Category: music

How The Classical Music System Conspires Against Minority Participation

White people and some ethnic groups follow a progression of youth orchestras and schools of the arts and then are often paired with principal musicians in local professional orchestras. Meanwhile, young Black musicians inevitably draw attention to their raw talent but can’t afford the coaching and mentoring to help develop technical expertise and to help direct the way through the audition maze. Having little or no experience in a youth orchestra, they arrive in college music departments with, as one musician put it, “a lot of heart and personality but may not catch every note.” – San Francisco Classical Voice

There Was An Entire Lost Generation Of Gifted African-American Conductors

“[They] led major concerts by Arturo Toscanini’s NBC Symphony, gave the Philadelphia Orchestra premiere of the Shostakovich Symphony No. 8, and led the Metropolitan Opera’s celebrated rehabilitation of Meyerbeer’s Le Prophète. Most of them were robbed of that over-60 elder-statesman period when the world was likely to more widely celebrate their accumulation of artistic wisdom. But there’s ample proof that Dean Dixon (1915–76) and Calvin Simmons (1950–82) had many great moments well before then. They can be counted among the finest of any generation.” David Patrick Stearns looks at Dixon, Simmons, and their Black colleagues, and at why many never reached that elder-statesman stage. – WQXR (New York City)

Atlanta Opera, Pushed By COVID, Moves To New Business Model For Fall 2020

“‘This pandemic has devastated so many lives and businesses,’ [general director Tomer] Zvulun said. ‘But it has also been a major catalyst in accelerating our shift to a business model that we have been discussing for years: creating a company of players, performing in nontraditional spaces,” — for this fall, that means alternating performances of Pagliacci and The Kaiser of Atlantis in an open-sided circus tent — “and developing our video and streaming capabilities.'” – ArtsATL

Inside The Brains Of Jazz Improvisers

“How do singers such as Betty Carter take command of the present moment, seemingly bending reality to their will? While more romantic notions of creativity might point to Carter, and others like her, being ‘touched by the spirit’, there are less lofty explanations related to the physical dimension of making music with the human body, as well as the singer’s skilful musical interplay with the other musicians and the audience. There are also complex cognitive and psychological processes that drive the ‘real-time’ spontaneous creation of music.” – Psyche

Early Departure Of The Canadian Opera Company’s General Director Is A Good Course Correction

“What Alexander Neef failed to do spectacularly is build an audience. It is a failure that one might attribute to the vagaries of the economy, the advent of livestreaming, the price of parking or any number of standard-issue excuses that have potential validity anywhere. But there is a central and specific explanation for the underperformance of the COC: a parade of supposedly innovative productions that required a manifesto from the stage director to understand and a six-pack of Red Bull to sit through.” – La Scena Musicale

Aerosol Research Helps Get Vienna Philharmonic Back Onstage

“The Vienna Philharmonic was one of the first professional orchestras to return to rehearsals and performances since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it wouldn’t have been possible if they hadn’t carried out their own small research study into the way droplets disperse on stage while musicians play.” Reporter Eva Amsen looks at what exactly the orchestra and its scientists did. – Forbes

How Choruses Are Figuring Out How To Sing Together

There are few answers about this disease. But the choral community has come together to figure out how 54 million people in America who sing in a chorus can do so safely. Choral leaders have developed software for online singing and created virtual choirs. Companies are inventing face masks that can be worn for singing. Several universities, including the University of Cincinnati, are conducting studies on the spread of aerosols while singing or playing instruments, and how it can be mitigated. – Cincinnati Business Journal

CAMI Abruptly Shuts Down

One of the most powerful agencies in the classical music industry, Columbia Artists Management Inc. sent a statement to its clients on Saturday saying that, due to the “prolonged pandemic environment,” it is closing its doors on Monday (Aug. 31) and entering liquidation. – Yahoo! (AP)