Once, Boston was âa special placeâ where musicians thrived
By Malcolm Gay Globe Staff,Updated March 12, 2021, 7:53 a.m.
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By almost any measure, keyboardist Wesley Nagy was doing pretty well.
The Vineyard Haven musician had carved out a comfortable life for himself, playing the islandâs lucrative wedding circuit, serving as music director at Grace Church, and gigging at bars and other venues with his reggae-infused cover band, The Grateful Dread.
One year after the onset of the pandemic, however, Nagy has seen his performance schedule evaporate. His income has shrunk to less than a quarter of what it was before the COVID-19 crisis. Heâs racked up an estimated $80,000 in credit card debt. And although he had been trying to make ends meet doing construction, that came to a crashing halt last summer when he cut off his little finger while sawing a piece of oak. Now heâs on unemployment, hoping eventually to sell some property he and his estr
Birch Aquarium to reopen with outdoor exhibits Feb. 27
After almost three months of closure, Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla announced it will open to the public outdoors-only beginning Saturday, Feb. 27. A members-only day is scheduled for Feb. 26.
The aquarium’s outdoor spaces have been enhanced with new animals and activities and will be open to guests with discounted ticket prices. Birch has been closed since early December because of COVID-19 restrictions.
Activities include Preuss Tide Pool Plaza experiences, Kelp Cam viewing on a big screen, an outdoor version of the Oddities exhibit, touch tidepools, shark teeth and specimens and nurseries for baby animals found in local waters.
BMOP/Sound Releases New Album By Robert Carl
Carl is a prolific writer penning reviews for Fanfare Magazine and books on 20th and 21st century aesthetics.by BWW News Desk
Known as the nation s foremost label launched by an orchestra and devoted exclusively to new music, Grammy Award-winning BMOP/sound today announced the release of Robert Carl: White Heron, led by conductor Gil Rose and performed by the intrepid Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP). Featuring four of the composer s orchestral works, this portrait album concerns Carl s life-long fascination: time and space-concrete, geographical, and metaphorical.
Currently chair of the composition department at The Hartt School, University of Hartford, Carl is a prolific writer penning reviews for Fanfare Magazine and books on 20th and 21st century aesthetics. He was originally a student of history before he refocused his efforts to music. As a result, his music plays with a sense of time and of the past being present. My work
Gil Rose finds himself in the recording booth, rather than waving the baton
Keith Powers
Wicked Local
The latest Grammy nomination doesn’t even come up in conversation. Gil Rose, director and founder of both the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and of Odyssey Opera, has accomplished so much that yet another Grammy nomination his sixth simply gets added to the resume.
The Malden resident hasn’t performed since the spring, like most of his colleagues. BMOP’s last concert was in February. The Odyssey Opera season had to be canceled midway. Both ensembles are simply too large for any safe gatherings.
Friday, December 18, 2020
BMOP s founder and Artistic Director talks about the enterprising American orchestra and record label that specialises in the music of our time
Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) has carved out a considerable reputation for its championing of modern American music, and its latest release is one of its most ambitious, a recording of Charles Wuorinen s 2004 opera, based on Salman Rushdie s novel
Haroun and the Sea of Stories, to a libretto by James Fenton.
James Jolly spoke to Gil Rose, BMOP s Artistic Director, about the orchestra and its label, but also about this latest project. And Gil also reveals some of the recording projects awaiting us in 2021.