With his spiky, greying mullet, Bob Dylan shades and hotel room drink in a plastic cup, Glenn Branca cuts a mean, iconic hipster figure, a pure punk aesthete who for 30 years has been taking music -- call it rock, call it classical, call it Post-Minimalist, call it Maximalist -- to places the most shreddingest of experimental shredders fear to tread. In an infamous spat in the ‘80s, even John Cage turned a deaf ear to Branca’s wall of dissonance.
Branca is in town for a performance of his
The arrival of a brilliant conductor was drowned out by labor discord. Now the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra begins a new season -- with some strings attached.
It's a good time to be David Robertson right now.Not only has the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra music director been nationally-lauded for his superior singing and kazoo-playing, he has his musicians for another four years, thanks to a remarkably-peaceful labor agreement earlier this week.And now Robertson and the SLSO will be honored today at the League of American Orchestras convention in Chicago with an ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming. The SLSO took the first-place award for Programmi
flickr.com/photos/bottleofbluesThe SLSO onstage at Powell Hall.This past season has been a banner one for the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. Not only did music director David Robertson make his singing and kazoo-playing debut at Carnegie Hall and management negotiate a three-year labor agreement with the musicians an entire year ahead of schedule, but the SLSO even made more money by playing for larger audiences.Though the SLSO performed the same number of concerts at Powell Hall as it did in 2
If you missed any of these items posted last week on the Daily RFT -- or were like some of us and just checked-out for the holidays by Monday -- here's your chance to catch up before you have to do any real work this morning.Michael Jackson Watched Donald Duck to Fall Asleep, Exercised with Incredible Hulk"I'm really not that obsessed with Michael Jackson's death (honestly!) but an Associated Press story yesterday about the pop star was just odd -- even for a man once rumored to be in the market
www.cocastl.orgStephanie Riven​The Arts and Education Council yesterday announced the recipients of its annual arts awards. Earning the "Lifetime Achievement Award" is Stephanie Riven, the longtime executive director of COCA (Center of Creative Arts). Last month Riven announced that she'll retire in June 2010 to take a job with the New York City arts consulting firm of David Bury & Associates.The award of "Excellence in the Arts" went to Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra conductor David
Over the weekend, the Saint Louis Symphony gave a preview of Powerful Percussion, the concert it will be performing at Carnegie Hall in New York this season. The highlight of the show was undoubtedly the second number, Tan Dun's Water Concerto for Water Percussion and Orchestra, in which percussionist Colin Currie did some amazing things with water with some surprisingly homely pieces of equipment.colincurrie.netCurrie percussing.​Currie's performance engendered a couple of collective epiphany
