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Prominent NYC chamber orchestra plans music hub NEW YORK

One of New York's most prominent chamber orchestras will soon have a permanent home and offer rehearsal spaces for classical musicians.
The Orchestra of St. Luke's plans to buy a part of a six-story Manhattan building and convert it into the DiMenna Center for Classical Music. The building also houses the Baryshnikov Arts Center. The chamber orchestra's president, Marianne Lockwood, says the center is intended to be a hub for classical musicians.

The orchestra is trying to raise $35 million to buy and renovate the building by 2010. The Orchestra of St. Luke's formed in 1978 and has released numerous recordings.

It performs about 100 concerts each year throughout New York.

Jamaican concert pianist Rhoden speaks on classical music

On Sunday, May 18, Jamaica's world-famous concert pianist, Orrett Rhoden, will give a joint recital with violinist Preston Hawes in the Mona Chapel, at the University of the West Indies. The concert begins at 5:00 p.m.

Last week, Rhoden, 47, shared with The Sunday Gleaner perspectives on the growth and development of classical music in Jamaica and elsewhere.

The Sunday Gleaner: What can be done to popularise classical music to young people in Jamaica?

Rhoden: A great deal can be done through the schools. If we have music being taught in the schools from an early age, that will bring a new generation into experiencing classical music.

Also, I think the absence of Radio Mona has been a great loss. They played classical music from dusk till dawn. They had lunch hour concerts as well, which I thought was so wonderful. I thought we were really getting somewhere, you know, for a Caribbean country to have a radio station which played both classical and jazz music. They used to have a wonderful jazz programmes in the afternoon. Jazz to me a just as important as classical music. It bridges the gap between the pop music and classical music.

I am a bit disappointed in what I see on television in terms of music which has vulgarity lewdness. This I think is a development in the wrong direction. I have nothing against pop music. But I think that we should have more programmes on television, not necessarily classical. We could have for example, more semi-classicals and Latin American music.

Have you ever delved into the non-classical genre?

I did a concert once in the south of France where I extemporised with a group of reggae musicians. I was able to improvise on the spur of the moment, while they were playing jazz rhythms. It was a classical thing, with a reggae foundation.

What is required to be a classical pianist?

It is the most difficult profession >ever. It really is. In America, Europe and the far East, there is so much talent competing for so few opportunities. I think there are about 2,000 concert pianists out there on the market at the moment and they are all very good. You have to be clear about how much potential and talent you have. You have to be realistic. You don't want to got out there with just half of the requirements trying to compete with the others who are really way ahead. You really want to have talent, and personality, and the ability to compete with everybody else.

And you must have something to say musically. In my case, my angle has always been 'a concert pianist from the Caribbean/Jamaica'. As a child, I had influences from the popular music of the day, and at that time it was Bob Marley's music. I have a different approach to classical music. Although it is treating the music with respect and authentically using the music scores and not doing anything that is not on the printed page, I have my own interpretation towards the music and often critics have described me as "the Caribbean Bombshell" and "Jamaica's ebullient answer to Vladimir Horowitz".

That is where I have made my niche.You have to have something new to offer, something new to say.

What do you mean by personality?

You don't want to be considered as lacking character. You must have some amount of flair. To be a carrier of the music to the public you have to have some idea of what you think the music is saying and then try to convert that into your own language.

How well are concert pianists paid?

It depends on your agent and who invites you to play and many other factors. I have my set fees when I am asked to play anywhere. Luckily, I have been able to eat.

What's right and wrong about how classical music is taught in Jamaica?

I think that a lot of the teachers that teach classical music apparently usually go into a exam for the students for the Associated Board exams of the Royal Schools of Music. I think that is good because it gives them some sort of standard to work with.

To say what is wrong, I think emphasis should be more on the classics and not on popular music. Classical music training is foundational for every other kind of music. I would like to see students performing more the works of the great masters.

Do you give master classes?

I give master classes. I have given a few here. I prefer to perform. I think I have a particular gift in that area in terms of communicating the audiences that I play to. That is how I inspire people, but not necessarily through teaching. It will inspire musicians to see that they too can get somewhere if they persevere and continue.

Who is Preston Hawes?

He is a genius. He is 25 and he is doing his doctorate in violin at Yale University. A lot of musicians can be very academic and dull and boring. He is not one of those. He has technique and he is a romantic performer and electrifying. I have known him for four years. He is the associate director of the New England Symphonic Ensemble. The concert is a warm-up for our appearance together at Carnegie Hall in September.

You have lived overseas for many years, where do you make your home now?

Right here in Jamaica. I live here. Whenever I have concerts I go and come back. I have been living here for 10 years, but I keep a very low profile. It is only recently that I have been going out to a lot of parties and things like that.

Washington National Wagner Society - May 31st, 2008

Please join the Washington National Wagner Society for a unique musical experience!

EVENINGS IN BAYREUTH

Saturday, May 31, 2008

And Repeated Saturday, June 7, 2008 7:30pm

Calvary Baptist Church
855 8th Street N.W. (8th and H Streets, NW)
Washington, DC

Presenting The Wagner Symphonette and Vocal Ensemble

Conducted by Darryl Winston

And featuring the following singers:

Regina McConnell
Marje Palmieri
Paul McIlvaine
Dianne Barton
Joyce Lundy
Sarah Wells
Susan Sevier
Elaine Dalbo
Cynthia Ballentine
Matthew Osifchin
Richard Gabriel
Lora Sullivan
Jennifer Hosmer
Linda Kiemel
David Simons
Stephen Brown
Robert Davidson
Donna Kepler
Lynn Symmons
Lydia Harris
Joseph Baker
Vernon Adler
Darnel Brandon
Harold March
and introducing…
Farrar Strum, tenor

For more information, contact
the Washington National Wagner Society

(202) 470-5559

info@washingtonnationalwagnersociety.org
http://www.washingtonnationalwagnersociety.org

Remember Me�But, ah, Forget My Fate

Ryan Lott is a classically trained composer and pianist who has brought the orchestration of minimalism and chant to a new stage: a dingy TriBeCa rock venue’s basement room, where the symphony is formed electronically, and melds seamlessly to hip-hop breakdowns with the backing of a live rock band. This project is Son Lux, and the record recently released under that moniker, titled At War with Walls and Mazes, explores the possibilities of chant and meditation.

At the Knitting Factory (the dingy TriBeCa rock venue in question) Lott builds on loops from his collection of sound fragments with piano, violin, and other instruments, and the repeated, fractured phrases he sings gradually pull the listener in. The eleven tracks, whose assigned titles are bookended with “Prologue” and “Epilogue,” are structurally more like motets than pop songs. “The soul of each song is merely a simple chant,” Lott explains later. He eschews the verse–chorus model “so none of the songs are actually songs in the definitive sense, in that they are not binary forms.” The live set draws from the same material, but introduces variations in tone, depending on the venue, freeing Son Lux “to explore alternate applications of these simple chants.” At the Knitting Factory, strings were replaced by heavy beats, and Lott played conductor to his laptop, then hit the spacebar and grooved like a DJ. The scene was part college dance party and part teen-idol rock concert; with the sound-responsive animation projections, it also hinted at a multi-disciplinary art happening. The large-scale ensemble Alarm Will Sound is a semi-related case that provides some background to a persisting quandary. Their latest project situated original classical arrangements of well-known pop songs alongside straight recitations of twentieth-century classical and avant-garde compositions. To illustrate, the program of 1969’s March 22 performance at the Kitchen opened with a Stockhausen excerpt, then breezed through a few of Luciano Berio’s Beatles Songs, staged an original arrangement of Bernstein’s Mass Epistle: The Word of the Lord, returned from the intermission with an original Chamber Symphony, some Stravinsky, an arrangement of the Beatles’ “Revolution 9,” then left us with more Stockhausen. The series of earnest gimmicks is intended to remind us that the rage and excitement over contemporary composers’ use of electronic sounds and pop influences is an extension of trends that began in the mid–twentieth century, when classical composers and pop musicians became interested in what one another were doing, in the face of Schoenberg’s insistence that art not be for all.

Children and Classical Music

It’s often said that music has charms to soothe the savage beast.

Sure. Sure. Sure. What about fussy children?

Michelle Snyder has developed a program to introduce children to classical music. Her selections include music for relaxation, play, studying and getting ready for bed.

“I remember seeing The Nutcracker as a child,” says Snyder, now an academic adviser at Brigham Young University. “In developing the music program for children, I thought how Tchaikovsky’s music affected me the first time I heard it. I wanted to share that wonder and delight with others.”

The trick is to find music that’s engaging, but not overwhelming for children – Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony didn’t make the cut. For accomplished listeners, Snyder’s selections may read like the Top 40 Hits of Bach, Chopin, Debussy, Mozart, and Saint-Saens, but this misses a basic point: for most children, the music is a new experience.

“Classical music can help children focus or relax,” Snyder says. “I think children are intrigued by classical music and want to learn more about it. Most begin to show interest between ages six and eight.”

Latest mash-up: COC and hip hop

f you had to pick a pair of musical genres furthest apart from each other, opera and hip hop would be a fairly safe bet. One thing they do share is sizable purist fan bases, which, whether they use the phrase or not, prefer practitioners to keep it real. Nonetheless, these star-crossed genres are coming together in a performance called The Hip Hopera, a new collaboration by the Canadian Opera Company and the Royal Conservatory of Music.

More of the story here

Rahman took three years to complete The Lord of The Rings

It took music maestro AR Rahman three years to finish the album for the stage adaptation of The Lord Of The Rings, working with 200 musicians and technicians for every song.

The album, which has pushed up his international status, was released in February. "Since it required more finances than I could afford, a private airline (Jet Airways) is sponsoring it,"

Rahman, who has recently opened a western classical music conservatory in Chennai, told IANS. "Every song has a minimum of 200 musicians and technicians involved in it. Huge choirs and orchestras were brought into play. We recorded the album in London and mixed it right here in Chennai in my studios. The whole crew came down from all over the world," he added.

Searching for Classical Music in Paris

by Alison Smale
Paris wallows in so much physical beauty that many visitors and residents are content to pass Sunday merely strolling along the Seine and admiring the architectural wonders that make this the most popular tourist spot on earth. But a mere feast for the eye — or, indeed, the stomach, given French cuisine! — is not always sufficient sustenance. Great classical music is a bit harder to find. You have to know where to look:

One of my favorites is the Theatre du Chatelet, which has concerts every Sunday from late September thorough June at 11 a.m. A huge soaring theatre in the 19th century style so typical of Parisian theatres, the performances are genuinely high class and good value, with tickets priced at 12 to 23 euros. Last Sunday, I was privileged to hear Alexei Ogrinchuk, a Russian oboist who studied in Paris and is now chief oboist with the Concertgebouw orchestra in Amsterdam, playing with the Belcea Quartet, four string players based in London who have attracted considerable attention as an ensemble. There is nothing more soothing for the soul than listening to Ogrinchuk — a virtuoso on this often overlooked instrument — playing the Adagio in Mozart’s Quartet for oboe and strings K370.

Read more here

Bold approach breathes new life into classical music

There's nothing so off-the-wall that somebody hasn't thought of it

Mitzi's Sister is a small club in the Parkdale area of Toronto.

Home cooking, a stage, it holds 150 people. Small as these things go.

But, it was there just over three years ago, that Parkdale Revolutionary Orchestra first took the stage.Big moment in the history of music? Too early to say.

However, a few weeks ago, this space dealt with the sort of music that can pay its own way, with no top-ups from the Canada Council. I jested that if classical music was to rescue itself from its socio-economic isolation-- its audience shrinks, as it ages -- it would have to rebrand itself as something risque, to be enjoyed in seedy little rock-clubs where it's best to sit near an exit, with one's back to the wall. Only when it could make it without a grant, could it once more be considered an expression of contemporary culture.

Read more here

The Starving Artist Guide To Financial Planning for Musicians

The Starving Artist Guide To Financial Planning
Do your eyes glaze over like a kid in church when you hear the words "financial planning"? Good... Welcome to the club.

The basics of financial planning: learn how the game works and, more importantly, how to win it.

The Starving Artist Guide To Financial Planning
1. Introduction
2. The Money Game
3. Money Myth 1
4. Money Myth 2
5. Money Myth 3
6. What is Money?
7. What Money Can't Do

Do your eyes glaze over like a kid in church when you hear the words "financial planning"? Do you look at the stock market section in the newspaper and think, "what the hell do all these numbers and symbols mean, and why in (insert your deity of choice here) name am I even looking at them?" Do you skip the business section altogether and go straight to arts and entertainment? Does the thought of dealing with financial and business matters make you want to leap off the nearest bridge and end it all?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then more than likely you're an artist. A sensitive, rebellious, free-thinking anarchist, who would just as soon be tortured in the pit of despair than have to deal with the root of all evil: money.

Oh, sure, you want to make a lot of it. We know. Who doesn't? But "making" money and "dealing" with money are not necessarily synonymous. And let's face it, most artistic types would rather not have to "deal" with money or business matters at all. We hear it all the time: "Once I make it, then I'll think about it". Does this sound like you? Unfortunately, most artists, when they do finally make it, have not developed the skills necessary to handle their newfound success. Many, who suddenly find themselves flush with cash, hand over the details of their finances to a third party, who may or may not be looking out for their best interests. Now don't get us wrong, hiring professionals to handle the oftentimes complicated world of money and finances is probably a prudent thing to do, especially if you know nothing about it or need help with complex issues that require an expert. But all too often, artists relinquish too much control over their business affairs and suffer the consequences as a result. See The Pauper's Grave for just a few examples.

We believe that for artists to survive and thrive in the 21st century, they not only need to be skilled at their chosen craft, but be business savvy as well. Gone are the days when artists get taken advantage of by unscrupulous businessmen. Gone are the days of the artist as an easy target. The new artist will be in control of all aspects of their career, including their money.

In the following sections, we will be teaching you the basics of financial planning. We will be teaching you how the game works and, more importantly, how to win it. Consider it money 101 for the artistically advantaged (or the monetarily disadvantaged if you prefer). Each section is broken down into a manageable, Reader's Digest-like format, written in easy to understand language, so that you can come back anytime and pick up where you left off, or re-read any section at your leisure.

Next article... The Money Game for musicians - check back here on Thursday