The Case For A New York City Opera We remember the "old, scrappy, ambitious days of City Opera, when there was nowhere else in New York to hear standard-repertory operas with young American singers at low prices. Now, American singers work in houses all over the U.S. and Europe, and you can hear a better cast at a Met HD transmission for $25. As for staging new and unusual work, if it's "Prima Donna," then why bother? City Opera will have to come up with a more compelling artistic profile if it is going to survive." The Wall Street Journal 02/21/12

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Osvaldo Golijov Accused Of Plagiarism In Second Work Last week critic Tom Manoff said that the composer's Sidereus incorporated large chunks of music from Michael Ward-Bergeman's score Barbeich; Ward-Bergeman says the borrowings were made with his cooperation. Now a Brazilian journalist says Golijov used, without attribution, a Brazilian pop sing for the second movement of his string quartet Kohelet. The Register-Guard (Eugene, Oregon) 02/21/12

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L'Affaire Golijov: Is It Plagiarism When The Plagiarizee Says It's Okay? Anne Midgette: "That people are getting outraged about this simply means that they are unfamiliar with Golijov's modus operandi. Golijov works this way with other composers all the time, folding their work into his pieces with their approval." The Washington Post 02/21/12

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Where Women Orchestral Players Outnumber The Men: South Korea "Of the 105 members of Seoul Philharmonic, women account for 65 members, or 62 percent. The ratio is even higher for the Bucheon Philharmonic Orchestra, where 63 of its 74 members are women, or 85 percent." One Korean critic attributes the phenomenon to traditional Confucian gender roles. JoongAng Daily (Seoul) 02/20/12

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Concern About Proposed Recording Industry Consolidation "If approved, the sales would reduce the number of major players from four to three and give Universal and Sony substantial advantages over Warner. Battle lines have been drawn throughout the industry, with Warner and independent labels lobbying to block the deals and consumer groups expressing concern that the deals would stifle competition and innovation." The New York Times 02/19/12

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Ben Heppner, With More Vocal Trouble, Pulls Out Of Moby-Dick In San Diego In the West Coast premiere of Jake Heggie's hit opera on Saturday, Heppner' voice was reportedly in distress. Now he has withdrawn from Tuesday's performance due to illness, with the two remaining dates up in the air. Los Angeles Times 02/20/12

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Memphis Symphony Hangs Onto Its Fast-Rising Conductor A Few Years Longer "Mei-Ann Chen, whose growing stature as a conductor is earning increased notice around the country, has agreed to stay on as Music Director of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra for an additional three years." The Commercial-Appeal (Memphis) 02/19/12

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L.A. Opera Offers $25 'Bring-Your-Newbie-Friends' Tickets "The company said that ticket holders for [Britten's] Albert Herring can bring along friends who have never been to the opera before for just $25 per seat." Los Angeles Times 02/20/12

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NPR Critic Accuses Composer Of Copying (But What Does That Even Mean?) Tom Manoff says that Osvaldo Golijov's "Sidereus" is just a little too much like Michael Ward-Bergeman's "Barbeich." The Eugene Register-Guard 02/18/12

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English National Opera Called 'Pro-Terrorist' Because Of 'Klinghoffer' "Jewish groups have accused ENO of 'giving a voice to terrorism' and have threatened to mount protests after the company's decision to stage the rarely-performed work, which the opera company itself says will 'shock.'" The Telegraph (UK) 02/19/12

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What Makes An Opera American? (And Does An Opera In French Qualify?) "America's rich tradition of musical theatre means that audiences expect operas to be accessible. A good example is Jake Heggie's Moby-Dick, which was commissioned by the Dallas Opera and opened in Dallas in 2010. The opera turned a classic American novel into a spectacular stage show, featuring ladders, masts and winches and stormy screen projections." More Intelligent Life 02/17/12

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Windsor Symphony Orchestra Searches For A New Conductor, Via YouTube How to thin the ranks of prospective composers? Digital video, of course. "'Maybe we are doing a little pioneering,' says symphony executive director Jeth Mill. ... 'It is an entirely different world than 11 years ago when the symphony went looking for (leaving conductor) John Morris Russell.'" Toronto Star 02/17/12

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A Symphony of Horns - Car Horns, That Is "New York artist Zefrey Throwell flew in to create the Entropy Symphony, a series of aural interventions around the world that's included air horns in Berlin and an attempt to get all the guards at the Whitney to use their walkie talkies at once. The Los Angeles edition was an orchestrated movement in five parts of some 1,000 cars across the Southland. Each participant received an mp3 attuned to their car horn and were instructed to honk along with the mp3." Hyperallergic 02/17/12

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The Orchestra As Multimedia Experience "Is multimedia the breakthrough orchestras have been looking for to attract new audiences - as supertitles were for opera 25 years ago? Audiences have shown little resistance to visual elements incorporated into the Houston Symphony's concerts, orchestra CEO Mark Hanson said. Yet other factors complicate the question." Houston Chronicle 02/16/12

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The Financial Peril Of The American Orchestra (Explained) So, why is the financial health of so many American classical music institutions unstable? ArtsFuse 02/05/12

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Louisville Orchestra Musicians Reject Binding Arbitration "Louisville Orchestra musicians rejected the board's offer Thursday to settle a nearly yearlong contract dispute through binding arbitration, calling the details of the proposal 'draconian'." Louisville Courier-Journal 02/17/12

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UK Musicians Demand Airlines Standardize Rules For Transporting Instruments "British musicians are calling for a consistent policy on carrying instruments on planes across airlines, after a similar bill was passed in the US. ... The Musicians' Union is asking the British government to standardise requirements because 'musicians regularly have problems taking their instruments on planes due to inconsistent policies from airlines and extortionate fees'." The Stage (UK) 02/15/12

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UK Music Recording Revenue Down In 2011 "UK music industry revenue fell just 3.4% last year to £795m as the steady decline in the popularity of CDs was offset by a 25% increase in income from digital downloads and subscription services such as Spotify and Napster." The Guardian (UK) 02/16/12

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UK Music Magazines Suffer Big Circulation Drops "Every magazine in the sector that reported a year-on-year comparison saw sales decline against the second half of 2010, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures for the six months to December released on Thursday." The Guardian (UK) 02/16/12

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Why Web Streaming Is No Substitute For Classical Music Radio "I miss that idea of a narrative in a musical selection, the idea that the DJ takes you on a journey." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 02/15/12

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LA Phil's Mahler Performance In Caracas The "Biggest Ever?" "The performance on Saturday -- which also will include the combined L.A. Phil and Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra along with eight vocal soloists, all conducted by Gustavo Dudamel -- will turn Mahler's so-called "Symphony of a Thousand" into something 40% larger. This is said to be the most ever for a Mahler Eighth." Los Angeles Times 02/16/12

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Watching El Sistema At Work In A Venezuelan Slum "Corrugated tin roofs, ramshackle cinder-block huts, labyrinthine streets caked with garbage and rubble, the possibility of random violence at any turn. And this section of the Sarría barrio is not even bad for Caracas. ... So just across the street from such blighted scenes young children with violins and French horns and trumpets filled the spaces of an elementary school on Tuesday." The New York Times 02/16/12

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It's Official: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Is UK's Oldest Orchestra "The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (RLPO) was not misleading in its claim to be the 'oldest surviving professional symphony orchestra', it has been ruled." Britain's Advertising Standards Authority "ruled the orchestra had shown 'documentary evidence' to prove the claim." BBC 02/15/12

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LA Philharmonic A Big Hit In Venezuela "People began lining up at 4 a.m. late last month to buy $8 tickets, which quickly sold out for the Los Angeles Philharmonic concerts. They were limited to four a person, but scalpers were said to have scooped up many." The New York Times 02/15/12

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Grammy Broadcast Gets 39 Million Viewers - Second-Most Of All Time "The only Grammy telecast with more viewers was in 1984, when 43.8 million tuned in. That was the year that Michael Jackson won a record eight Grammys. Last year's show attracted 26.7 million viewers." Los Angeles Times 02/014/12

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A Run On Whitney's Music More than 100,000 albums and nearly 900,000 individual tracks sold in a little over 24 hours. Los Angeles Times 02/15/12

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Kentucky Opera Hires Non-Union Orchestra; Conductor Quits The company normally uses the Louisville Orchestra in the pit, but that financially troubled organization is still in a longstanding contract dispute with its musicians. So, for its season-closing production of The Merry Widow this weekend, Kentucky Opera assembled a non-union pit band from local community orchestras - whereupon company music director Joseph Mechavich backed out. WFPL (Louisville) 02/13/12

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Conductor Who Walked Out On Kentucky Opera Walks Right Into San Diego When Kentucky Opera music director Jospeh Mechavich withdrew from the company's Merry Widow following the hiring of non-union orchestra musicians, he was suddenly available for this weekend. As it happens, the conductor for Saturday's West Coast premiere of Jake Heggie's Moby-Dick at San Diego Opera fell ill; Mechavich had conducted that very score last month in Calgary, so he stepped right up. Union-Tribune San Diego 02/14/12

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Elgar Manuscript Found In Local Government Storage Closet "An Edward Elgar manuscript dating back nearly 90 years has been discovered in a council building in Leicestershire. Staff found the musical score while clearing out a storage room at Charnwood Borough Council's headquarters in Loughborough." BBC 02/14/12

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Computer To Recreate Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue With Live Orchestra "George Gershwin's part will be played by a Yamaha Disklavier PRO - a kind of super-computer player piano mechanism inside a classic, nine-foot concert grand. It's essentially a "playback" instrument; what's truly special here is what will guide the Disklavier: the Zenph Sound Innovations software that meticulously replicates a musician's performance as computer data." Art&Seek (KERA) 02/12/12

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David Finckel Leaves Emerson String Quartet After 33 Years The 60-year-old cellist, "who has been multitasking of late in ventures with his wife, the pianist Wu Han - as co-artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center ... and Music@Menlo in California, and as co-producer of the record label ArtistLed - is leaving to pursue 'his personal artistic endeavors'." The New York Times 02/13/12

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Why Adele's 'Someone Like You' Makes People Cry: A Scientific Explanation Based on existing neuropsychology studies and an analysis of the Grammy-winning song, it seems that the answer involves crescendos, appoggiaturas, and dopamine. The Wall Street Journal 02/11/12

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With Police Escort And Rock Star Status, Dudamel And The LA Phil Move Mahler To Caracas "The day was warm and humid. The air was soft and thick. The very diverse audience included students and parents, rich and poor, children as young as 5. Attire could be anything: jeans and T-shirts, suits and mini-skirts. Kids carried musical instruments. Teenagers danced and necked on the plaza. Vendors sold delicious local chocolate wrapped with portraits of Gustav Mahler." Los Angeles Times 02/12/12

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Finishing An Unfinished Symphony (Not *The* Unfinished Symphony, But Still A Schubert) The BBC's Radio 3, during a an eight-day stretch entirely devoted to Schubert, will "finish" one of the several symphonies the composer left unfinished at his death. The Telegraph (UK) 02/12/12

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St. Paul Chamber Orchestra President Steps Down "Sarah Lutman, president and managing director of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, will leave the orchestra to start an independent consulting practice, the SPCO announced Friday." Minneapolis Star Tribune 02/11/12

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Detroit Symphony Orchestra Finds The Love Online When 15,000 viewers watched a webcast of the DSO, they set a new record - one that the DSO hopes to overturn. "'Our goal is to be the most accessible orchestra on the planet,' Scott Harrison, the orchestra's executive producer of digital media, said in a statement." Detroit Free Press (AP) 02/11/12

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Call That Delicate Conducting? Only If You Know The Conductor's A Woman New studies confirm that classical listeners often respond differently to female conductors - but that's not always a bad thing. (Also, those thinking about a random string of numbers during a performance won't be distracted by gender. Really.) Miller-McCune 02/09/12

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The Great Tuba Theft Epidemic "In the last few months, dozens of brass sousaphones -- smaller tubas used in marching bands -- were taken from schools in Southern California. Though the police have not made any arrests, music teachers say the thefts are motivated by the growing popularity of banda, a traditional Mexican music form in which tubas play a dominant role." The New York Times 02/09/12

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Excluded Musicians Plan To Protest At Grammy Ceremonies The restructuring largely slashed the Grammy trophies for ethnic and minority genres, though some pop, rock, country and R&B categories were consolidated as well (for instance leaving male and female artists to complete in a single category). CBC 02/09/12

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Pittsburgh Symphony Holds YouTube Competition To Find Concerto Soloist "Videos submitted by instrumental soloists will be up for anyone to watch. The top four vote-getters will get a chance to audition for musical director and conductor Manfred Honeck. The winner - if Honeck picks one at all - gets $10,000 and a paid trip to perform with the orchestra at Heinz Hall this fall." AP 02/09/12

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