Music
Why we shouldn't do a damn thing about the decline of classical music
Today the Twittersphere has been tossing around a blog entry by The New Yorker's Alex Ross.MORE »
OPINION | Music in the schools
It's not easy being a public school music teacher these days. You're lucky to have a job at all, luckier still if you don't have to shuttle between schools. You probably have to make do with minimal, outdated materials, and you might have to teach in one of those outbuildings that are euphemistically called temporary classrooms.MORE »
Learning to play a round in school
The cooing they do when they're babies is really where they should sing," St. Anthony Park Elementary music teacher Brad Ollmann explained to parents at an open house for one of his kindergarten classes last fall. "Then they learn to talk, and they forget how to sing up there. So we have to get them back to it."MORE »
MUSIC | Bitter Roots belie their name with sweet sounds at the Fine Line
Don't you love a call in the middle of your day telling you someone's playing a gig tonight, can you come cover it? My automatic response is, "You sure you couldn't've given shorter notice?" Then, "I gotta get back to work." Nerve of some folk. This call came, though, from Bitter Roots' guitarist/vocalist Jamey Whatton.MORE »
Arts Orbit Radar 2/4/10
What's happening this week
On the radar: The buzz for the homegrown production of Rent opening this week at the Lab (formerly the Guthrie Lab) kicked into overdrive when casting was announced, but dipping into the music scene—snagging Maria Isa and Harley Wood, among others—isn't this production's only innovation. The producers are staging the show as a theater-concert hybrid, with open seating and, after several performances, public afterparties. Tonight's procession from the Lab will lead to the Loop. Don't be the Loser who misses out on this one.
Under the radar: Proposition: the perfect cure for wintertime cabin fever is a big ol' hula hoop jam. If that idea sounds absolutely absurd to you, you'll really want to avoid tonight's event, at which participants are being invited to wear a fun hair piece, a colorful outfit, or furry leggings.
On the radar: The word "quotidian" is not particularly quotidian, but this is contemporary art, so if you're going to display commonplace objects you have to surround them with esoteric verbiage. Opening tonight at the Weisman with a preview party is Common Sense: Art and the Quotidian.
Under the radar: "Do you guys actually have an office?" I'm often asked that question, and the answer is yes! Today is your chance to not just see the Daily Planet's glamorous digs, but to party with us as we host a happy-hour reception to welcome 2010.MORE »
MUSIC | Donizetti's "Roberto Devereux" goes down nice and easy in the Minnesota Opera's solid production
It's often said about old cars and old houses that you can maintain them, but you could never build them again. The same is true of classic Bel Canto operas: they don't make 'em like that any more. (That said, if any composer in the postmodern era were to sustain the concentrated sincerity necessary to write three hours of solid emoting, a reasonable pastiche might be hard to tell from the real thing.)MORE »
MUSIC | Accordo wow the Southern with a rich program of Debussy, Ravel, and Stravinsky
A sizable crowd of attentive and discerning chamber music fans settled in at the Southern Theater on Sunday evening for the first of two performances of a program of music by Debussy, Ravel, and Stravinsky presented by Accordo, a new instrumental supergroup comprising members of the Minnesota Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO). How good is this group? Imagine if Prince, Slug, Paul Westerberg, and Haley Bonar were to jam together. Actually, that would probably be absolutely terrible...but Accordo sound great.MORE »
Lineup, set times announced for Electric Fetus benefit show at First Ave
The Electric Fetus has long been sacred ground for local music fans: it stocks cool music, scores one coup after another in attracting national acts to play free instores on their way to the Cedar or the Varsity, and its registers have been (wo)manned by more local notables than you could shake a patchouli stick at: among the musicians whMORE »
MUSIC | You drink coffee. What does coffee drink? Blue Felix.
Blue Felix don't play regular, run-of-the-mill metal rock. What they perform is metal fusion. At least, I'm told that's what it's called. What do I know? The closest I ever come to metal anything is opening a can. I know amazing music, though, when I hear it. It's available on their tour de force CD In Line 2 Die, in spades.MORE »
MUSIC | Judy Garland returns, via digital technology, for a weekend appearance at Orchestra Hall
On Saturday night a pared-down version of the Minnesota Orchestra provided the occasion for iconic singer Judy Garland to come back to life, at Orchestra Hall. With exuberant guest conductor Doug Katsaros decked out in white tails, the group performed 25 songs with the Grand Rapids native, who was shown on three large screens above the stage.MORE »
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