“A music school is entering the orchestra business, forming a new training ensemble in New York whose players will get master’s degrees,” writes Michael Cooper in Wednesday’s (10/29) New York Times. “The New York Philharmonic, meanwhile, is expanding its teaching role, starting an academy to train students all over the world. Both initiatives underscored the extent to which the difficulties facing classical music in the 21st century are forcing venerable institutions to adapt, if not reinvent themselves. The new training orchestra, which is being formed next year by the Longy School of Music of Bard College, in Cambridge, Mass., and Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., will offer a three-year master’s degree program, with the musicians paid stipends to play concerts with respected conductors and tour.” The New York Philharmonic’s Global Academy will build on “partnerships that it began this year with the Shanghai Orchestra Academy and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, Calif. … Philharmonic musicians will continue to travel to Shanghai and Santa Barbara to play and teach, and students from both places will be brought to New York to train and play at Avery Fisher Hall. The first 10 visiting students, from the Music Academy of the West, will arrive in New York in January.”
Photo: New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert
Posted October 30, 2014
