5/20/11 Recommended Reading: Shell games in the foreign orchestra racket? See http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/arts/music/some-foreign-orchestras-offer-misleading-credentials.html.
6/1/11 Recommended Reading: If you really want to make a mess of something, involve the legislature. Take copyright, for example: http://chronicle.com/article/A-Professors-Fight-Over/127700/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en.
7/8/11 Recommended Reading & Call for Action: Short-sighted legislative ideologues put Governor’s School on the chopping block – click here and here for details, and then click here for information on support rallies at Meredith College and Salem College on Saturday.
Past Reviews: As of Memorial Day 2011, the contents of CVNC‘s complete archives – performances, CDs, DVDs, books, news, and letters to the editor – are available in this new site. Reviews since July 2010 are fully searchable. Earlier reviews may be searched in all categories except region or presenter (although one may search presenter names in the text search option). Please help us enhance the quality of our archives – which constitute a limited but nonetheless expanding cultural history of North Carolina – by reporting any errors you may find.
So many calendars, so little time. If you’re a presenter and you’re feeling stressed by ever-proliferating online calendars, we urge you to ask publishers for reader stats so you can gauge the merit of filling out their data fields. (CVNC‘s stats are in About Us.) And if you’re an arts consumer, be sure to look for calendars where there’s evidence that the publishers actively seek listings and know what to do with the info they receive. What we really need is fewer calendars – of higher quality! Your support of the better, larger ones will help!
Recommended Reading: We’ll keep an eye on the Governor’s School in the days and weeks aheard and report back on its possible demise – click here, here, & here…. Meanwhile, there’s a new North American classical site, modeled in part on CVNC and the work of our mentors at SFCV – check it out at http://classicalvoiceamerica.org/. CVNCer Roy C. Dicks (who also writes for the N&O) is a regular contributor.
Recommended Reading: Congratulations to Raleigh Ensemble Players – the company has snared an Indy Arts Award – read the story here. Meanwhile, there’s a new North American classical music site, modeled in part on CVNC and the work of our mentors at SFCV – check it out at http://classicalvoiceamerica.org/.
Recommended Listening & More: Is it the world’s greatest music festival? Listen & decide for yourself – through September 10. Note the time differential – 7pm concerts there start at 2pm here….. Click here. In addition, there’s a new North American classical music site – check it out at http://classicalvoiceamerica.org/.
Recommended Listening: The Proms. The greatest music festival? Listen & decide – through September 10. Click here. (Note – 7pm concerts in London start at 2pm here…..)
Recommended Reading: The Salisbury Post has a lovely tribute to Carolina Baroque marking the retirement (last spring) of founding director Dale Higbee: click here.
Recommended Reading: There’s a gem of a review (by our friend Nancy Malitz) of a gem of a piece of music (Busoni’s “Berceuse élégiaque”) in a brand-new online arts journal (Chicago on the aisle) that will astonish and amaze admirers of Mahler, Toscanini, and noteworthy orchestral performance as exemplified today by Riccardo Muti – to read all about it, click here.
Crossing the Bar: Conductor and educator Leonard M. Colelli, 89, has died in New Hope, PA. Senior opera enthusiasts in the Triangle will remember this gentle man who was a passionate advocate of an art form that has drawn more than its fair share of charlatans and snake-oil salespersons. Along with Jim Poyner, David Witherspoon, Don Wilder, and others, Colelli urged the creation of an opera company to showcase the work of young professionals from around the country while offering promising local artists opportunities to perform in higher-quality productions than was then the norm. And long before Raleigh added saddlebags to Memorial Auditorium to form its current performing arts center, Colelli sketched designs and proposed a practical complex for the Triangle that was centered on a true opera house of sufficient size and with adequate technical capabilities to have stood a chance of economic viability. He knew that opera could teach life values, too, so he took his “operalogues” everywhere, including Camp Polk. Among Colelli’s many survivors are a son and daughter-in-law in Holly Springs. For an obituary, click here.