How The Van Cliburn Competition Changed With Social Media And Streaming "They are already accustomed to being insulted by the closed-door decisions of jurors. They may crack under the strain of massive repertoire requirements. Some will quietly withdraw and go into insurance. But probably the most wrenching strain on a competition pianist today is the public battering they are exposed to by critics amateur and professional, now spreading their instant opinions by social media to a global audience." Facts And Arts 06/15/13

email this story | Posted 06/18/13@07:20AM

Teetering Nashville Symphony Opens Contract Talks With Musicians "Officials of the union representing the musicians at the Nashville Symphony Association said negotiations over a new contract are set to begin this week even as the symphony's Schermerhorn Symphony Center is facing a June 28 foreclosure auction." The Tennessean (Nashville) 06/17/13

email this story | Posted 06/18/13@12:57AM

Everything's Looking Up At Lyric Opera Of Chicago After Busiest Season Ever Ticket revenue is up 15%; attendance is up 4.6%; the company exceeded its fundraising goals. "But the gain that's really cheering company officials is the more than 27,000 new customers - people attending Lyric events for the first time." Chicago Tribune 06/18/13

email this story | Posted 06/18/13@12:52AM

Turkish Police Confiscate Piano From Taksim Square "Turkish police have reportedly confiscated a piano that was being used to serenade Istanbul's protesters. Davide Martello claims that officials seized his grand piano as part of Saturday's raid on Gezi Park." The Guardian (UK) 06/17/13

email this story | Posted 06/17/13@04:50AM

iTunes Radio May Provide A Cash Bonanza For Music Labels "Just keeping it in the US, if we assume that 50 million people upgrade, and listen to 10 hours of iTunes Radio per month (about 200 tracks), that's $96.9m per month going to the labels. Pure gravy! Order some fresh flowers!" The Guardian (UK) 06/16/13

email this story | Posted 06/16/13@06:02PM

A Touring Pianist (Accidentally) Prevents Violence In Turkey's Protests "Police officers, there to protect the nearby monument bearing the statue of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the secular Turkish Republic, joined the audience, resting on their riot shields." The New York Times 06/14/13

email this story | Posted 06/16/13@08:24AM

The Composer Blacked Out The Score - But 21st Century Tech Brought It Back "This is the ghost of Cherubini - we have resurrected his pen strokes." BBC 06/14/13

email this story | Posted 06/16/13@08:03AM

In The Future Of Music, Will Tech Overtake Touch? "It's entirely possible - I've tried it - to make this technology think you're playing a beautiful scale but by using a piece of fruit to play your cello instead of a finger. I used an orange." The Observer (UK) 06/15/13

email this story | Posted 06/16/13@08:02AM

Why Is The Colorado Symphony Ending A Successful Season With A Drive For Money? The campaign isn't deeply bad news: Things have dramatically improved since last fall when the board of the CSO resigned en masse, but that left a few financial holes. Denver Business Journal 06/14/13

email this story | Posted 06/16/13@08:02AM

There Is No Such Thing As A "Big Five" Orchestras Anymore "In this burbling stew of toil, trouble and occasional triumph, does the passing of the Big Five represent loss or gain?" The New York Times 06/14/13

email this story | Posted 06/14/13@10:32AM

Salzburg Director Will Leave Job Before Contract Is Finished "When Alexander Pereira was appointed last week as general manager of Teatro alla Scala, starting in 2015, the presumption was that he would remain in his current post, artistic director of the Salzburg Festival, until his contract ended in 2016. But the notion of a one-year overlap did not sit well with the festival's board, which has decided to let him go at the end of September 2014." The New York Times 06/14/13

email this story | Posted 06/14/13@10:25AM

The Jazz Opera "What can you think, as a jazz musician, when somebody comes up and asks you to write an opera? For a little while, I was so intimidated I stayed away from it." The Wall Street Journal 06/14/13

email this story | Posted 06/14/13@09:32AM

Lawsuit Seeks To Free "Happy Birthday" From Copyright The proposed class action asks a federal court to declare the song to be in the public domain and that Warner/Chappel Music Inc, the music publishing arm of Warner Music Group, return "millions of dollars of unlawful licensing fees" it has collected for reproductions and public performances of the song. The Globe & mail (Canada) 06/14/13

email this story | Posted 06/14/13@08:05AM

Auditors Express Doubt About Nashville Symphony's Viability "Independent auditors of the Nashville Symphony say 'there is substantial doubt' about the symphony's ability to continue as a going concern, according to a new audit posted on Givingmatters.com." Nashville Business Journal 06/13/13

email this story | Posted 06/14/13@12:58AM

Minnesota Orchestra Broke No Laws In Its Use Of Public Funds: Auditor "The state Legislative Auditor's Office has found no improprieties in how the Minnesota Orchestra Association used state money - both general operating funds and a $14 million bonding grant to help renovate Orchestra Hall." The Star-Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul) 06/14/13

email this story | Posted 06/14/13@12:58AM

Struggling With Who Sets Value For Music "None of the people I met in D.C. last week were content to create music in a society that doesn't value it, either aesthetically or economically. We should not be content either." NewMusicBox 06/12/13

email this story | Posted 06/13/13@07:00AM

Pittsburgh Symphony Settles On New Musicians' Contract A Year Early "Management and musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra have settled a new contract more than a year before the current one expires. The agreement calls for a 4 percent wage increase for the 2013-14 season, a wage freeze in 2014-15 and a 3 percent increase in 2015-16." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 06/11/13

email this story | Posted 06/13/13@12:54AM

Minnesota Orchestra Disputes How Many Players Are Leaving The Orchestra But a commenter responds: "If you want to keep saying that it's totally normal for a major American symphony orchestra to have two dozen empty seats, well, then I don't know what to say. We don't live in the same reality." MinnPost 06/11/13

email this story | Posted 06/12/13@09:17AM

'Spectacular Blow-Up': Why Opera Australia's Ring Conductor Really Resigned "A 'spectacular blow-up' between conductor Richard Mills and a senior cast member of the Melbourne Ring cycle was due to Mills's inexperience in conducting the massive opera," according to an unnamed backstage source. The Australian 06/11/13

email this story | Posted 06/12/13@12:48AM

Joyce DiDonato Shows How To Handle A Cell Phone Interrupting A Concert During a recital the mezzo gave at La Scala last weekend, just as she was the quiet ending of a Rossini aria, someone's phone went off. She finished like the pro she is, but when she came back for a bow, she asked the audience if it had been Rossini calling to check in. Gramilano (Milan) 06/10/13

email this story | Posted 06/12/13@12:43AM

Kiri Te Kanawa Talks About Her Suspicion Of Talent Contests "There's got to be a period of study, from age 16 to 22, and then it moves along. You can't just think: 'Oh, I can sing in the bathroom, I'll be fine tonight on stage.' Not at all. There is such a demand on the voice for it to be able to produce night after night." The Guardian (UK) 06/10/13

email this story | Posted 06/11/13@12:14PM

New Scan Illuminates Historic Opera Score "When contemporary critics complained that the three-hour opera was too long, composer Luigi Cherubini blacked out its coda, according to legend. Now musicians have the full length of the original 1797 piece." San Jose Mercury News 06/11/13

email this story | Posted 06/11/13@11:03AM

Why Do The Chinese Love Western Classical Music? Former ambassador Nicholas Platt: "One of the things that strikes me is that most of the literature and the music and the philosophy and so forth are very practically oriented, directed toward the solution of problems, the description of events, or program music with pictures of moonlight on water. You know the routine. And it's beautiful. But it's not very abstract. And I think classical music has some appeal to the Chinese because of its abstractness. It may fill a hole in their needs. There are simpler explanations. They love grand things - big buildings and big bridges - and Western classical music is grand." The Philadelphia Inquirer 06/09/13

email this story | Posted 06/11/13@12:58AM

Philadelphia Orchestra Ends China Tour In A Casino "Where else does your hotel serve cupcakes and ice cream for breakfast? And offer wake-up calls from Shrek? In Cantonese? [Macau, the] pleasure capital of Asia - one that is said to outstrip Las Vegas for superficial splendor - is only the latest unlikely host of the Philadelphia Orchestra." The Philadelphia Inquirer 06/10/13

email this story | Posted 06/11/13@12:57AM

A 22-Year-Old Laments That Friends Won't Debate Classical Music "Not many people are willing to indulge me in a debate on chamber orchestras versus modern full-sized. But really, how is it so different from discussing what Beatles album is best or what group represents the pinnacle of 80s New Wave?" The Smart Set 06/06/13

email this story | Posted 06/10/13@07:18AM

Why Does Music Have Such Power Over Us? "The quick and easy explanation is that music brings a unique pleasure to humans. Of course, that still leaves the question of why. But for that, neuroscience is starting to provide some answers." The New York Times 06/07/13

email this story | Posted 06/10/13@07:12AM

Nashville Needs To Get It Together And Save The Symphony "Music City should not want to see one of its greatest treasures sold to the highest bidder." The Tennessean 06/09/13

email this story | Posted 06/09/13@11:35PM

Ukraine Pianist Wins Cliburn Piano Competition Vadym Kholodenko, "who had wowed the audience Sunday with his last performance, Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, also won awards for best performance of a new work and best performance of chamber music." Yahoo! (AP) 06/09/13

email this story | Posted 06/09/13@07:03PM

Vinyl Is Making A(nother) Comeback - For Real "About a dozen pressing plants have sprouted up in the United States, along with the few that survived from the first vinyl era, and they say business is so brisk that they are working to capacity." The New York Times 06/09/13

email this story | Posted 06/09/13@06:16PM

The 'Bad' Cover: Where Classical And Pop Cross Paths "The differences between a performance of the same work by the New York Philharmonic as compared to the London Symphony Orchestra can be tantamount to Nirvana's cover of 'The Man Who Sold the World' versus David Bowie's original." The Smart Set 06/07/13

email this story | Posted 06/09/13@08:39AM

Stuck On The Tarmac? Better Hope Philly Orchestra Musicians Are On Your Flight "Passengers on a flight from Beijing to Macau ... had been sitting on the tarmac for three hours when a quartet of musicians from the Philadelphia Orchestra pulled out their instruments and provided what they called on YouTube a 'pop up' performance." NPR 06/07/13

email this story | Posted 06/09/13@08:24AM

Should Older Composers Be Excluded Because Of Their Age? "People usually are not aware that they practice ageism--just as with other forms of discrimination--because their assumptions all point to a certain expectation they believe is true. With respect to composers, said expectation goes something like this: child prodigy enters school already a mature genius; impresses all of his/her professors; then sets the world on fire with his/her youthful vigor, technical wizardry, and creative talent while winning all sorts of competitions; and proceeds to redefine an art form for the betterment of humankind." NewMusicBox 06/05/13

email this story | Posted 06/07/13@12:02PM

Is Free Music Better Than The Kind You Pay For? "Thinking about the cost of music might simply get in the way of enjoying its intrinsic qualities, and free-ness frees us from this dilemma, allowing us to enjoy music on its merits alone." Pacific Standard 06/06/13

email this story | Posted 06/07/13@10:11AM

Conductor Quits Opera Australia Ring Cycle Citing "Chemistry" "In a statement issued by OA, Mills says artistic success depends on chemistry of a "certain vibrancy and character" between cast and conductor, and that "unity of vision" was not achieved in this case." The Australian 06/07/13

email this story | Posted 06/07/13@09:46AM

Will The Minnesota Orchestra Fail? (A Cautionary Tale) "To date, no American orchestra of comparable distinction has ever been forced to disband because of fiscal problems. Such a catastrophe seems bound to happen sooner or later, though." The Wall Street Journal 06/07/13

email this story | Posted 06/07/13@09:39AM

Bank Forecloses On Nashville Symphony's Hall "Foreclosure proceedings have been initiated against the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, and an auction of its landmark Schermerhorn Symphony Center has been scheduled for June 28. Formal notice of the foreclosure was issued by Bank of America, the lead lender on the $82.3 million still owed on the concert hall." The Tennessean (Nashville) 06/06/13

email this story | Posted 06/07/13@01:00AM

Tail Resonance: Hummingbirds Play Their Feathers Like Violin Strings "When you think of bird songs, you probably think of songs that come from their mouths. But hummingbirds have a whole different kind of music - one that comes from their feathers. As they fly, they spread their tail feathers, and the air passes through them, causing them to flutter. And that flutter, like a violin string, creates sound." Smithsonian 06/06/13

email this story | Posted 06/07/13@12:48AM

Police Are Arresting Street Musicians In Atlanta "The most recent arrest was just outside Turner Field, where police took a man's trombone and cuffed him." CBS Atlanta 06/05/13

email this story | Posted 06/06/13@08:51AM

Conductor Quits Opera Australia's First Ring Cycle Richard Mills "has withdrawn just months before the November launch of the $15 million Neil Armfield production of Wagner's tetralogy, due to a lack of both 'chemistry between cast and conductor' and 'unity of vision', Mills commented in a statement issued today." Limelight (Australia) 06/05/13

email this story | Posted 06/06/13@12:51AM

Detroit's Masonic Temple Rescued By Former White Stripes Front Man "The anonymous benefactor who recently paid the entire $142,000 balance in taxes to prevent Detroit's Masonic Temple from falling into foreclosure was revealed Tuesday to be musician Jack White, who played there as a solo artist and with his former band, the White Stripes." Detroit Free Press 06/04/13

email this story | Posted 06/06/13@12:50AM