Category: music

Assembling New Micro-Operas During Coronavirus Confinement

“Ella Marchment, stage director of the International Opera Awards, is behind the scheme, which is called #OperaHarmony. … The [project] will pair composers with librettists to create pieces on the theme of distance or community. The composers and librettists will then be matched with directors and singers to record their micro-opera, which will be shared online.” – The Stage

As The World Shuts Down, Yale School Of Music Takes Care Of Its Students

“In a March 31st letter to alumni, Dean Robert Blocker outlined an ambitious plan to provide aid, including ‘a one-time stipend of $500’ to all students to assist with travel and expenses; full pay, despite social distancing, for all student employees through May 1st, 2020; and relocation of all international students who could not return home to University housing.” – The Middleclass Artist

Classical Music Is Thriving As We Quarantine Ourselves

Locked out of the concert hall because of global coronavirus concerns, endangered in physical and financial terms, classical music is fighting to survive and finding more paths than ever to listeners. Part of this phenomenon is that we’re quite literally a captive audience. But another part is the odd compatibility between classical music and digital media. – Washington Post

The Music Schools That Were Quite Prepared For Distance Learning

Unlike so many other institutions, the major music schools of America were uniquely prepared to make the transition to online instruction. The fact is, they’ve been preparing for it for years by enhancing and expanding their Wi-Fi capabilities, installing and becoming adept at the use of multiple learning and communication platforms, developing and honing online teaching skills, all while working with a student body that is totally comfortable with the relationship between education and online technology. – San Francisco Classical Voice

Philadelphia Orchestra Gets Pay Cuts But No Job Losses

“Players voted last week to approve an across-the-board 20% reduction in compensation starting April 1 and lasting through the middle of September. ​Pay cuts have also been instituted for orchestra staff on a sliding scale up to 20% depending on salary level, and music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin will give up at least 20% of his paycheck.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer

Classical Music Activity Explodes Online As Shutdown Closes Stages

In-person performances have been replaced by a deluge of digital ones — live streams and recently unlocked archive recordings — that have made for a calendar hardly less busy than before concert halls closed. It’s enough to keep a critic happily overwhelmed, yet also wondering whether the industry is making a mistake by giving away so much for free. – The New York Times