The junior department of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama closed for the end of term on Saturday. It looks like it will not re-open. 340 children will be affected across the Young Music and Young Drama programs, as well as five salaried staff and a further 112 hourly staff on zero-hours contracts […]
Tag: Music the Profession
Posted inEssay
It Could Be Me
The curtain opens on Mozart’s “La clemenza di Tito.” On stage is a raging Vitellia: wannabe empress, scorned daughter, forgotten royalty. “He could have at least chosen a rival worthy of me,” she spits, of reigning emperor Tito. “Instead, he prefers a barbarian and an exile to me, a queen!” Vitellia’s father was the emperor […]
Posted inReport
Why Corruption Plagues Chinese Conservatories
In April, Xue Wei, a former professor of violin at the Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM) in Beijing, posted on Weibo, a popular Chinese social media channel, to accuse Tong Weidong, the current dean of the orchestral instrument department at the same conservatory, of sexual abuse toward students and corruption in the entrance examination process. […]
Posted inReport
Inhabiting the Curve
Cate Blanchett isn’t the only conductor in Todd Field’s “Tár” (2022). There is her predecessor at the Berlin Philharmonic, Andris, and the Gilbert Kaplan cipher Eliot (Mark Strong). There are also two assistant conductors: the aspirant Francesca Lentini (Noémie Merlant), who hopes to take the assistant position at the Berlin Phil, and the hapless Sebastian […]
Posted inReport
Can the Northern Ballet Sinfonia Survive?
When an organization restricts comments on its social media channels, it’s a sure-fire sign that something is not right. So it proved when the Northern Ballet closed comments on their season announcement in early February. An update on the company website confirmed that, rather than using the Northern Ballet Sinfonia, the company was to perform […]
Posted inInterview
Next to a Miracle
On Alexander Melnikov’s latest album, titled “Fantasie,” the Russian pianist performs music by seven composers including two Bachs, Mendelssohn, Busoni, and Schnittke. Despite the Romantic reveries implied by the title—in the feet of a lesser pianist, this would be a washed, pedal-heavy album—Melnikov’s approach to the fantasies is decisive and articulate, full of precision and […]
Posted inOpinion
Exotic Educational Experiences
In October 2020, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) acquired the management company Opus 3 Artists. In May 2022, the conservatory bought the boutique Dutch record label Pentatone. And in December 2022, SFCM added the prestigious London agency Askonas Holt to its portfolio, consolidating Opus 3 under Askonas chief executive Donagh Collins. These acquisitions […]
Posted inReport
Pay to Sing
“When I was at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, I was so startled that all the singers were running around and doing anything other than what I could see seems necessary,” Mark Sampson, a bass and the founder and artistic director of the Berlin Opera Academy (BOA), tells me. “And they were too […]
Posted inInterview
The Head Dishwasher
Eamonn Quinn, the self-described “oddball” who founded the Louth Contemporary Music Society in the northeast of Ireland in 2006, is neither a composer nor a performer. It shows in the best way. Quinn, who works in education, was introduced to new music through his wife Gemma while studying at Queen’s University in Belfast, beginning with […]
Posted inBreaking
“They See Us as Numbers, Not People”
On November 16, the part-time faculty of the New School in New York City, including the conservatory under its auspices, the Mannes School of Music, went on strike. A whopping 87 percent of the professors at the New School, which costs upwards of $60,000 per year to attend, fall under the category of part-time teachers. […]