Category: music

Classical Concerts Under COVID: Where Things Stand In Asia, Australia/New Zealand, And the Americas

With governments in China, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore mostly able to impose safety measures without too much pushback, case numbers are down and concert numbers are up, though usually with reduced audience. New Zealand is almost back to normal and Australia is getting there, with even a Ring cycle planned for Brisbane this month. Alas, reports David Karlin, “the contrast between Asia and the Americas could not be more stark,” though tentative returns to concert life are happening in Canada, Colombia, and Chile. – Bachtrack

“Fullnaming” Famous Composers Is Silly

Chris White’s “fullnaming” idea—an invented word for his invented crusade—seems to belong more in a social studies department at a middle school than a music department at a university. Johann Sebastian Bach versus Bach. We get the point. Doesn’t insisting on full names for everyone seem a little pretentious, annoying, tedious, and dare I say . . . elitist? – The Bulwark

Researchers Have Some Good News About Indoor Concerts And COVID

“Analysis of an indoor concert staged by scientists in August suggests that the impact of such events on the spread of the coronavirus is ‘low to very low’ as long as organizers ensure adequate ventilation, strict hygiene protocols and limited capacity, according to the German researchers who conducted the study.” Be aware, though, that the paper has not yet been peer-reviewed. – The New York Times

COVID Has Orchestras Rethinking The Need For Music Directors

What we are seeing is a breakdown of trust between musicians and maestros, a schism that will lead, post-Covid, to a downgrade or downfall of the music director. There has been, over half a century, a tremendous evolution in the role from Toscanini-like autocracy to a chummy collegiality in which maestros achieve harmony by consensus and drink beer after concerts in the musicians’ bar. But when the chips are down, as they often are, it is still the music director who makes key decisions and leads the fights for extra funding, a new concert hall and social justice. – The Critic

What Classical Music Loses In Screen Translation

The novelty of watching concerts over Zoom has worn off, and though audiences are still pleased to have anything, anything at all, to watch, the loss of physical space is real, and musicians and conductors feel it. “The absence of an audience subtracts something essential from the music as well; it becomes an unbalanced equation, an unanswered question.” – Washington Post

How To Compose Over The Internet: 17 Players, Five States

Sixteen instrumentalists from the contemporary music ensemble Alarm Will Sound were scattered across several states and four makeshift home offices and professional studios, working with Tyshawn Sorey on his “Autoschediasms.” To synchronize everyone’s efforts, each “pod” of musicians was simultaneously logged into two different internet conferencing applications. – The New York Times