By: Edna Landau To ask a question, please write Ask Edna. When I visit with students at conservatories and music schools around the United States, the question I am most frequently asked concerns the right time for approaching management. I tell students, as well as young artists who are already actively concertizing, that developing artistic recognition, […]
Read the rest of this article »By James Conlon Last Friday night, May 9, I conducted a program at Carnegie Hall, the penultimate concert not only for this year’s installment of Spring for Music, but, it would seem, forever. In the audience, it seemed to me, was an enormous (they usually are) and benevolent elephant. I appeared there with the forces […]
Read the rest of this article »The Rite of Spring Stravinsky performed by the Bad Plus Sony Masterworks CD It has long been a touchstone and signifying landmark for Twentieth Century, but particularly around its centenary (2013), Stravinsky’s Sacre du Printemps (Rite of Spring) provoked much conversation, reevaluation, and reinterpretation. One can imagine a jazz trio translation of the piece […]
Read the rest of this article »When BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House ushers hand out earplugs to audience members before the start of a show, it’s a warning that what’s to come will not be a soothing experience. Such was the case with ni fleurs, ni ford-mustang (neither flowers, nor Ford Mustang), choreographed by fashion designer and conceptual artist Christian Rizzo and performed by seven members of the Lyon Opera Ballet (May 7-9). The hour-long work began with a recording of Gerome Nox’s industrial sound scape, which felt like being inside of a very old and very large washing machine on spin cycle. Ear plugs are wonderful things.
Read the rest of this article »By Sedgwick Clark In the space of a single week, New Yorkers were treated to a pair of requiems at Carnegie Hall that combined the traditional Mass for the Dead text with modern-day poetry to create strikingly personal visions of final rest. In 1961 Benjamin Britten composed his War Requiem, interspersing anti-war poems by Wilfred […]
Read the rest of this article »Sacred Songs James Primosch Susan Narucki, soprano; William Sharp, baritone; 21st Century Consort, Christopher Kendall, conductor Bridge Records CD 9422 Whether you are a spiritual seeker or confirmed secularist, James Primosch’s affecting settings of sacred texts, and poems seeking the sacred or spiritual, can prove a balm for the soul and food for thought. […]
Read the rest of this article »By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder: I recently received an RFE for a group touring the US this summer. The group is represented by a European manager who books their dates, but our US management company has previously filed petitions for them in the past, all of which have been approved […]
Read the rest of this article »By Sedgwick Clark Last week’s blog (April 24) was written, but for some reason in the posting process didn’t reach this stage. I wrote about the New York Philharmonic’s performance of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, a recital by Murray Perahia, and a Philharmonic concert in which Manfred Honeck deputized for Gustavo Dudamel. It is available […]
Read the rest of this article »I recently spoke with my friend Ken Ueno, a composer on the faculty at UC Berkeley, about the upcoming premiere of his opera Gallo. It will be presented by Guerrilla Opera in May in Boston. Below are excerpts from our chat. CC: How did you come to decide to compose an opera? KU: Theater has […]
Read the rest of this article »By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder: If a hypothetical rental company is hired, either by a venue or by the client using a venue, to supply the sound and/or video system for a corporate, non-profit or association event; and this hypothetical rental company is asked to provide “top 40” music to be […]
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