Interchanging Idioms

Composers spend a lot of time composing music. What is that time worth? Dennis Tobinski recently posted " The Composer’s Guide to Doing Business: The Benefits of Entrepreneurship " where he talks about the need to charge for compositions because of the investment of time, materials, education. He posits composers should operate like a business. Everything he says makes a lot of sense and he says it well. But he's speaking to the composers. What about speaking to the performers ? Do singers and instrumentalists realize how much effort a piece takes to compose? Performers know the time they spend in learning a piece of music; when a composer asks musicians to play a piece, pay is nearly always a topic. "What's my time worth?" I've had performers charge $50 to play a single piece and tell me they are doing me a favor by charging so little. If I have them play three or four pieces in a concert, the money per piece is less, but the total figure is h...

Starring Joyce DiDonato, David Daniels,and Plácido Domingo SATURDAY, JANUARY 21 at 12:55 p.m. ET/9:55 a.m. PT The Enchanted Island is a world premiere opera that combines great music of the Baroque era with an all-new, English-language story. The score combines selections from more than 30 operas, cantatas, and oratorios by Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau, and other masters of the Baroque period. The story, by the English theater artist Jeremy Sams, combines two of Shakespeare’s best-known plays in a lighthearted “mash-up.” The four young lovers from A Midsummer Night’s Dream find themselves shipwrecked on Prospero’s island from The Tempest , leading to a tortuous web of comic and dramatic romantic entanglements. The extraordinary cast includes Joyce DiDonato as the sorceress Sycorax; David Daniels as her nemesis, Prospero; Danielle de Niese as the air spirit Ariel; Luca Pisaroni as the monstrous but soft-hearted Caliban; Lisette Oropesa as Prospero’s daughter Miranda; Anthony Roth Costanz...

Internationaly Best-Selling and Award-Winning Trumpeter Releases New Recording of Modern Concertos EMI Classics- February 7th, 2012 Trumpeter Alison Balsom ’s new recording of modern and contemporary repertoire, Seraph (EMI Classics, out February 7, 2012) marks an important artistic stepping stone in her career. This labor of love features the world premiere recording of Seraph , James MacMillan’s trumpet concerto written for Alison, works by Takemitsu and Zimmermann and includes her long-awaited recording of the ever popular Arutunian Trumpet Concerto. Joining Alison in the concertos is the Scottish Ensemble. James MacMillan’s Seraph (2010), a concertino for trumpet and strings in three short movements, was co-commissioned by the Scottish Ensemble and Perth Concert Hall. Seraph - the meaning of the word is ‘a celestial being or angel, usually and traditionally associated with trumpets’ - was premiered by its dedicatee at the Wigmore Hall in February 2011 and the premiere was reco...

New Album Featuring Sonatas by J.S. Bach Performed on Violin and Harp to be Released as an iTunes Exclusive on January 17, 2012, with SACD/CD Hybrid to Follow on February 14, 2012 New Album Featuring Sonatas by J.S. Bach Performed on Violin and Harp to be Released as an iTunes Exclusive on January 17, 2012, with SACD/CD Hybrid to Follow on February 14, 2012 This winter, celebrated violinist Lara St. John and Marie-Pierre Langlamet, principal harpist of the Berlin Philharmonic, present an album of J.S. Bach sonatas offering a new perspective and performed on violin and harp. The album will be released as an iTunes digital exclusive on January 17, 2012, with a wide release to all retailers on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2012. This is Lara St. John’s third foray into Bach on her Ancalagon label. About her first, The Concerto Album released in 2002, Gramophone wrote, “She makes the most ordinary passages come to life…. It is difficult to argue with such technically dazzling and unfail...

Two-time Grammy® Award-winners bring their unique brand of cowboy antics and Western flair to the Colorado Symphony stage For more than 30 years, Riders in the Sky have been keepers of the flame passed on by the Sons of the Pioneers, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, reviving and revitalizing Western music. This January, the classic cowboy quartet will join the Colorado Symphony as the 2011/12 Colorado Symphony Pops Series continues during the 2012 National Western Stock Show on Saturday, January 21 at 7:30 p.m. The two-time Grammy® Award-winners will bring their special brand of cowboy charisma and country flair to Boettcher Concert Hall in one of the most anticipated concerts of the season. Tickets are on sale now and start at $25. While rooted in Western music tradition, Riders In The Sky have become modern-day icons whose appeal crosses musical and generational boundaries. Together with the Colorado Symphony, Riders In The Sky will invoke their unique brand of cowboy charm and wit in pe...

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts 2, 9, 16 & 23 February - All broadcast on BBC Radio 3 The Nash Ensemble presents the Brahms Plus series at LSO St Luke’s on each Thursday in February at 1pm and each concert will be recorded for later broadcast on BBC Radio 3. The series presents some of Brahms’ great chamber works coupled with music by four composers who were an influence on, or were influenced by, Brahms – Haydn, Mozart, Mendelssohn and Richard Strauss. Brahms Plus sits within Echoes of Romanticism, the Nash’s over-arching focus for its 2011/12 season at Wigmore Hall. The Nash Ensemble is Britain’s leading chamber ensemble, acclaimed for adventurous programming and virtuoso performances. It has been Chamber Ensemble in Residence at the Wigmore Hall since the 2009/10 season. This will be its first week-long residency at LSO St Luke’s. 2011/12 is the most ambitious BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert season at LSO St Luke’s to date. During September, October and November, over...

Join the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall for a festival exploring one of the most fascinating yet misunderstood composers of the twentieth century – Sergei Prokofiev. Prokofiev Symphony Concerto Listen to the first movement of Prokoviev's Symphony Concerto with cellist Danjulo Ishizaka and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski.