postman who sang it a TikTok rendition of it went completely – ridiculously – viral. Now he’s quit his job and earned a record contract. But how’s that going to go? Viral stars and those who study them say “the hard part comes months later, when everyone has forgotten what they went viral for, and they attempt to maintain the momentum.” – BBC
Ticket Brokers Are Starting To Pay Fines For Scalping
The Better Online Ticket Sales Act was enacted in 2016, but this is the first time it’s seen enforcement. Aside from using bots, “the companies are accused of creating accounts in the names of family members, friends and fictitious individuals and using hundreds of credit cards to snap up the best seats at sporting events and concerts.” – The New York Times
Philadelphia Opera Leading The Streaming Pack
Compared with other American companies, Opera Philadelphia is laying claim to the mantle of making new material during the pandemic. Still, what’s most notable about OperaPhila.tv is not its mere existence, but the strength of the work on offer. – The New York Times
One Composer’s Long Slog To Make A Giant TV Network Pay For Using His Music
Unbeknownst to the composer, waiting beyond a YouTube search for his name was a seeming subindustry that consistently used Kerry Muzzey’s music without his knowledge. ContentID surfaced roughly 20,000 videos for Muzzey in the first month—200 or 400 more got flagged every single day. – Ars Technica
Mirga Will Leave City Of Birmingham Symphony After Next Season
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, the young Lithuanian woman whose considerable reputation began developing while she was an assistant conductor at the L.A. Philharmonic, became music director of the CBSO in 2016. In what she describes as “a deeply personal decision” — she and her partner have two young children and a home base in Austria — she has extended her contract in Birmingham for one season and will step down in the summer of 2022. – Gramophone
Salonen And San Francisco Symphony Open Streaming Platform
“The new on-demand streaming service, dubbed SFSymphony+, is scheduled to launch on Feb. 4 with a chamber program curated by Salonen as part of the orchestra’s SoundBox series. … Membership is priced at $120 for the entire season, or $15 for individual episodes. Some of the programming … will also be offered for free.” This is planned as a long-term part of the Symphony’s activities, not just a substitute for the live concerts cancelled due to the pandemic. – San Francisco Chronicle
Glastonbury, UK’s Largest Rock Festival, Cancelled For Second Year In A Row (Thanks, COVID)
“In spite of our efforts to move heaven and earth,” the organizers said in a statement, “it has become clear that we simply will not be able to make the festival happen this year. We are so sorry to let you all down.” – Rolling Stone
Boris Johnson’s Gov’t Passes On Pursuing Visa Waiver For British Musicians Touring EU
“The Musicians’ Union (MU) has been lobbying for the creation of a ‘musicians’ passport’ that would last at least two years, cost nothing or very little, encompass all EU member states, prevent any requirement for carnets or other permits, and cover road crew, technicians and other necessary staff to facilitate touring.” Britain’s culture minister rejected that plan this week during questions in Parliament. – The Guardian
Beethoven Through The Oppression Of An Anniversary Year
Alex Ross: “The most valuable recordings of the Beethoven Year—Igor Levit’s survey of the sonatas and the Quatuor Ébène’s cycle of the quartets—bring out those contrarian tones of wit, weirdness, irony, understatement, frenzy, stasis, and bittersweet release. Having created the single most potent persona in the history of music, Beethoven proceeded to engender another, more elusive self, which was perhaps the truer one.” – The New Yorker
We Need To Rethink The Music Ecosystem
“With the collapse of live revenues, the issues in how streaming pays (or doesn’t) is being discussed. Ingham calculates that 1% of all artists receive 90% of the revenue from streaming. That’s about 43,000 artists. Of that 1%, many have been significantly impacted by COVID, as their streaming income has not replaced their live income. The other 99%, around 3 million artists, earn the other 10%. And remember, the race to being the 1% can only be won by 1%. This isn’t fair, but it is business.” – Forbes
A Concert Series Programmed For You To Stream While Going To Sleep
The Philadelphia new-music producer Bowerbird has planned a set of seven concerts, each timed for 10:00 or 11:00 pm, that aim to put listeners in that odd space between sleep and wakefulness — thus the series title, Liminal States. Says pianist Marilyn Nonken, who opens the set next Wednesday with Morton Feldman’s Triadic Memories, “Everybody is so traumatized and beat up that if a concert involves another state of awareness, that’s a very attractive prospect. … It’s a physically different place … where your brain waves change.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Limitations Of Adding Video To Classical Music
“With more conventional classical music video where we watch musicians playing, I would argue that the visual experience actually constrains our mind’s eye and stultifies our creative imaginations. When we listen to a recording, our eyes can look anywhere and our imaginations are free to roam. True we are not watching the musicians, but we are not visually trapped by the images on the screen. When we watch a video, the decision about what to look at is made by someone else – generally a video editor.” – The Nightingale’s Sonata
With New Contract, SoCal’s Pacific Symphony Can Start Playing Again
Last week the Orange County orchestra’s musicians and management agreed on a four-year contract, running through the 2023-24 season. “Crucially, the agreement lays out a way for the musicians to be performing together again, recording new programs from their home venue. … Some of the contract’s considerations: musicians’ pay, allowances for streaming programs, COVID safety protocols, and the possibility of fluctuating pandemic restrictions.” – San Francisco Classical Voice
‘Für Elise” — Igor Levit Says That Piece You Hate From Piano Lessons Is One Of Beethoven’s Finest Works
“It’s just emptiness. How great must a composer be to allow himself to write about nothing?” The pianist has a go at persuading Joshua Barone. – The New York Times
Researcher Sets Out To Disprove “Music Makes You Smarter” Idea. But…
“My intention was to show that the relationships are probably spurious, meaning that background influences are the main drivers of the relationships, and once those outside influences, like demographics, etc., are controlled for, the relationship essentially disappears. But hang on. Much to my surprise, not only did they not disappear, but the relationships are really strong.” – ABC (Australia)
Ireland Is One Country That’s Done Well For Classical Music Online
Or so says pianist Finghin Collins, who’s also artistic director of Music for Galway and the New Ross Piano Festival. Collins: “Ireland has done extremely well in the arts, in the sense that many, many classical music organisations, and others, have pivoted very quickly into the online space. If I speak to my colleagues in France, Germany, Switzerland, continental Europe, they haven’t. … We really managed in August, September, October to get ourselves into this online space where we were able to do a lot of either livestreams or prerecorded concerts.” – Irish Times
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Is Getting Some Covid Relief Funds
Along with other arts groups in the city, the BSO is seeing some funding for its workers. The BSO’s CEO “said the money will help the organization make up for revenue lost from having to close its physical doors. He added that it will help BSO pay staff and musicians, while supporting the community through its music”. – Baltimore Sun
Brexit Deal Visa Requirements Stymie UK Musicians
As it stands, British musicians may be forced to pay for country-specific visas and equipment carnets when touring the continent – a situation that has been decried by the British music industry as prohibitively expensive and laborious, potentially limiting its £5.8bn contribution to the economy. – The Guardian
Two Baritones Learned That Where They Were Working When The Pandemic Hit Made All The Difference
Jarrett Ott and Steven LaBrie met in music school in Philadelphia and remained friends as they moved to New York and their careers grew. In 2018, Ott took a salaried singing position at the opera house in Stuttgart, while LaBrie remained in the U.S. with a busy freelance schedule. When COVID brought public performances to an abrupt end, each man’s choice proved crucial. – The New York Times
Riccardo Muti Speaks Out About Met Opera’s Treatment Of Its Orchestra Musicians
“My appeal […] is to give back to the musicians of the Met the dignity which we all deserve and the hope that they can soon return to share with us their art. We must support them during this unprecedented and terrible pandemic.” – ClassicFM
Concert Halls Can be COVID-Safe At 50% Capacity: German Study
The research, commissioned by and conducted at the Konzerthaus in Dortmund, used dummies that simulated breathing, with and without masks, placed at various points in the auditorium; the spread of aerosol droplets and carbon dioxide in the breath was measured. Results indicated that with checkerboard seating and masked audience members there is “almost no risk” of transmitting COVID-19. – The Strad