Music, together with certain sorts of majestic landscape, had a well-known tendency to induce such faux-sublime moments: artificial intimations of transcendent truths, grandiose hunches about the nature of the universe. It was all nonsense. Her tears had been no different from the ones people cried at sentimental television commercials. They represented nothing but a momentary and regrettable submission to kitsch.
- From The Believers by Zoe Heller
adding his two cents to the great ‘alt-classical’ ‘debate’ of 2k10. Here’s the rest of the above sentiment:
Alternative used to mean Rage Against the Machine. Later, it meant Limp Bizkit. Is that an admirable trajectory? Today, alt-classical means Alarm Will Sound. Tomorrow, will it mean Bond? It’s very easy (and often very profitable) to take something that gained credibility for being other and monetize it by taking things that are not other and dressing them up as other.
offers some advice about getting audiences to enjoy classical music without lecturing them.
author of The Music Instinct, defending the music of Arnold Schoenberg.
offerering suggestions on how to improve the symphony experience for audience members.
on the trend of new music players and composers mixing ideologically opposing streams of contemporary music on the same program.
[via New York Times]
The Proper Discord blog commenting on the Philadelphia Orchestra’s universally laughed-at, though widely discussed, new Unexpect Yourself campaign.
Brian Sacawa is the Curator of the Contemporary Museum's Mobtown Modern music series.
As a saxophonist, Brian has been called many things—most of them good—including "an inventive musician" (The New York Times), "inspired" (The Washington Post), and "brilliant" (Baltimore Sun). His versatile career has led to appearances ranging from Carnegie Hall to Baltimore's Metro Gallery and with ensembles including the Baltimore Symphony, Detroit Symphony, New World Symphony, and St. Petersburg (Russia) Philharmonic.
Brian can be heard on the Grammy-winning album Songs of Innocence and Experience (Naxos) and his critically-acclaimed debut solo recording, American Voices, is available on the Innova record label.
You can learn more about Brian on his website, where you're likely to find out that he also performs in the genre-bending duo Hybrid Groove Project and is a Category 2 bicycle racer for District Velocity Racing p/b The Bike Rack.
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