November 9, 2012   |
| | | Thought of the Day | | Great art picks up where nature ends. --Marc Chagall
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| Quote of the Week | | Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent. --Victor Hugo
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| | Musical America Names Musician of the Year |  Musical America, whose annual awards are among the most prestigious in the industry, has announced Gustavo Dudamel as its Musician of the Year. At age 31, Dudamel, music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is already a household name in this country and a celebrity of rock-star proportions in his home of Caracas, Venezuela. His podium charisma and tireless advocacy for music education have drawn comparisons to Leonard Bernstein, and he is in constant demand to guest conduct orchestras around the world. Dudamel's rise to fame has brought with it a major revolution in music education, as he is the virtual "poster boy" for El Sistema, a program launched in Venezuela that has now been adapted and adopted internationally as a vehicle of social change, and a sorely needed boost for the efficacy of music education. Musical America has thus named El Sistema's founder and Dudamel's mentor, José Antonio Abreu, as its Educator of the Year. Other 2013 awardees include David Lang, Composer of the Year; pipa player Wu Man, Instrumentalist of the Year; and Joyce DiDonato, Vocalist of the Year. |
Brussels Philharmonic Switches to Tablets |  The Brussels Philharmonic has become the first professional orchestra to switch from paper scores to electronic tablets, specifically the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. Samsung estimates the tablets will save about €25,000 in paper and tape costs. Reading music from smartphones and tablets is becoming increasingly common among musicians, but this marks the first time an entire orchestra will make the switch. Using a special pen, the conductor can make a note on the score and send it immediately to the musicians. Players can make their own annotations, highlight passages, and individualize the page layout. The 16GB tablet weighs 1.3 pounds and has space for about 1,000 scores. Each Brussels musician has been given his or her own device, courtesy of Samsung. |
| | | November Video of the Month | | |
Sandy Soaks NYC Opera Library and Archives |  Hundreds of boxes of New York City Opera's music library and archives were submerged in water for three days last week, as Sandy's ruthless path flooded the basement in which they were stored on 75 Broad Street in lower Manhattan. Until the items are "freeze dried" in a special process to stop the ink from bleeding, their exact nature remains unclear, although scores marked by the likes of Julius Rudel (pictured) and Erich Leinsdorf were among the casualties, as well as archival Playbills. General Manager and Artistic Director George Steel said he didn't know what was in the boxes, although he did grab a few marked "Beverly Sills" and brought them to higher ground in advance of the storm. In a specialized, off-site process that can cost up to $70 per cubic foot, the documents in the boxes are being "freeze dried" to stop the ink from bleeding. Once stabilized, staff will go through and determine what is salvageable. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
Shake-up at the Atlanta Symphony |  The anticipated get-out-of-debt austerity program at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is well under way. This week, three of its top executives exited, including VP and General Manager John Sparrow, a vital and even-handed liaison between management and the players; CFO Donald Fox; and VP for Marketing Charles Wade. All three have been with the orchestra for over a decade. Sparrow and Fox were deeply involved in the recent negotiations with the players. Surely it is not a coincidence that three of the biggest salaries are leaving at a time that the orchestra is projecting a $20 million deficit. The musicians, recently in New York for a smashing performance of the rarely heard Belshazzar's Feast in Carnegie Hall, are not a happy bunch, having been forced to take an estimated 20 percent cut in pay and reduce their numbers from 95 to 88 over the two years of their new contract. |
| | Put a Young Audience in Your Seats! 
Click here to watch this amazing Double Concerto David Chesky's double concerto is exciting, rhythmic, sophisticated, and complex, and yet it is still fun to watch and listen to. This will get your next generation of subscribers excited about coming to hear classical music with your orchestra. www.davidchesky.com |
Elliott Carter Dies at 103 |  NEW YORK -- Composer Elliott Carter, whose complex, intellectually challenging works earned widespread admiration and two Pulitzer Prizes, died Monday at age 103. In a 1992 interview, Carter described his work as "music that asks to be listened to in a concentrated way and listened to with a great deal of attention." In 2002, The New York Times declared his string quartets among "the most difficult music ever conceived," and hailed their "volatile emotions, delicacy and even, in places, plucky humor." Carter had remained astonishingly active, taking new commissions even as he celebrated his 100th birthday in Dec. 2008 with a gala at Carnegie Hall. "I'm always proud of the ones I've just written," he said at the time. |
| Järvi and Jansen with the DSO Berlin; The Knights play Beethoven on Sony Classical | |  From Berlin Times by Rebecca Schmid The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin is off to a fine start this season, having gained Tugan Sokhiev as music director after an interim period senza maestro following Ingo Metzmacher's departure in 2010. On Wednesday, Paavo Järvi and the violinist Janine Jansen joined the orchestra together for the first time in a performance of Bruch's Violin Concerto at the Philharmonie. The only work by this German composer to have entered the canon is also his first violin concerto, an original assimilation of the devotion to Mendelssohn and Schumann which he would never relinquish despite the growing influence of the New German School in his time. Read the full story |
| Reaching Out During the Storm |  From Ask Edna by Edna Landau
For the answers to the questions below, click here. For those who live along the eastern seaboard of the United States, this past week was filled with overwhelming challenges, including displacement from homes, freezing temperatures, loss of electrical power, extensive property damage and financial loss. Many of us have read about the telethon organized by NBC, featuring performers including Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, Sting, and Christina Aguilera, which raised $23 million in donations to the American Red Cross for Hurricane Sandy relief. A note I received on this blog following the storm inspired me to pay tribute this week to less heralded performers who gave generously of themselves to make this trying experience more bearable. Marianne Schmocker, director of Marianne Schmocker Artists, wrote as follows... Read the full story |
| The Arts' Lease on Life |  From "Why I Left Muncie" by Sedgwick Clark Three years ago yesterday, November 6, 2009, President Barack Obama said these inspiring words at the Kennedy Center Honors presentation: "In times of war and sacrifice, the arts -- and these artists -- remind us to sing and to laugh and to live. In times of plenty, they challenge our conscience and implore us to remember the least among us. In moments of division or doubt, they compel us to see the common values that we share; the ideals to which we aspire, even if we sometimes fall short. In days of hardship, they renew our hope that brighter days are still ahead. So let's never forget that art strengthens America. And that's why we're making sure that America strengthens its arts. It's why we're reenergizing the National Endowment of the Arts. That's why we're helping to sustain jobs in arts communities across the country. It's why we're supporting arts education in our schools, and why Michelle and I have hosted students here at the White House to experience the best of American poetry and music." |
| Latest Roster Changes |  Musical America is helping presenters keep up with its advertisers! Managers whose rosters appear in the 2012 edition of the Musical America Directory should write to listings@musicalamerica.com with the names of artists and attractions that have been either added or removed, and please be sure to indicate "added" or "removed." Beresford, Bruce, director, added, Rayfield Allied (worldwide) Smith, Morgan, baritone, added, Rayfield Allied (worldwide) Valentovič, Peter, conductor, removed, Artistainternational Read the full story |
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