The two-time Pulitzer winner (for Ruined and Sweat) adapted her 2004 play Intimate Apparel into a chamber opera with a score by Ricky Ian Gordon (The Grapes of Wrath). The piece, part of the joint commissioning project by the Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater launched in 2006, will premiere late next February on the smaller of LCT’s two stages. – The New York Times
Tag: sjm
Butterflies, Roasted Pigs And Radios: Christopher Rountree And The Music Of Anything
And he’s having a moment now, with the LA Philharmonic’s FLUXUS Festival. – San Francisco Classical Voice
Making Opera With Homeless People In England’s Rust Belt
“A charity which helps tackle homelessness and mental health issues has been hailed for changing people’s lives. Streetwise Opera runs musical groups in [the North Yorkshire city of] Middlesbrough, giving the singers confidence to move on with their lives.” (video) – BBC
Broken System: How Music Gets Promoted (And Who Gets Played)
“There are a lot of ways our music can come into contact with others, but there isn’t a lot of consistency in our field at large for how we evaluate works and provide opportunities for composers. (Sometimes it seems like every ensemble has their own method!) And, no matter what processes we use—from an open call-for-scores, to a competition format with specified prizes and a panel of judges, to a curatorial model that asks individual artists to build programs—we often face a series of similar challenges if we care about promoting works fairly.” – NewMusicBox
Survey Of UK Musicians With Disabilities: 70 Percent Hide Their Disability So They Can Work
Seventy percent said they had kept their disability hidden because of worries it would damage a relationship with a venue, promoter or festival, while two thirds said they had to “compromise their health or wellbeing” to be able to perform live. – The Guardian
It’s Time For Summer Music Festivals, And One Has Finally Figured Out Equal Gender Representation
It’s a pop music festival, of course (where are we with that equal rep, classical and new music festivals?). But not of course, because no other festival has achieved anything like parity. Says the Primavera fest: “It can be done now and it should be done now, but you need to want it. We hope that our move can spark change.” – The Guardian (UK)
Peru’s Version Of El Sistema Shows Results
Among participants in the program, called Sinfonía por el Perú and founded by tenor Juan Diego Flórez in 2011, “[there has been] a 75% decrease in unwanted pregnancies, another 51% decrease in domestic violence as well as a significant increase in grades and even college admissions.” – Americas Quarterly
Why “Porgy and Bess” Is More than a “Period Piece”
Is the fundamental topic of Porgy and Bess a black Carolina subculture ca. 1920? If so, does that validate the Gershwin Estate’s insistence that only blacks sing it? – Joe Horowitz
We Can Bring Peace, Afghanistan’s First All-Female Orchestra Tells Taliban
Says Negin Khpelwak, the 22-year-old leader of the Zohra Orchestra, “We can bring freedom, peace and honor to Afghanistan. Women can’t go back to the dark days — they can break our instruments, they can ban the music, but they never take it from our hearts.” – Bloomberg
Berkeley Symphony’s New Music Director Is A Conductor They Met By Chance Three Months Ago
Joseph Young, a former assistant conductor at the Atlanta Symphony and currently Director of Ensembles at the Peabody Institute, was called in as a last-minute substitute for a Berkeley Symphony program at the end of January, and the chemistry was — well, we know that story. Young will now replace Joana Carneiro in a post that was held for decades by Kent Nagano. – San Francisco Chronicle