Toronto Symphony Orchestra says it faces bankruptcy
TORONTO, CANADA (Reuters) - The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, one of North America's major orchestras, could face bankruptcy unless it secures a quick cash injection, its chairman, Robert Weiss, told ReutersWednesday. "The need for those monies is imminent," Weiss said. "The sad and blunt reality is ...
| Absent Pomp, the Met Opens
NEW YORK (AP) - After speeches about music promoting peace and lifting the human spirit, the Metropolitan Opera opened its 119th season with a Verdi gala centered on assassination, strangulation and stabbing. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was given a standing ovation Monday night when he spoke to the crowd ...
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Masur to Undergo Organ Transplant
NEW YORK (AP) - Conductor Kurt Masur is scheduled to undergo an organ transplant and will miss several performances in his final season as New York Philharmonic's music director. Masur, 74, will have the procedure at a hospital in Europe in late November, Eric Latzky, a spokesman for the orchestra, ...
| Pavarotti Holds Weekend Concert
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Luciano Pavarotti's weekend concert was something of a strain, coming so soon after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. "I am not here in the best moment of our life," Pavarotti said in an interview Saturday. "I think that life must go on even if I'm very touched ...
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Alagna, Gheorghiu Won't Be at Opera
NEW YORK (AP) - Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu have withdrawn from their appearances at the Metropolitan Opera this season, including Alagna's performance at Saturday's benefit for victims of the World Trade Center attacks. The pair did not want to travel to New York from Europe, according to Met ...
| Neb. Conductor: Music Can Help U.S.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Musicians can help the nation move forward from last week's terrorist attacks, the conductor of the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra said. That's why Edward Polochick, who also is artistic director of Concert Artists of Baltimore, endured a 35-hour bus journey from Baltimore last week ...
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Rattle Inks Berlin Orchestra Deal
BERLIN (AP) - Conductor Sir Simon Rattle signed a 10-year contract with the Berlin Philharmonic on Wednesday after the cash-strapped city reassured the British star about the funding and independence of the orchestra. The signing, postponed for a week because of the terrorist attacks in the United States, ...
| Zinman Quits As Orchestra Director
BALTIMORE (AP) - David Zinman has resigned his title of music director emeritus of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Zinman resigned in protest of its present artistic direction, specifically a decline in programming of works by contemporary American composers. Yuri Temirkanov, who succeeded Zinman ...
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Pavarotti: Innocent on Tax Evasion
MODENA, Italy (AP) - Luciano Pavarotti pleaded innocent to tax evasion charges in an Italian court on Monday. The tenor is on trial on charges of filing false tax returns from 1989-95. If convicted, he could face up to three years in prison. "I don't feel guilty and if a law says the contrary I want ...
| Opera Stars to Sing at N.Y. Concert
NEW YORK (Top40 Charts) - Soprano Heidi Grant Murphy, baritone Thomas Hampson, the New York Choral Artists and The American Boychoir will join the New York Philharmonic in a Sept. 20 memorial concert for the victims of this week's terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The memorial ...
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Fleming Offers Reward for Gowns
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) - Soprano Renee Fleming posted a $1,000 reward Saturday for a misplaced garment bag containing two custom-made designer gowns. The singer accidentally left the bag at the Westchester County Airport before boarding a flight to Chicago on Friday, said Magda Krance, publicist for ...
| Tenor Watson Can Do Without Tabloids
NEW YORK (AP) - Russell Watson's success on the music charts has earned the British tenor the attention of his nation's tabloids - attention he says he can do without. ``In the U.K., sometimes press can be naughty, I will say. For certain newspapers are always looking for ulterior motives,'' Watson ...
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Rattle to Lead Berlin Philharmonic
BERLIN (AP) - Sir Simon Rattle will sign a long-awaited contract with the Berlin Philharmonic after the cash-strapped city reassured the British conductor about the funding and independence of the orchestra, its director said Saturday. Rattle, who led the City of Birmingham (England) Symphony Orchestra ...
| Marc-Andre Hamelin Takes Pianism to a Higher Level
Philadelphia (CDNOW) - The descriptive phrase that shows up most often in articles about pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin ("a super virtuoso") was originally written by the noted author, critic, and historian, Harold C. Schonberg and appeared in The New York Times. While this is an honorable utterance, it ...
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Historic Viennese venue razed
The celebrated Viennese concert and recording venue, The Sofiensaal, has been destroyed by fire.Fire-fighters fought through the night to salvage the building's structure, but by morning little remained of the hall but the charred outer walls.The fire was discovered by a band of musicians who were rehearsing ...
| Debussy, a Composer Unlike Any Before or After Him
NY (The New York Times) - Claude Debussy is the focus of the Bard Music Festval this summer. As a backdrop, the Times classical music critics pick favorite Debussy recordings. CENTURY later, the originality of the music of Claude Debussy is clear. But in an era when the likes of Mahler, Stravinsky and ...
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King of the harmonica and Gershwin expert dies
Legendary harmonica player Larry Adler, a widely acknowledged genius of his art and perhaps the last great musical link to George Gershwin, has died at the age of 87. The US-born musician, who had been active in his career for a remarkable 73 years, died last night (Monday) at St Thomas's Hospital in ...
| New Santa Fe Opera Dir. Buffs Image
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - When he became the Santa Fe Opera's first new general director in 45 years, Richard Gaddes inherited a summer festival that was known internationally but often ignored in its own back yard. So Gaddes - only the second director in the opera's history - has been reaching out this ...
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Sylvia McNair to work for Indiana University
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) - Grammy-winning opera singer Sylvia McNair has been appointed to a newly created post as executive adviser for outreach with the Indiana University School of Music. McNair, 45, received a master's degree in music from Indiana in 1983. Her three-year appointment is to begin on ...
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