Category: music

“COVID-19 has caused more than 1,000 deaths and 6,600 confirmed cases of infection in the province of Cremona … and it is now putting a strain on its economy. In particular, it is threatening the violin-making craftsmanship that has been the historical engine of Cremona’s industry and made its botteghe (Italian for ‘workshops’) famous throughout the world, turning the city into a microcosmic reflection of how the pandemic is jeopardizing the culture and arts sector globally.” – BBC

But the orchestra says it will look for ways to perform in smaller ensembles. TSO musicians will also continue to perform virtual concerts. Since the start of the pandemic, musicians and guest artists have appeared in more than 100 virtual concerts and events, which have been viewed more than two million times, according to the TSO statement. – CBC

Back in 2014, Alarm Will Sound — the contemporary music ensemble Person founded at Eastman and has been leading ever since — played the world premiere of John Luther Adams’s Ten Thousand Birds (which is basically a big catalogue of birdsong transcriptions in no prescribed order) as a sort of outdoor sound installation. This year, as the coronavirus confined Pierson and his colleagues in their homes, he got the idea to reconceive the piece as Ten Thousand Screens, an online video in which the musicians each played from their own homes. Author Garth Greenwell, a friend of Pierson’s going back to college days, talks with him about why and how he did it. – The Paris Review

For now, it’s a small-scale relaunch: only 600 audience members in a roughly 2,000-seat house (so social distancing can be maintained) and chamber music rather than full-fledged opera. There will be a total of four programs in July before the traditional summer break; in September, the company will perform Verdi’s Requiem in Milan’s Duomo and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in the theater. – France 24

If Black lives matter now more than ever, hearing Black liveness in classical music also matters. The alternative is an addiction to exclusion that ends, as addictions often do, in impoverishment. – The New York Times

“We have raised $60m in funding over the past few months,” says Peter Gelb. “This has solved the immediate problem of the cancellation of the last weeks of the 2019-20 season and the loss of ticket revenue for this fall season, but it does not address the long-term economic challenge. We do not expect full audiences for some time and that is very significant.” – Financial Times

After six weeks of “fantasy Proms” consisting mostly of rebroadcasts from previous years’ festivals, the hope is to present live performances (without live audiences) in the Royal Albert Hall from Aug. 28 through the Last Night on Sept. 12. But “organisers … are having to devise multiple programmes for every concert, because of uncertainties over how many performers will be allowed on stage due to the coronavirus pandemic. … Conductor Sakari Oramo says he is currently planning ‘four different options’ for the first night.” – BBC

Back in the late 1960s, Charlie Perrière was a struggling young musician in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, and about to leave for Congo when he was personally summoned by President Jean-Bédel Bokassa — the one who later crowned himself Emperor (just like his hero, Napoleon) and fed prisoners to crocodiles and lions. Bokassa told Perrière not to emigrate and subsequently drafted him to lead the president’s personal orchestra. Not only did Perrière survive, he became famous enough that, more than 40 years later, young rebels pillaging the capital spared his house. – Narratively

Amazingly, not only has the group continued the girls’ education online, it has used the constraints to its advantage by bringing in guest artists for master classes and increasing one-on-one instruction. At a time when many of the girls are deeply moved, not to mention upset by recent events, the continuation of study has doubtless been a lifeline. – San Francisco Classical Voice

In Barcelona, they performed for plants. But at Madrid’s Teatro Real, it’s a real staging for a real (though smaller) audience. “The opening scenes of merriment have taken on a sombre tone, with the chorus clad in black and white and spaced exactly 2 metres apart. Minutes into the staging of La Traviata, the surgical masks come off, timed with the rising notes of an orchestra led by a conductor standing behind a plastic screen.” – The Guardian