Based off of Kaiser’s previous advice to arts organizations — that smaller seasons make for smaller revenues — we can guess that he won’t suggest slashing most of the opera’s performances.

As in the past, Resonate will highlight women’s achievements in classical music. But it will also feature the steps that music organizations are taking to keep their heads above water. Without taking risks and listening to what the audience desires, there may not be much of a venue left in which women can perform! 

(Photo by Terrence McCarthy, courtesy of  the San Francisco Opera)

Pamela Rosenberg — the first American and the first woman to act as administrative director of the Berlin Philharmonic — announced that she will leave her post when her contract expires in 2010. According to a spokesman for the orchestra, Rosenberg will work on individual projects once she leaves the orchestra.

Rosenberg, 63, has been at the Berlin Philharmonic since 2006. Prior to that, she was general director of the San Francisco Opera.

Kuzmenko began to feel sick just before his scheduled performance in the leading role of Radames in the Pittsburgh Opera’s performance of “Aida.” The opera company arranged for the Metropolitan Opera’s Eduardo Villa to fill in for Kuzmenko, but Villa’s plane was delayed.

Kuzmenko successfully made it through the first three acts, but by Act IV he could not go on. And so the opera’s conductor, Antony Walker, saved the day, singing the tenor’s part from the pit while continuing to conduct the orchestra. Meanwhile, Kuzmenko acted the part – mute — on the stage.

An article published last week in the (Canadian) National Post compared the Dutch violinist’s strategy for broadening her audience with that of Vanessa Mae. If you’ve ever seen Mae play, you know that she’s not exactly interested in our still-somewhat-stuffy expectations of classical music.

Unlike Mae, Jansen uses her attractiveness in a subtle way. As the article says:

Jansen’s commercial engine is clean and sophisticated, even when it’s outright manipulative. Her website, for example, features prominently displayed press releases that include supportive statements like, “Yet Janine Jansen (29) has more to offer than just a beautiful body. She is the most exciting violinist of her generation.”

So while Jansen won’t make a prurient spectacle of herself, we’re reminded that she could (and pull it off, visually, like Mae did) if she wanted to.

That’s quite a bold statement, calling herself the most exciting violinist of her generation! My question is, how do other women feel about (even subtly) exploiting their looks to attract listeners?

Queler led the Opera Orchestra of New York in her 100th performance in Carnegie Hall on Thursday. Singers young and old, famous and not, came to honor her.

Queler is known for championing the performance of Russian and Czech operas in the United States. She was the first to perform Janacek’s music in America in Czech, for example.

Renee Fleming, tenor Marcello Giordani, soprano Krassimira Stoyanova and mezzo Dolora Zajick all performed to honor Queler.

In a statement released this weekend, Johns Hopkins University researchers announced that there’s something different going on in jazz musicians’ brains while they’re improvising.

Supposedly, jazz musicians’ brains turn off parts that are linked with inhibition and self-censoring while they’re playing:

The scientists found that a region of the brain known as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a broad portion of the front of the brain that extends to the sides, showed a slowdown in activity during improvisation. This area has been linked to planned actions and self-censoring, such as carefully deciding what words you might say at a job interview. Shutting down this area could lead to lowered inhibitions, [researcher Charles J.] Limb suggests.

The researchers also saw increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, which sits in the center of the brain’s frontal lobe. This area has been linked with self-expression and activities that convey individuality, such as telling a story about yourself.

The LSO was in Dijon, in eastern France, to perform Mahler’s Seventh Symphony. The only problem? A strike by French ferry workers kept the orchestra’s instruments, sheet music and clothing from reaching Dijon.

Kathryn McDowell, the orchestra’s managing director, announced that the concert would not be canceled and began requesting that French musicians and music schools loan nearly 100 instruments to the orchestra.

The orchestra received the instruments they needed — more or less. The tuba players had to play on a different type of tuba from their usual, as did the bassoonists. And the principal flutist made do with a tin flute.

But perhaps this paragraph from The Times describes the most interesting part:

A third of the players went on in jeans and T-shirts. Midway through the symphony the violas found a page missing in their hastily printed scores and were forced to improvise.

Sounds like quite an interesting rendition of Mahler!