By reader request we’re featuring great new music — both albums and videos — from time to time. Suggestions? Drop them in the comments and we’ll give ’em a listen.

• Recording: George Enescu, Complete Works for Piano Solo
• Artist: Raluca Stirbat
• Release: October 2015
• Listen: full stream on Spotify; partial stream at All Music; buy on Amazon or iTunes.
• Standouts: the Piano Suites. Listen sequentially, or start with the third if you’re short on time.

Continue reading “Your new classical obsession” →

• Meet Johann Sebastian Bark
• The Experiential Orchestra presents a Rite of Spring dance party
• Who criticizes the music critics? Top 10 critic blunders
• Roger Scruton really hates background music
• Jeremy Eichler visited Mahler’s summertime composing hut
• Upworthiest: a Croatian architect uses the sea to play 230-foot organ
• Own world’s most expensive headphones for a mere $50k US

Staying on theme here, Many Many Women has collected names of “over 1,000 women composers, improvisers and sonic artists.” It was started by Seattle musician Steve Peters. Here’s how he described the genesis:

Several years ago, a bright and talented pianist told me that she had gone through her entire Juilliard education having heard of only five female composers – three of whom were dead. I started making her a list, but it got a little out of hand and so here we are.

Continue reading “Who run the world?” →

Continue reading “Get to know Alondra de la Parra” →

If you’re not on the CDA email list here’s what you missed on Saturday:

• A breakdown of the CDA readership’s musical preferences based on a less-than-scientifically-sound survey.
• Why KRUE.TV could be the harbinger of a new (money-making???) model for classical music.
• Whether “The Star-Spangled Banner” should be performed before symphony orchestra shows. Classical critic Scott Cantrell recently wrote that it’s time to retire the tradition.
• The return of the classical link rodeo — our brief foray into the web’s best classical offerings.

Worried you’re missing too much? Sign up for the mailer today, and fret no more. Continue reading “Did you miss Saturday’s CDA Mailer?” →

If you surf over to krue.tv right now you might be disappointed. The site’s in beta mode, the musician accounts are nearly bare, and the menu structure is wishful thinking at this point. A thousand viable sites like this launch each week, most evaporate into the web ether.

But ignore this one at your peril.

What if your favorite musician (for argument’s sake say it’s flutist Alex Sopp) decided to live-stream her morning warm-up? Imagine the Emerson Quartet broadcasting a sight-reading session where they’ll decide what to play on their next tour, or pianist Seong-Jin Cho (winner of this year’s Chopin Competition) allowing us to peek into his practice room.

Now imagine a centralized site where you could connect to all this. That’s what krue.tv could be. Continue reading “Broadcasting live from inside your practice room” →

Credit Wikipedia

Over on the Washington Post op-ed pages, classical critic Scott Cantrell calls it “an odd, and frankly inappropriate, custom” to perform “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the start of symphony orchestra concerts. Continue reading “Should we open orchestra concerts with ‘The Star-Spangled Banner?’” →