Musical America Blogs

By Rebecca Schmid Few operas in history have gripped the human psyche to the same extent as Don Giovanni. Pushkin, Kierkegaard, and Bernard Shaw count among the literary figures to have written their own account of the daemonic seductor since Mozart and Da Ponte staged their ‘drama giocoso,’ a tragi-comedy, in Prague. Since the 19th [...]

by Sedgwick Clark Gilbert’s Austere Nielsen Alan Gilbert’s first major recording project since becoming music director of the New York Philharmonic is the symphonies and concertos of Denmark’s foremost composer, Carl Nielsen (1865-1931), for Dacapo. The series commenced last year with the Second Symphony (The Four Temperaments), recorded live in concert. Last week was the [...]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein Do we legally have to have a music license if we have bands performing in our Country Club at weddings, social events, etc.? Yes. Anytime music is publically performed, either live or by playing a recording through a sound system, a “performance license” is required. A “performance license” is a fee [...]

By Rebecca Schmid Conducting the Berlin Philharmonic is no small feat for a 37-year-old, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin—returning to the orchestra’s podium for the first time since his 2010 debut—had no intention to the make the event a small affair. The newly minted music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, seen at the Philharmonie on June 16, [...]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein Dear Law & Disorder: We have a non-profit choral group. Our of local public television stations has sent us a contract to record and broadcast one of our concerts this December and they have an item that requires us to have workman’s comp on our entire group. We currently only have 3 [...]

by James Conlon About a week ago I witnessed a heart-warming spectacle in Rome. Imagine 750 kids between the ages of five and twelve, screaming, giggling, squealing with delight, singing, dancing while running on and off the stage of a theater. It lasted about an hour and ten minutes in all.  They were grouped together [...]

By Rebecca Schmid The motto of this year’s Bachfest Leipzig, “…ein neues Lied” (a new song), could not be a more fitting choice to honor J.S. Bach’s legacy in the city where he spent his final 27 years as cantor. Upon arriving in 1723, he set out to write a cantata every week, enlisting as scribes [...]

by Sedgwick Clark The blockbuster of Carnegie Hall’s second Spring for Music festival last month was the second (!) performance this season of the rarely played, 70-minute piano concerto by the turn-of-the-20th-century piano virtuoso Ferruccio Busoni. It’s not a “great” piece, as one considers Beethoven’s Emperor great, but it’s a hoot and was stupendously negotiated [...]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein Dear FTM Arts Law: Could owning copyrights individually (as opposed to being owned by a corporate entity) ever be a personal liability?  I understand that if copyrights are held in the name of a S-corp, C-corp, or possibly LLC, the corporate veil would shield my personal assets. There is no liability in [...]

By Rebecca Schmid Classical:NEXT, an exclusively classical professional forum which held its first edition from May 30-June 2 in Munich, set out with high ambitions. Founded at the behest of the Association of Classical Independents in Germany (CLASS) as an alternative to MIDEM, which has left many attendants disappointed in recent years both for its [...]