The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra is getting $1 million from the Mellon Foundation for multimedia projects involving other areas of the humanities and stuff “outside the realm of classical music.”
Alan Gilbert’s Sunday routine. Glad to know. Thanks, New York Times.
Also, visit julianwachner.com.
Through its premieres and First Edition recordings, the Louisville Orchestra has probably done more for new music than any other group in the US since WWII.
The $100,000-plus that the Charlotte Symphony took in last year at their summer concerts helped keep them afloat this season. According to the WFAE website, audience members were a little less generous this year, although they still collectively chipped in $75,832.
At least we know now why they can’t afford to bring the orchestra to the Bronx:
The Richardson Symphony Orchestra in Texas has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against the musicians’ union, which put the band on its unfair list.
As Scott Cantrell reported last week, the orchestra has missed payments to musicians in the past and is trying to get them to sign a contract without union representation. That was the last straw for American Federation of Musicians local president, Ray Hair.
Being on the unfair list means that AFM musicians can face huge fines for doing work for the orchestra. The orchestra, led by executive director George Landis, is complaining that the AFM is acting arbitrarily and with malice by penalizing players and their organization.
Confusion reigns in Hawaii: the Honolulu Symphony Society says the musicians quit, but the union claims otherwise.
“Bollywood” is ridiculous, and it’s been the standard by which a lot of blogging types have measured the new group of songs that Liz Phair released as Funstyle on her website.
That was the first song she streamed on her website, but there’s a new one up there now. I think you’ll like it.
You can find the entire album on YouTube. You’ll see why a lot of people echo Pitchfork and compare it with Bob Dylan’s Self Portrait.
A couple of weeks ago, Bob Aldridge gave his Brevard Music Institute composition students the same assignment, to set Walt Whitman’s “When the Dazzle of Day is Gone.” Last Thursday, he hosted an afternoon concert of the results.
If there was a time when young composers were afraid to write a triad, that time is long gone. In fact, I get the distinct impression that these Brevardians were deliberately avoiding anything that would mark them as “inaccessible.” I heard some Barber, some Broadway, and some Blue.
On Saturday night, the college students joined up with their teachers for a bang-up Heldenleben. WDAV broadcast this last Sunday, plugging Kalichstein’s Schumann Concerto. But that was a real disappointment. The orchestra was great, but the pianist just wasn’t prepared. If you can, skip it and listen to the Strauss online.
The high school students at Brevard showed their stuff Sunday afternoon, starting their concert with Joan Tower‘s Made in America. Someone at the festival called this a “dark depiction” of our country, but this performance was full of optimistic energy.
Joe Schwantner wrote the second piece in the Ford Made in America program, and took it around the country the last two seasons. Let’s hope Keith Lockhart brings this piece to Brevard as well soon.
A couple of days ago, the children, Vanessa, and I spent over two hours at the Cradle of Forestry historic site in the Pisgah National Forest.
The highlight of the trip for Alex and Caitlin was, as it is for many the old steam engine. You’ll find this late 19th-century relic on the outdoor path, but there are some fun displays in the visitors center as well.
The Pisgah National Forest was once private land owned by the Vanderbilts. Carl A. Schenck, a German charged with maintaining the forest, founded the first forestry school there in 1898. Today, the Pisgah Forest is owned and maintained by the federal government.
Search “Cradle of Forestry” on YouTube for some videos of the steam engine (apparently, it’s a hit with a lot of kids). We’ve got some videos and pictures, which we’ll post later.
You owe it to yourself to take a listen to at least one of the concerts from the Brevard Music Festival that classical stations WDAV (in Charlotte) and WCQS (in Brevard). The show is called Open Air Brevard, and it’s on Sundays at 3 PM. The orchestra is made up of students and faculty. The quality of the performances from the kids is really high, and the faculty is really committed.
Here’s a video a scenes from the Fourth of July band concert. It’s not the most exciting clip you’ve ever seen, but it’ll give you an idea of what it’s like here. You can see my in-laws at 1:14. People really like the cannons in the 1812 Overture here, by the way.
Mark Likes Music 
You must be logged in to post a comment.