There is a powerful consensus that music schools and conservatories have to rethink the education of 21st century musicians, but no one, so far as I know, has implemented a new template. This is what Mark McCoy is up to at the DePauw University School of Music. He calls it the “21st-Century Musician Initiative” and it isn’t window dressing. My own harangues on this topic … [Read more...] about Can a Music School Be Re-Invented?
“The Chasm Between Doing Music and Thinking About It”
The most resonant sentence in Robert Freeman’s highly quotable new book The Crisis of Classical Music in America reads: “It is my own strong conviction that, in the years ahead, music will need all the help we can give her. To my way of thinking, that means the development of collegiate musicians who are dedicated at least as much to the future of music as they as are to the … [Read more...] about “The Chasm Between Doing Music and Thinking About It”
On the Future of the Metropolitan Opera (continued)
Reviewing a new history of the Metropolitan Opera in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, I write: “The Met has never enjoyed the services of a shrewd and practical visionary. There is no one in the company's annals to set beside Henry Higginson, who created the Boston Symphony in 1881; or Oscar Hammerstein, whose Manhattan Opera combined integrated musical theater, new repertoire … [Read more...] about On the Future of the Metropolitan Opera (continued)
The Elephant in the Room at the Met Opera Negotiations
According to my Op-Ed in today's Wall Street Journal, the Metropolitan Opera House -- physically and metaphorically -- signifies a notion of "grand opera" that is increasingly unsustainable. To read the rest: http://online.wsj.com/articles/joseph-horowitz-union-trouble-isnt-the-mets-only-problem-1407537082?mod=rss_opinion_main … [Read more...] about The Elephant in the Room at the Met Opera Negotiations
Dvorak’s America
The current Times Literary Supplement (UK) features my latest rant on Dvorak as an American composer, as follows: Earlier this summer, Ivan Fischer came to New York with his Budapest Festival Orchestra to offer two memorable concerts of music by Antonin Dvorak. The repertoire included Dvorak’s last two symphonies: no. 8 in G major, and no. 9 in E minor (“From the New … [Read more...] about Dvorak’s America