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Gustavo Dudamel of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, March 23, 2014

Subscription sales are now live on celebrityseries.org.

Check out our complete 13-14 Calendar!

The Bernstein Response

"This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more
beautifully, more devotedly than ever before."  —Leonard Bernstein

 

Mummenschanz with the muppets and in Boston

Watch the uniquely delightful Swiss performance group Mummenschanz perform on the Muppet Show in 1976. Mummenschanz will celebrate 40 years of innovative non-verbal theatre (with toilet paper, giant blobs of felt, and squishable masks) in Boston from December 5-9th at Citi Shubert Theatre. Presented by your friendly neighborhood Celebrity Series.

Tickets

Circa's CIRCA "A Hypnotic Night of Small Miracles" (login)

Boston Globe critic Don Aucoin reviewed Circa's CIRCA at the Paramount Theatre (it runs through Sunday, part of your friendly neighborhood Celebrity Series), writing "it’s impossible not to admire the rigorous artistry of “Circa,’’ with its fusion of acrobatics, gymnastics, and performance art." Read the complete review here. (you might need to login)

This is one of those shows that even video has a hard time capturing, but check out a brief video of the show:

"Tweet This?" panel discussion January 30

This just in from colleague Adam Roberts of Arts in America (ok, I added the bird):

"Tweet This?"
At select theatres and concert halls around the country you can now tweet from your seat as Carmen belts out an aria or Macbeth sees a dagger before him. Join us for an interactive community forum exploring the question of whether social media should have a seat at our performances or if it should exit stage left. Featuring a lively panel, audience Q&A (in-person and via skype), and a performance of the event's tweets by the Twitter Theatre Troupe.

Monday, January 30, 7:30pm

Admission is free but seating is limited. RSVP at http://kwiksurveys.com/?u=TweetThis .

Central Square Theater
450 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Host: Adam Roberts

Panelists:
Julie Hennrikus (StageSource)
Robin Abrahams (Boston Globe's "Miss Conduct")
Matt Heck (Boston Symphony Orchestra)
Nick Peterson (Central Square Theater)
Art Hennessey (The Mirror Up to Nature)

Join us in-person or call in via skype (id: artsinamerica) to participate in the conversation. The forum will be recorded and broadcast on Livestream.

Arts in America is an arts media company moving the needle forward on how America makes, produces, consumes, and talks about the arts.

Adam Roberts
Founder/Executive Producer
Arts in America
aroberts@artsinamerica.org

http://artsinamerica.org/
http://facebook.com/artsinamerica
twitter: @artsinamerica
skype: artsinamerica

Max Raabe on Sesamstrasse with Bert und Ernie

Max Raabe on German Sesame Street. Is Sesamstrasse in Brooklyn?

Max Raabe & Palast Orchester (minus Bert & Ernie) visit the Celebrity Series and Symphony Hall Sunday, March 4.

 

Twitter in the house?

Cincinnati Symphony is making headlines with a new Tweet seats option at selected concerts. Check out this article from the Cincinnati Inquirer:

Symphony is tweet music to their ears

I can't say I think much of the headline (that groan you heard from across town was me) but the idea is one worth watching in this wags eyes ...

What do you think?

 

Jesu, Cellphone of Man's Desiring

Music makes cows happy (video)

You may have heard about studies that have found classical music improves milk production in cows. Konzerthaus Dortmund, the performance space of Theater Dortmund in Dortmund Germany, decided to test this theory ...

Check out our Spring Auction!

The Celebrity Series of Boston Spring Auction is now open for bidding. The auction will run from April 1 to May 9. All proceeds will benefit the Arts, Education and Community Program of the Celebrity Series. Tell your friends, tell your family and let the bidding begin!

Check out the Spring Auction!

Behind the scenes with Compagnia TPO's Farfalle (Butterflies)

Behind the scenes with Teatro di Piazza d'Occasione's stunningly beautiful Farfalle(Butterflies).

This incredible show comes to the Celebrity Series and The Black Box, Paramount Center May 10-15.

A Klingon Christmas Carol

  First I wanted to say that this is unbelievable, but I could not. It is entirely believable.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky skydives ...

Seriously, dude? Yes, seriosuly, dude. Last December, baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky jumped out of an airplane to the dulcet tones of Steven Tyler. He posted his jump to his Facebook account (login, but not parachute, required to view).

Bryn Terfel? Roberto Alagna? Matthew Polenzani? The gauntlet has been thrown down, gentlemen. Do you want Karita Mattilla or Renee Fleming to beat you to it?

Liza Minnelli talks and sings on The View

Liza Minnelli chats with the gals and sings I Must Have That Man. Liza comes to Symphony Hall on November 7.

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Library of Congress study finds historic audio recordings fading away

One more reason to love analog ...

From The Associated Press:

"New digital recordings of events in U.S. history and early radio shows are at risk of being lost much faster than older ones on tape and many are already gone, according to a study on sound released Wednesday.

Even recent history — such as recordings from 9/11 or the 2008 election — is at risk because digital sound files can be corrupted, and widely used CD-R discs only last three to five years before files start to fade, said study co-author Sam Brylawski."

Read all of Study: Audio recordings of US history fading fast

 

Which classical musicians are on Twitter/Facebook and what are they doing?

Amanda Ameer, via her ArtsJournal blog, Life's a Pitch, has taken a look at selected classical musician's approach - or perhaps their publicist's approach - to both Twitter and Facebook, with minor mentions of wikipedia. The list includes several people you may have seen on a Celebrity Series of Boston stage in the  past, such as Sarah Chang, Hilary Hahn, Renée Fleming, Lang Lang, Maya Beiser, and Yuja Wang. Lady Gaga is included on the list, I assume for the sake of comparison.

Check out the complete post, Doin' What Comes Naturally.

UPDATE:

Here, in no particular order and for no particular reason, is a short list of other classical musician types that Tweet. I am not endorsing these accounts, and I can't verify if they are who the names claim (hint: referring to themselves in the third person says publicist to me, not that there is anything wrong with that); I bring them to you in the name of science ...

@eighthblackbird
@evanziporyn
@SteveReich
@DawnUpshaw
@GustavoDudamel
@MaestroMaazel
@silkroadproject
@GilShaham
@DavidKrakauer
@thomas_hampson
@simonrattle

Musicians carve instruments out of ice ...

Norwegian violinist Nils Oekland tests his
ice instrument

I'm posting this for obvious reasons. I had heard about Gielo, Norway's IceMusic Festival before, but I have never needed to hear about it the way I do today. The instruments are made of ice and the musicians play them in an wonderfully icey cold environment. What's not to love?

Musicians carve instruments out of ice (article in the Telegraph, UK)

The IceMusic Festival web site

Subscribe by phone starting Monday, June 14

2010-2011 subscriptions are available by phone starting this coming
Monday, June 14 at 9am: call (617) 482-6661.

WBUR jazz radio host, trombonist Tony Cennamo (1933-2010)

Boston's jazz community lost a beloved fixture this week as WBUR jazz radio host and trombonist Tony Cennamo passed away at age 76.

My memories of T.C. were mostly his overnights in the late 80s. The acerbic asides, championing of working musicians, and his distaste of fanfare. One of a kind.

Boston Herald obituary (Bob Young)

Boston Globe obituary (Bryan Marquard)

WBUR, Hub Bub blog (Andrew Phelps)

WBUR, Radio Boston, Remembering Tony Cennamo (Adam Ragusea; includes audio of T.C. on air)

Aardvark helps out at Paramount

Here's a pic of our friends the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra onstage at the newly refinished, refurbished, Paramount Theater. They graciously agreed to hold a rehearsal on the stage to help us test the sound system in advance of the concert by Max Raabe & Palast Orchester this Saturday. Onlookers were treated to a truly remarkable vocal solo of some duration by leader Mark Harvey, who typically plays trumpet. The shape of jazz to come?