April 22, 2007

Ornette Coleman

( Phoenix, AZ )
•Coleman wins music Pulitzer
•Fischer to lead NSO
•BBC music mag awards
•Divas more prone to G/I ills?

This week in classical music 4/22/07

It’s this week in classical music, an update on what’s happening in the Classical music world, I’m Randy Kinkel.

For the first time ever, the Pulitzer prize for music has been awarded to a recording. Ornette Coleman’s “Sound Grammar” a collection of live performances recorded in 2005 and released last year, is the first recording of new material by Coleman in almost ten years. The disc features eight new compositions and two new versions of older ones (1985’s “Song X” and !959’s “Turnaround”). Also nominated as finalists: “Grendel”, music by Eliot Goldenthal and libretto by Julie Taymor and J>D> McClatchy; and “Astral Canticle” by Augusta Read Thomas.

Ivan Fischer will become the new conductor of the National Symphony, for now anyway, beginning with the 2008-2009 season. Fischer’s two-year interim appointment will be accompanied by a search for a new full-time replacement for Leonard Slatkin, who steps down at the end of the 2008 season. Fischer is currently the orchestra’s principal guest conductor.

BBC music magazine recently announced its 2007 recordings awards, nominated by a panel of contributors and music specialists and voted upon by 40,000 readers and the general public; Disc of the year went to “Sibelius Songs” with Soprano Soile Isokowski and the Helsinki Philharmonic, Orchestral award winner was The Royal Concertgebouw’s recording of Shostakovich’s Symphony #7 with Maris Jansons, Choral award winner was Sibelius’s “Kullervo” London Symphony orchestra, Sir Colin Davis.

According to researchers in Italy, Opera singers may suffer more than the general population from acid reflux disease. 35% of singers studied reported frequent “wet Burping”, as opposed to just 17% of the general population. Heartburn was also twice as prevalent among singers as other people. Researchers say singers may be more susceptible because of the pressure they exerted on their diaphragms to control their breathing. Their findings were published in the recent issue of Gastroenterology magazine.

Permanent link | Comment on Story