Archives for 2011

The World Series starts tonight and I don't care because the Yankees were an unmitigated post-season disaster. I will try and be happy for the two teams that made it, though, if only because both cities have very good symphony orchestras. The St. Louis Symphony has already stepped up to the plate...ba-ZING!...and taped themselves in Cardinals' gear playing 'Take Me Out To The Ballgame". They sound darn good, too: But now it's BETTIN' time. The Dallas Symphony asked the St. Louis Symphony on Twitter if they should bet on the Series. … [Read more...]

Credit Suisse, NYC tourism, and the New York Philharmonic have placed banners all over the Upper West Side (and perhaps elsewhere, but I never leave) of Philharmonic music director Alan Gilbert: One of the photos is the above, but another is randomly Alan Gilbert with his mother, Yoko Takebe, who happens to be a violinist in the orchestra. She's totally cute, but the problem is that 99.999999999% of people traipsing around Manhattan don't know mom is in the band, so it's just like, what is that woman saying to that man and what does the … [Read more...]

Via Pablo Heras-Casado: I thought I was going to beat Alex Ross ("ARoss", as my cousin calls him) to a 12-tone something, but he Tweeted back that the video was a shortened version of "Arnie Schoenberg and His Second Viennese School," a spoof radio commercial by Cleveland station WCLV on April Fool's Day, 1977.  Alex's post with the full audio is here. And while we're loosely in the Mad Men genre, my favorite thing: … [Read more...]

  I mean really, America: snap out of it. … [Read more...]

A small collection of flowers, letters, Post-Its, candles and drawings for Steve Jobs outside the Upper West Side Apple Store on Broadway last night.     … [Read more...]

Last night, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter performed on David Letterman to celebrate the release of her box set, which Dave called, "the ideal hamster habitat." Earlier in the evening, Dave discussed crack and freebasing with Samuel L. Jackson, and a girl could only dream that he and Miss Mutter would cover the same topics. Mutter played with long-time collaborator, ex-husband, and Knight of the British Empire Andre Previn, and looked damn good in her little red dress. Why musicians feel the need to play … [Read more...]

10. So they book more classical musical guests. 9. So they book more classical musical guests. 8. So they book more classical musical guests. 7. So they book more classical musical guests. 6. Because she's skinny. 5. So they book more classical musical guests. 4. So they book more classical musical guests. 3. So they book more classical musical guests. 2. So they book more classical musical guests. 1. So they book more classical musical guests.   All joking aside, it's a huge coup to have a serious … [Read more...]

File Under: Things Artists Do Without Asking Their Publicists, here we have Hilary interviewing a Betta fish. Other interview subjects on her YouTube channel include but are not limited to Leonard Slatkin and Jennifer Higdon. Reports from journalist friends lead me to believe that this is how they sometimes feel when interviewing classical musicians. Conversely, classical musicians are often asked the same questions that Hilary asks the betta, so I suppose all's fair in love and boring journalism. … [Read more...]

We've all fallen prey to the old "who would play me in the movie of my life" game. Let us not forget that when Life's a Pitch becomes a trashy-summer-beach-novel-turned-HBO-series, I will be played by Megan Fox. The Queensland Symphony Orchestra has collected a truly exquisite group of composer doppelgängers, which they are calling the "Composer Lookalike Wall of Fame." This is precisely something we would have done in the marketing department at McCarter Theatre some lazy summer Friday afternoon, and I love that the orchestra actually … [Read more...]

It's always worst when your heroes disappoint. I'm usually 100% Team Met Opera (their Time Out New York ads in the listing section, for example, say, "...or you could go to The Met," which I love). But when I was walking down 9th Avenue last night, this confused me: Maybe it was the two margaritas I'd sucked down at El Centro, but "At any moment, a Great Moment" with a photo of Anna Netrebko in Manon just does not make sense.  First of all, you can't see her face; it's all corseted torso. I guess that's...sexy? Sure, let's say "sexy". … [Read more...]

I want everyone in the world to cover the arts. I want people who don't love the arts to write about the arts, I want people who do love the arts to write about the arts. I want the New York Times critic to write about the arts, I want the blogger who started her blog in the morning and wants to review that evening to write about the arts. Art art art, all around us, can't swing a dead cat without hitting the arts. That is what I want, so let's be clear about that before we get going. I'm working on a new Michael Gordon release called … [Read more...]

Let the record show that the last press release I sent out was about Orpheus' composer-in-residence and the one before that was about an Ives sonatas album. Y-a-w-n. WHAT AM I WASTING MY LIFE AWAY. This is what I should be dealing with: ABERCROMBIE & FITCH PROPOSES A WIN-WIN SITUATION New Albany, Ohio, August 12, 2011:  Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) today reported that it has offered compensation to Michael 'The Situation' Sorrentino, a character in MTV's TV show The Jersey Shore to cease wearing A&F products. A … [Read more...]

When I interviewed for my first job out of college, I wore these big, silver, clip-on earrings that my glam Iranian grandmother gave me. I thought sporting them would help me stand out, which I would need because I obviously considered the marketing internship at McCarter Theatre--like I do most things--as a Chorus Line howmanypeopledoesheneedhowmanyboyshowmanygirlshowmanypeopledoeshe---I really need, this job, please God I need, this job--situation. I got the job, and my boss later asked, "What was up with those earrings you wore to your … [Read more...]

I love this article, which I've been meaning to post since May. It's from Business Insider, and it's called, "Why I Will Never, Ever Hire a 'Social Media Expert'": Being an expert in social media is like being an expert at taking the bread out of the refrigerator. You might be the best bread-taker-outer in the world, but you know what? The goal is to make an amazing sandwich, and you can’t do that if all you’ve done in your life is taken the bread out of the fridge. Social media is just another facet of marketing and customer service. Say … [Read more...]