Browsing: Technology

“Sort of a Romeo and Juliet thing,” Taras Kulish, executive director of the ­Orchestre classique de Montréal, says of Mykola Lysenko’s epic 1891 opera Taras Bulba, the overture of which will be one of the highlights of the “Great Slavs” program heard in Salle Pierre-Mercure on May 18. “A love story between a Polish princess and a Ukrainian warrior,” Kulish continues. “They are destined not to be together because of the fighting. Lots of historical things in there, the Poles against the Ukrainians, who’s invading whom.” And lots of percussion in that rousing ­overture as it was orchestrated after the…

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During the first lockdown in the U.K., which started on March 21, 2020, Julia Haferkorn, senior lecturer in music business and arts management at Middlesex ­University in London, became aware that many musicians were going to struggle ­financially. “I became very interested in the question of music streaming and started to think of how it could help musicians make at least some income,” she said. “But, at the same time, what happened, ­especially during the first lockdown in U.K. and Europe, is that many started to livestream from home but did so for free. It is absolutely understandable that they did…

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By Olivier Bergeron, Justin Bernard, Tom Inouie, Arthur Kaptainis, Dino Spaziani and Andréanne Venne La Scena Musicale offers original holiday season gift ideas for music lovers of all ages GADGETS OF ALL KINDS Handmade Music Boxes www.etsy.com SoundHandMade, an online distributor that ships worldwide from Spain, stocks a number of hand-crafted retro-style music boxes. Musical selections range from the classics, show tunes, songs from Walt Disney flics and cult classics like Star Wars. You know how it works: crank it up and just let it play. This nifty gift for the Holiday Season will sit perfectly atop a fireplace or…

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Can you imagine hearing Lang Lang playing for you in the comfort of your home? Or maybe Vladimir Horowitz, Yuja Wang, even the legendary Sergei Rachmaninoff? Impossible, you might think. Well, now such dreams are well within reach. Just last month in Montreal, Piano Bolduc unveiled Spirio, a high-end and high-tech Steinway & Sons grand piano capable of reproducing music of the past with incredible accuracy. But don’t think for a moment that this is some kind of updated player piano that strikes keys mechanically. It goes beyond that. Indeed, it can capture the most subtle nuances produced by the…

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REVIEW: of works by composers David Lang and Gregg Kallor – The Mile-Long Opera by Lang, performed on the High Line; and sketches from The Frankenstein Suite, plus the monodrama “The Telltale Heart,” by Kallor, performed in the Catacombs of Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Some uncanny musical surprises graced unusual locations both above and below New York City street-level during the early part of Halloween month. Here’s a diary retrospective. Going the Extra Mile Beginning at twilight on six consecutive evenings (October 3 through 8; viewed October 7), Pulitzer-Prize-winning composer David Lang and a host of collaborators presented a unique choral…

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Continuing its longstanding commitment to the Canadian market, the audio specialist opens new facility on Montréal Island Montréal, September 11, 2018 – Sennheiser has opened new offices on the Island of Montréal, a state-of-the-art facility that will house operations, warehousing and marketing functions for the entire Canadian region. The move builds on the audio specialist’s longstanding engagement within the Canadian audio and entertainment markets and reflects the importance of the nation’s rich culture and thriving arts scene. The new location will allow Sennheiser’s employees to enjoy new ways of collaborative working and to address the needs of its Canadian customers…

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In the 1990s, the advent of the MP3 file and of online peer-to-peer file sharing programs ushered in major transformations to the music industry. However, the seeds of this revolution were sown over 50 years prior. Beyond the passage of analogue media such as vinyl and cassette to digital media like CD, the development of digital audio files brought about a dematerialization of music, a phenomenon which can currently be observed in the decline of physical sales. Nowadays music is primarily consumed on portable music players and via streaming services, and is available in a number of different file formats…

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Global leader in the music services market for cable companies, the Stingray Digital Group has seen tremendous growth in recent years. Just in 2017, the company acquired six music channels, including Classica, which was purchased at the beginning of the year by the German production company Unitel. It is by focusing on a business model that favors acquisitions that the company has carved the lion’s share in a music market that is still suffering the effects of the digital revolution. The beginnings Founded in Montreal in 2007, the company first launched into the karaoke market with the acquisition of Soundchoice.…

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Twenty years ago, making a musical ­recording was a very complicated and very expensive part of the music business. Nowadays, thanks to technological advances, good recording quality is ­available everywhere, allowing almost any musician with a computer to record ­CD-quality sound. Microphones from $130 to $280 To simplify things we may divide microphones into two kinds: condenser microphones, which are mainly used to record vocals and live acoustic instruments with rich sounds, and ­dynamic mics, which are a bit more polyvalent and can be used to record percussion, guitars, voice, and so on. A good option for condenser microphones is…

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The advent of streaming platforms has radically changed the way people listen to music. Today music accompanies the daily life of millions of individuals, very often heard via portable devices. While this hyper-accessibility seems to be characteristic of a new relationship to art and culture, some aficionados continue to maintain and promote a more exalted conception of musical listening. This is particularly the case of Peter Qvortup, visionary and owner of the company Audio Note UK, for whom the vast majority of current audio devices offer only a partial — or even failing — experience of the pleasures of musical…

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