iPod hits a sour note as apps take over

"The latest sales figures for the quarter to June showed 9m sold – the lowest quarterly number since 2006. In short, the iPod, launched in October 2001, looks to be in terminal decline. While Apple is unworried – sales of its iPhone and iPad are booming – the drooping figures for the digital music player market are a concern for another sector: the music companies."

For the full story, please see The Guardian.

Musicians Wanted

"Many people know how hard it is to land your dream job, let alone a solid, well-paying one. Unemployment is hovering at close to 10%. There is one highly-specialized field though that has hung out the "Help Wanted" sign - major orchestras."

Read more: http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/08/25/musicians-wanted/#ixzz0y8TDr9Nf

Alt-Rock Hub, Purring With Jazz

This New York Times article features the UW School of Music's Cuong Vu!

"THE atmosphere at Cafe Racer, a coffeehouse and bar in the University District here, skews distinctly postgrunge, with its scuffed floor and mismatched furniture, its thrift-store paintings on boldly colored walls. One Sunday evening this spring the place was packed mainly with teenagers and 20-somethings in T-shirts and sneakers, all listening intently to a band. Everything seemed of a piece except the music: sleek, dynamic large-group jazz, a whirl of dark-hued harmony and billowing rhythm."

For the full story, please see the New York Times.

Free That Tenor Sax

"For jazz fans, nothing could be more tantalizing than the excerpts made available by the National Jazz Museum in Harlem of newly discovered recordings from the 1930s and ’40s. Nearly 1,000 discs containing performances by masters like Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Billie Holiday and the long-neglected Herschel Evans suddenly re-emerged when the son of the audio engineer, William Savory, sold them to the museum."

For the full story, see the New York Times.

After Mozart’s Death, an Endless Coda

"Direct medical evidence? None. Autopsy? Not performed. Medical records? Nowhere to be found. Corpse? Disappeared.

Yet according to a recent article in an academic journal, researchers have posited at least 118 causes of death for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart."

For the full story, please see the New York Times.

Naxos founder Klaus Heymann on what lies ahead for classical recordings

"Gramophone met up with Klaus Heymann, founder of Naxos, to find out his views of the future of the classical recording business and the role Naxos will play in it."

For the full story, please see gramophone.

Seattle Symphony Plans 18 Premieres

"As tribute to Gerard Schwarz’s final season as music director, Seattle Symphony supporters Agnes Gund and Charles Simonyi have provided funding for 18 new works, all to be performed in the coming season. Given the quantity and the fact that none is titled in the announcement, they are probably short in duration; no specifics about the works are provided."

For the full story, please see Musical America.

University of Washington Libraries Music Library Digital Scores Collection Now Open

The Music Library Digital Scores Collection at the University of
Washington Libraries is now available online directly at
http://content.lib.washington.edu/mmweb/ or can be searched as a part of the UW Digital Collections.

The collection currently includes digital images of manuscript musical
scores dating from the 17th through 19th centuries, the majority of the
collection comprising 17th- and 18th- century operas, opera excerpts, and
other vocal music. The original manuscripts are held in the Music
Library's Rare Book Collection and are indexed in RISM A/II.

The project was funded by the University of Washington Libraries 21st
Century Awards. Co-PI's for the project are Deborah Pierce, UW Odegaard Undergraduate Library, and Anne Graham, UW Libraries Digital Initiatives.

The images were photographed using a Canon EOS 40 D camera with a Canon EF 50mm f1.4 Lens and a copystand. Metadata for the RISM A/II portion of the collection was provided by the International RISM Office and modified to meet the needs of the project. Metadata is available for full contents analytics/each of the individual pieces in the collective manuscripts in the collection.

For more information about the project, contact:

Deborah Pierce
Odegaard Undergraduate Library
University of Washington Libraries
Box 353080
Seattle, WA 98195
206-543-4425
dpierce@u.washington.edu

Sheet Music Piracy: You Can Get Everything For Free On The Internet

"Digital technology has made it possible for users to share perfect copies of audio and video files over the Internet, skirting copyright laws. And, as Tony Award-winning songwriter Jason Robert Brown discovered recently, even sheet music isn't immune. When he published correspondence about the issue between a teenage fan and himself on his blog, he unleashed what he has called a "firestorm" of responses."

For the full story, please see npr.org.

More Brahms, Please. And Pass the Popcorn.

"The Philadelphia Orchestra could end up in pictures.

And sound. In a deal with SpectiCast and Bryn Mawr Film Institute, nine of the orchestra's 2010-11 concerts will be offered live starting this fall to North American movie houses with high-quality projection and audio systems."

For the full story, please see www.philly.com.

Muzzled Musicians, Meet Your Match

"'I hope one day I come to see you because, every day here, it's worse and worse." The young man's guarded, disconsolate voice comes distantly from Iran on a bad Skype line. He's a well-known figure in that country's burgeoning but relentlessly suppressed underground rock music scene. Supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei recently declared music to be "incompatible" with the values of the Islamic Republic—a declaration that effectively carries the force of a decree throughout the country. For the young Iranian caller, alias "Natch," the implications are clear, particularly for his kind of Western-style rock with lyrics in English. He has already been jailed for his musical enthusiasms and is looking to get out of Iran."

For the full story, please see the Wall Street Journal.

Stuart Dempster Interview

Check out this fascinating interview of Stuart Dempster.

A Mozart 'Tutte' made for Twitter Opera

"Can a 220-year-old opera be taught new tricks? That's the goal of operamission, which, starting tonight, will present Mozart's "Cosi Fan Tutte" in a format that's part miniseries, part town meeting and part jam session."

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/theater/bari_tone_of_old_opera_high_tech_ikJgLahXZiG3meiTftYXXJ?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME=#ixzz0wt1rOffO

It's playtime for Seattle trombonist-didjeriduist Stuart Dempster

"Oh, to be 74 years old and still starting, joining and sitting in with new bands.

That's what Seattle trombonist-didjeriduist Stuart Dempster has been up to lately. Not only is he performing with a variety of players in a variety of venues, but his recording career has continued apace. And he's been garnering some unusual awards recognition, too."

For the full story, please see the Seattle Times.

NY Philharmonic's First Brass Woman. Ever.

"The New York Philharmonic hired its first woman ever in the brass section last September, and The New York Times has profiled her in its New York section."

For the full story, please see Musical America.

The Music-Copyright Enforcers

"Baker, 30, is a licensing executive with Broadcast Music Incorporated, otherwise known as BMI. The firm is a P.R.O., or performing rights organization; P.R.O.’s license the music of the songwriters and music publishers they represent, collecting royalties whenever that music is played in a public setting. Which means that if you buy a CD by, say, Ryan Adams, or download one of his songs from iTunes, and play it at your family reunion, even if 500 people come, you owe nothing. But if you play it at a restaurant you own, then you must pay for the right to harness Adams’s creativity to earn money for yourself. Which leaves you with three choices: you can track down Ryan Adams, make a deal with him and pay him directly; you can pay a licensing fee to the P.R.O. that represents him — in this case, BMI; or you can ignore the issue altogether and hope not to get caught."

For the full story, please see the New York Times.

Survey reveals what Seattleites really do at the library

"We are a city of readers. We're also a city in a budget crisis. To help set priorities, Seattle Public Library conducted a survey. The results may surprise you."

For the full story, please see Komo News.

Battle Ready: Seattle Opera

"On August 3, 2010, at Seattle Opera's annual meeting, I addressed the state of one of Seattle's leading cultural organizations in the wake of an economic crisis that has put many non-profit organizations out of business and seriously threatens many more. But economics isn't our only enemy. I share excerpts from my speech in honor of all the people who dedicate their lives to mission-driven organizations and continue to envision a future that is as bright as the fight we lend to the cause."

For the full story, please see Redroom.com.

Bellevue Philharmonic fights through tough times with optimism, hard work

"Just last year, the Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra's very survival appeared at risk.

The orchestra had barely made it through its 2008-09 season, which was marred by canceled concerts, unpaid debt and tension between orchestra members and its management."

For the full story, please see the Seattle Times.

Music fails to chime with Islamic values, says Iran's supreme leader

"Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said today that music is "not compatible" with the values of the Islamic republic, and should not be practised or taught in the country."

For the full story, please see The Guardian.

Long-running Experience Music Project pop music conference relocating from Seattle to Los Angeles

"The annual Experience Music Project Pop Conference, which gathers critics, journalists and academics for a weekend of presentations on the vast diaspora of music, is relocating from its longtime home at the Experience Music Project in Seattle to the UCLA campus, conference organizers announced this morning. The event, which issues a call each year for papers based around an organizing theme, will take place February 24-27, according to the press release, and will have as its theme, "Cash Rules Everything Around Me: Music and Money.""

For the full story, please see the Los Angeles Times.

UW faculty members find passion in music outside academics

"Analyzing protein biochemistry and playing clarinet at local gigs — all in a day’s time — is easy as 1-2-3 if you’re Jesse Canterbury...Professor Emeritus Stuart Dempster focuses most of his energy on musical pursuits while continuing to teach part time at the UW."

For the full story, please see the UW Daily.

Seattle conductor killed in Methow Valley crash

"George Shangrow, a longtime Seattle classical-music conductor, teacher and radio host, was killed Saturday evening in a head-on collision outside of Winthrop, Okanogan County."

For the full story, please see the Seattle Times. See also, The Gathering Note.

Mitch Miller Dies

"Mitch Miller, the goateed orchestra leader who asked Americans to "Sing Along With Mitch" on television and records and produced hits for Tony Bennett, Patti Page and other performers, has died at age 99."

For the full story, please see Musical America.