The High Cost Of Underpaying Composers
Being a composer has never been an easy career. Judging from this feature in The Guardian, things are as difficult as they ever were for career composers.
Being a composer has never been an easy career. Judging from this feature in The Guardian, things are as difficult as they ever were for career composers.
Some of the weekend’s stories and reviews of the Vienna Philharmonic Sydney concerts: Teddy Tahu Rhodes and David Hobson: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/perfect-match/story-e6frg8n6-1226157899124 A look a Mozart’s The Magic Flute: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/enigma-variations/story-e6frg8n6-1226157882835 The Vienna Philharmonic in Sydney: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/out-of-the-void-comes-music-of-the-universe-20111007-1ldhj.html http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/homage-to-schubert-played-to-perfection-20111006-1lbk8.html
Richard Jones’ production of R Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier for Glyndebourne Opera’s Open House is available on You Tube until 5 pm (UK Summer time) on Sunday 12 July. Conducted by Glyndebourne’s Music Director Robin Ticciati, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, soprano Kate Royal, Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught, German bass Lars Woldt, and soprano Teodora Gheorghiu….
“Because we live in a culture…… where visual stimuli are in the ascendant, sometimes at the cost of sound. Sound is no longer enough…… that music is a worthy pursuit in and of itself is…..being casually dismissed. Classical music now must aspire to offer spectacle – whether a particular piece can take it or not….
Like conducting, classical music composition has been a field of endeavour where few women have achieved fame. This feature from BBC Culture nominates 10 women composers of note through the centuries. We can can make a few suggestions – Peggy Glanville-Hicks, Kaija Saariaho, Elena Kats-Chernin, Rachel Portman, Barbara Strozzi, Elisabeth Lutyens, Anne Boyd, Rosalind Page, Liza…
Elena Kats-Chernin says she has been told she can write no more works for String Quartet. She displays a mischievous pleasure at my alarm. The Sydney composer has recently released a recorded collection of her ‘complete’ works for string quartet, entitled Blue Silence. ‘Complete’ to date, and therefore the end of a chapter. “But it’s only the…
This feature from Newsweek, explains why aspiring opera singers gravitate to Germany to pursue their careers. “According to the opera statistics website – Operabase, last year 7,230 opera performances took place in Germany, one third of the world’s total. The United States came a distant second, at 1,730 performances, followed by France and Russia. Austria ranked…