Blog: Page 82

A recent post by David Pogue on his NYT blog highlighted some medically-oriented iPhone apps. Though not designed with musicians in mind, this free app might be very helpful to musicians of all kinds in monitoring the state of their hearing: uHear™ is a unique hearing loss screening test application available for download to the […]

If the person who wrote the headline for this article went to J-school, they should get a complete refund on their tuition: Honolulu Symphony Bankruptcy Disturbs Musicians Musicians Fear Uncertain Future HONOLULU — News of the Honolulu Symphony’s bankruptcy announcement is sending shock waves through the community.

The truly shocking part of this announcement is the fourth paragraph (italicized): The Honolulu Symphony Society Board of Directors announced on Friday that it has decided to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The announcement comes after more than a week of uncertainty. The chairman of the Honolulu Symphony’s board of directors told KITV, that as […]

OK, so we all agree that it’s tough out there in the real world. Nobody argues with that, but we don’t let it get in our way. Successful people in music are drawn to the music itself. It may sound corny but music and performance can be very addictive. The music profession calls us, and […]

Things look bleak in Honolulu, even after a $1.8 million gift in September: The chairman of the Honolulu Symphony’s board of directors told KITV on Wednesday, that as of last Friday, the symphony did not have enough money to make its payroll. Peter Shaindlin said he hopes to make an announcement about the symphony’s future […]

Someone sent me this several weeks ago, and I just stumbled upon it again while straightening up my very cluttered desktop. I used to do a variation of this with beginning clarinet students to demonstrate how good breath support made for good finger technique. They would blow into the clarinet and I would finger it. […]

We read about orchestra financial pressures all the time. Musicians demand a decent wage and when communities and boards have difficulty supporting them, an impasse results. Of the 51 ICSOM orchestras , there are ten with minimum scales over $100,000. Not surprisingly these orchestras are in large metropolitan cities like New York, Boston, Chicago and […]

Recently I wrote about several “apps” that allow users to virtually play an instrument. The Nov 1st issue of the NYTimes has a longer article about a similar idea: “Orchestra Hero”. Written by Michael Gordon, a composer, it’s an enthusiastic endorsement of the art form we all know and love, but which is unknown to […]

A couple of weeks ago I linked to a story about one of the many musicians who formed the great diaspora of Jews from Europe during and after the Nazi era. Here’s another one: The Lost Cellos of Lev Aronson. Its sounds like the title of one of those wistful, purposely sentimental novels that seem […]

Many of you may follow the writings of Greg Sandow in his Arts Journal Blog.  If you do you will know that for the past couple of years Greg has been writing a book, and presenting it piece by piece in his blog.  This project went dormant for a period of time, but now he’s […]