Interchanging Idioms

TwtrSymphony will release their debut track The Hawk Goes Hunting Friday July 6th, 2012. Hawk is the 1st movement of Chip Michael's Symphony No. 2 - Birds of a Feather , a new composition created specifically for a Social Media Symphony. TwtrSymphony, a new concept in the symphony orchestra, would only be possible in our modern era of global communications. A collection of musicians from around the world met over Twitter and conspired to form an orchestra participating in the TwtrSymphony project . This newly formed organization works to create new music in keeping with the character limit of a tweet - 140 seconds at a time. For each symphonic movement and each chamber piece, the composer must create the score, the individual parts and click tracks which provide the necessary framework for playing together without a conductor. The musicians must then record their part in remote sessions and upload them to the web. Finally, the various tracks are put together and engineered by...

The Society of Composers & Lyricist had a special showing of BRAVE last night with a Q&A session with Patrick Doyle after the film. Let me start of by say Pixar has done it again. BRAVE is a wonderful film, with a charming story line that really captures the beauty of Scotland. This is not a twee (cheezy) film that mocks Scotland like Brigadoon , but captures both the attitudes (good and bad) of the people, the feeling of the landscape and heart of the music without pandering to stereotypes. The voices are alive with the accent, albeit the accents have been softened a bit to be understandable (for an American audience). The rich colors of the countryside occasionally look cartoon-ish, but for someone who lived there for 10 years and traveled highlands, lowlands and islands extensively, believe the colors are real. Patrick Doyle dug deep into his roots growing up in Uddingston Scotland (just outside Glasgow) and brought in some stellar Celtic musicians to give the film an au...

The world has changed over the past 40 years since Don McLean recorded “American Pie” – the day the music died. I don't think we need to start any riots to get those under 40 into the concert hall. Nor do I think we need to abandon what we have (and the audience that loves it) just to get a younger audience in attendance. However, I do think there are some things we should think about when approaching the problem --mainly, the ways that the changing cultural landscape has created a very different way of thinking about and interacting with the world as a whole for those under 40. The last four decades have seen a huge shift in the way we think and interact with each other. People who are less than 40 years old were not yet born when Neil Armstrong took the first steps on the moon (1969). While they may have been old enough to remember when MTV came out (1981), they weren't yet into their teens. The term 'personal computer' was used as early as 1972, and the first...

from American Orchestra Forum While classical music continues to grow artistically via commissions, new music, and new channels of distribution, the core orchestral presentation—a live, on-stage concert—is essentially unchanged over the past 100 years. Will that, can that, remain the case for the next 100 years? Mark Clague, associate professor of music, University of Michigan; Matthew VanBesien, Executive Director Designate, New York Philharmonic; Sunil Iyengar, Director of Research & Analysis, National Endowment for the Arts; Elizabeth Scott, Chief Media and Digital Officer, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts - formerly V.P., Major League Baseball Productions; Brent Assink, Executive Director, San Francisco Symphony; and Steven Winn, San Francisco arts journalist and author Recorded May 13, 2012 in San Francisco, CA.

Join Colorado Symphony for Independence Eve presented by Anadarko, a FREE Colorado Symphony concert, light show and fireworks display on Tuesday, July 3, in Denver’s Civic Center Park (Colfax & Broadway) beginning at 8:00 pm. Lawn seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis; arriving early is greatly encouraged, as are blankets or low-rise concert/beach chairs. Attendees are welcome to bring their own picnics; concessions will also be available on-site.

Tents have been pitched, flags are flying with various colors demarking the armies who have come to do battle. Soldiers are busy sharpening their weapons, polishing their armor, making sure every thing is ready to reap maximum carnage when the time comes. Leaders are rallying their troops, spurring them on with motivational speeches designed to prove their cause is just. Tactics are carefully planned to maximize the effectiveness of each arsenal. Each army convinced they will win the day. The problem with this picture is the war being waged isn't against another foe, some foreign invader. The war in Classical Music is a civil war, armies which should be on the same side are fighting against each other. People who should be cooperating to look for the future of Classical Music are entrenching their ideas. Ideas are selective rather than inclusive. It is a Solomon's dilemma --do we hack the baby in pieces to appease everyone? This battle isn't a one off, winner takes all. T...