Interchanging Idioms

Soulful Symphony is a 75-piece American symphony orchestra founded in 2000 by composer Darin Atwater (pictured). It is based in Baltimore, Maryland and its membership is entirely African American. The group is affiliated with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Darin Atwater uses the terms Soulful as “expressing deep feeling,” and Symphony as in “harmony of sounds.” NRP has a video of a lovely piece entitled "Song in a Strange Land," a negro spiritual. Initially Mr Atwater uses minimalist textures to build the piece, starting with a marimba on a repeating figure, eventually bringing in strings. His instrumentation is similar to a symphony orchestra but augmented with saxophones, a drum set and gospel choir. All of these have been included in other orchestral pieces, but the sound put together by Mr Atwater has more of a jazz ensemble approach than we typically get from a symphony orchestra, even a pop's orchestra. The harmonies are rich with some particularly some n...

The Duluth Symphony Orchestra is not the size of the Minnesota Orchestra or financially as big as the St Paul Chamber Orchestra. Still, it was a contributor to the classical music scene in the Minnesota area which for 77 years has relied heavily on volunteers. As many surrounding business tighten their belts with the coming recession, the symphony is expecting an endowment value of 40% less than last year. This does not include the lower corporate donations. Their annual deficit could stand at $69k, but if ticket sales also decline this number will change. Last years deficit was only $53, so something is going to have to change. "Ticket sales generate about half the orchestra’s revenue, with the other half coming from endowment returns, grants, gifts and state funding. But investments have tanked, and season ticket subscriptions have declined 10 percent. Despite unbudgeted income from extra concerts, charity giving and other sources, expenses are exceeding income," sa...

As an artist I am interested in making a living with my music. It would be nice if I could actually create something and get paid for that creation. On the other hand, as an artist I am also interested in having what I have created heard, enjoyed, experienced. While I need to be able to eat/survive, I also have the need to share my creation(s) with the greater world. The selfish side of me also thinks that if someone is going to make money from my music, I ought to get a share of the profits (basically, I'm against someone stealing my music, making a fortune and I end up with nothing). So, how to I ensure I get a fair share of the profits from my music and yet still get my music out the public that wants to hear it? The issue of copyright and its impact on music is again at the forefront (if it ever left). There is a wonderful article by Mike Masnick on techdirt which suggests the imposing of Copyright protection on classical music did little toward protecting the artists...

New Chamber Opera Company Opens with The Return of Ulysses and good reviews Pacific Operaworks is a new chamber opera company based in Seattle which debuted its first performance, Monteverdi's The Return of Ulysses , on Wednesday. The nature of this production sets the tone for the company: innovative interpretations of operas from the baroque to the modern, involving major figures from the worlds of visual art, dance, drama and music. In the first few seasons Pacific Operaworks will be bringing artists such as Mark Morris , Heiner Goebbels , and Stephen Wadsworth to Seattle, as well as the initial residency of William Kentridge and the Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa. With a wide range of partnerships in the Seattle Arts Community (from Seattle Baroque Orchestra , Seattle Opera , Seattle Chamber Players and Pacific Northwest Ballet to such institutions as St. James Cathedral, the Henry Art Gallery and the University of Washington) Pacific Operaworks will fea...

One of the complaints I hear a lot by live musicians is the "tin" sound of midi realizations. I provided one such recording to the orchestra in preparation of the premiere of my symphony and was dismayed at how few of the orchestral members even listened to part of it, let alone any of it. Granted, my own midi realizations (which you can hear on MySpace ) are not quite professional quality (far from it) - but music programming (turning midi into quality sound files) is an art all its own and not one I've spent enough time with. I did come across another composer in the film industry (well, ok, I'm not actually in the in the film industry...yet). Alain Mayrand wrote a bit about recording a piece of film music with an example of voice over recording combined with synth sounds. The recording is amazing especially consider he spent about 15 mins total time creating this 10 second sound bite. As for my own work, here are a couple of snippets from the 4th moveme...

World Premiere of an unpublished Mendelssohn piece at the Ravivia Festival June 20 Misha and Cipa Dichter will also perform the work at the Aspen Music Festival on August 20 Misha Dichter and Cipa Dichter , who have become known for bringing many previously neglected works of the two-piano and piano four-hand repertoire to the concert stage, will perform the world premiere of an unpublished work by Felix Mendelssohn at the Ravinia Festival on Saturday, June 20, followed by a performance of the work on Thursday, August 20 at the Aspen Music Festival . The “Seven Songs Without Words, Op. 62 and Op. 67” for piano four-hands are among more than 270 unpublished works recovered by The Mendelssohn Project. Mendelssohn began writing his “Six Songs without Words” for solo piano, Op. 62, in 1841 and completed them in early 1844. Soon after at a dinner in London with British novelists Charles Dickens and William Thackeray, the idea was discussed of arranging the Op. 62 songs for piano f...

First Holder of its William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies Appointment Begins in the 2009-2010 Academic Year The Juilliard School announced on March 10th that New York Philharmonic Music Director-Designate and Juilliard alumnus, Alan Gilbert is named the first holder of its William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies. His first season as Schuman Chair holder begins in the Fall of 2009, simultaneously with the start of his tenure at the New York Philharmonic. Projects scheduled during the next few years will be wide ranging and include coaching and performance master classes with instrumentalists, singers, chamber ensembles, and conductors; sessions with Juilliard conducting students throughout the teaching year; cooperative projects involving Juilliard young artists and the musicians of the New York Philharmonic; co-teaching varied topical subject matter in graduate seminar. In addition, Mr. Gilbert will conduct the Juilliard Orchestra in a concert each academic year. Juilliard...