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May 1, 2023
The Aspen Festival Orchestra will be sight-reading 4'33 this summer. Very ambitious. Let's hope they can pull it off.
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In today's email:
- The big idea: UK gets piano fever
- Orchestral Manoeuvres: DSO Berlin to feature women in every concert next season
- Tech: Tapestry Opera launches Canadian online opera resource tool
- Remembering: Jerry Springer (the opera)
- Photo of the week
- Around the web: The expensive truth behind free pianos, someone really enjoyed the L.A. Phil, a legal history of the poop emoji, plus more curious internet finds.
CLASSICAL CHARTS
THE BIG IDEA
The piano is making a 21st-century comeback.
The U.K. Gets Piano Fever
"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated" — Piano.
The Guardian has reported a surge in piano sweeping the UK, with growing numbers of people taking up the instrument.
The renewed interest first caught the attention of piano retailers reporting strong sales.
The reason? We can only speculate, but it appears to be a combination of street pianos and the popular TV show "The Piano" contributing to the craze. In addition, popular piano education videos found on YouTube are also helping those interested in learning to play in a more accessible and affordable way.
Street pianos, TV Shows and Youtube
Outdoor community pianos have become a fixture of urban life in the UK and beyond since the launch of Play Me, I'm Yours in 2008. The program has seen over 2000 street pianos installed in 70 cities worldwide, each encouraging public engagement with the urban environment and the arts through music. The pianos are also decorated by local artists and community groups to promote community connection.
The program served as the basis for Channel 4's recent talent search program, The Piano. The TV talent search show, which includes piano superstar Lang Lang as a judge, showcases amateur pianists from across the UK performing on the street pianos around London.
Celebrity endorsements
Lang Lang's foundation also launched its music education program, Keys of Inspiration UK, centred on the piano, in London in September. The program plans to expand to more schools later this year.
Taking notes
The resurgence of piano playing in the UK highlights the power of technology and public initiatives in making classical music more accessible and appealing to a broader audience. This trend could potentially inspire other countries to adopt similar investments to help create a new generation of pianists and classical music enthusiasts.
THE LATEST
The Cleveland Orchestra has received a $10 million gift from the Milton and Tamar Maltz Family Foundation for improvements to the Blossom Music Center, including new Pavilion seating, VIP box upgrades, and a separate ride-share lot. Immediate enhancements also involve better lighting and signage at the concert venue located in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. | Akron Beacon Journal
The Philharmonia Orchestra has appointed Marin Alsop as its new principal guest conductor. Alsop will join the Philharmonia for the 2023/24 season, developing three distinctive projects per season that include new repertoire. | Classical-music.com
Internationally recognized conductor Keitaro Harada has been awarded the 2023 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award. The prestigious award, which includes a $30,000 cash prize, is the largest given to American conductors in the early stages of their careers.| Operawire
ORCHESTRAL MANEUVERS
DSO Berlin to Program Women in Every Single Concert
"There shall be no symphony concert without one piece by a female composer."
This is the official motto the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO) announced last week. The move marks one of the most significant stands for gender equality in classical music by an orchestra ever.
What it means: The upcoming 2023/24 season will feature at least one work by a woman composer for every concert. Composers will include works by Unsuk Chin, Jessie Montgomery, Camille Pépin, Helen Grime, Fanny Hensel, Elizabeth Ogonek, Anna Clyne, Olga Neuwirth, Thea Musgrave, Hildegard von Bingen, Ethel Smyth, Lili Boulanger, and more.
DSO's Music Director Robin Ticciati and Managing Director Thomas Schmidt-Orr call it a "Feminist Music Policy' that aims to challenge the patriarchal systems that influence power structures, personnel, and repertoire selection in the orchestral world.
By the numbers: Gender disparity in classical music has long been an issue, with female composers historically underrepresented in programming and performances. Here's a closer look at the numbers:
Female composers' works currently make up only 2% of performances by professional German orchestras.
Globally, the situation is slightly better, with 7.7% of orchestral programming in the 2021/22 season consisting of works by women, according to a report by Donne: Women in Music that surveyed 31 countries.
Why it matters: This disparity has roots in societal norms and expectations that have long favoured male composers. In recent years, however, there has been a growing awareness of this gender imbalance and a push to increase the representation of female composers in the classical music world. Orchestras have been recognizing these disparities with programming that seeks a more equitable future for all composers, regardless of gender.
TECH
Mireille Asselin (Photo: Dahlia Katz/Tapestry Opera)
Tapestry Opera Launches Canadian Online Opera Resource Tool
Tapestry Opera has launched COR, or the Canadian Opera Resource, a smart online tool that lets users easily explore Canadian operas and opera creators. There is a whole new wave of opera creators in Canada, and COR replaces having to research multiple sources with a single wiki-style website and searchable database.
Performers, producers, and musicologists will be able to find both the works and their creators easily.
Why it’s important
Along with the beloved repertoire of operas from the classical canon, it’s important for the world of opera, as in any creative field, to include a steady stream of new work. Operas take an enormous amount of time and resources to create. Three to 10 years is common, along with a good chunk of financial resources, whether public or private funding is used.
Most Canadian operas are only performed once;
They are only heard and experienced by local audiences as a rule.
For Canadian creators, the visibility offered by COR is an important step forward.
How does it work?
The COR database operates much like a wiki, where users can add to the body of information.
It includes 40 years of Tapestry’s commissions of Canadian opera
The list is growing as new operas are premiered
Canadian creators and producers can add their works to the database
The database is searchable by type, voice part, and also by creator identities, including works produced by women, IBPOC and LGBTQ+ artists. It is hoped that opera creators will be able to find new opportunities for their works by participating in the database.
In addition to simply finding works, users and like and recommend artists and specific works
They can research and listen to samples as well as buy the scores and securing performing rights for recital, study, or full remount
Michael Hidetoshi Mori, Tapestry’s General Director and the COR concept creator, commented in a media release. “This dynamic tool will be a force for not only making Canada’s greatest operas and opera creators more discoverable, but by supporting the works that resonate the most, it will help reinforce the contemporary potential of an artform that suffers from outdated negative stereotypes.
Young artists, in particular, will have unique opportunities to find creators and stories that resonate with their experience and world and easily share them with colleagues. What scores previously may have languished in physical collections are now available to be discovered in seconds.”
BONUS
In memory of the late Jerry Springer who passed away last week, we give you the unforgettable Jerry Springer: The Opera.
AROUND THE WEB
📅 On this day: Antonín Dvořák dies, 1904, Prague, Czechia.
🆓 Advice: The expensive truth behind a free piano.
📷 Interesting: How photographs were sent by wire in the 1920s.
🍆 Good times: Someone let out a 'loud full body orgasm' while L.A. Phil plays Tchaikovsky's 5th this weekend.
💩 Read : A legal history of the poop emoji.
🐘 Aww: And now, a baby Elephant learning about her trunk.
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Franz Liszt (centre) photographed with his students on October 22, 1884. (Photo: Louis Held)
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Today's email was brought to you by Anya "by the numbers" Wassenberg and Michael "street piano" Vincent.
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