Music

Covering Pop Hits On YouTube Is Starting To Pay

Credit Courtesy of the artist

Tyler Ward says he was able to buy a car and a house with money he made posting videos of himself covering pop hits on YouTube.

Credit Courtesy of the artist

By editor

Originally published on Tue May 14, 2013 6:31 pm

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5:34 am

Sun May 12, 2013

The MIDI Revolution: Synthesizing Music For The Masses

By Sami Yenigun

Originally published on Sun May 12, 2013 7:44 am

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5:44 pm

Fri May 10, 2013

Joshua Bell And Jeremy Denk On 'Song Travels'

Credit Courtesy of the artists

"I've thought to myself often listening to some classical works: 'I think I want to make a couple million dollars and turn that into a pop song,'" Joshua Bell (right) says, laughing. "There's a lot of untapped potential there."

By editor

Originally published on Fri May 17, 2013 3:21 pm

Together, violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Jeremy Denk make for one of the most dynamic duos in the classical music world. The two have been recording and performing together in the classical repertoire for almost a decade, and have become equally at home thumbing through the pages of the Great American Songbook.

11:58 am

Fri May 10, 2013

Will Work For Feed

Credit Pablo Helguera

By editor

Got an idea for a classical cartoon? Leave it in the comments section.

Pablo Helguera is a New York-based artist working with sculpture, drawing, photography and performance. You can see more of his work at Artworld Salon and on his own site.

9:54 am

Fri May 10, 2013

Come Dance The 'Rite Of Spring' With Us!

Credit Keystone-France / Getty Images

It's fun to stay at the ИМКА: Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring triggered an uproar at its world premiere in Paris a century ago. Now we're asking you to help celebrate the centennial by creating a dance of your own.

By Anastasia Tsioulcas

Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 11:17 am

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Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring; Scriabin: The Poem of Ecstasy

3:09 pm

Thu May 9, 2013

Live From LPR: An Evening With Nico Muhly And Friends

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Credit Ebru Yildiz for NPR

Credit Ebru Yildiz / For NPR

Soprano Jennifer Zetlan sang two early Muhly songs, plus an excerpt from his opera Two Boys, a Metropolitan Opera commission that will receive its U.S. premier this October at the Met.

Credit Ebru Yildiz / For NPR

Muhly opened the show with A Hudson Cycle (for solo piano) which he composed as a wedding gift for friends and describes as, "music of longing and anticipation."

Credit Ebru Yildiz / For NPR

Violist Nadia Sirota is a long-time Muhly collaborator. She performed Muhly's Etude 3, a piece Muhly wrote for her which also appears on her latest album, Baroque.

Credit Ebru Yildiz / For NPR

The wonderful indie folk singer Sam Amidon was something of a surprise guest on the program. His three song set included what he called "a murder ballad," which was punctuated by a long and terrific scream.

Credit Ebru Yildiz / For NPR

Nico Muhly, one of the most talked-about and widely heard composers today, gathered a group of friends to perform at the (Le) Poisson Rouge in Manhattan. Muhly labeled the show: "Things I love, things my friends love, and things I've written."

Credit Ebru Yildiz / For NPR

Violinist Jennifer Chun (and her sister Jennifer) joined for a performance of Muhly's Honest Music, a piece from 2002 originally for violin and prerecorded music.

Credit Ebru Yildiz / For NPR

For his piece Skip Town, Muhly processed the piano, giving it a kind of ramshackle feel — half way between a harpsichord and a honky-tonk piano.

Credit Ebru Yildiz / For NPR

Angela Chun performs Muhly's Honest Music, the fragmentary nature which has been described as "the sad beauty of things coming together and things falling apart."

By Anastasia Tsioulcas

Originally published on Wed May 22, 2013 10:46 am

Opera audiences are well acquainted with all manners of intrigue — whether political, romantic or psychological. The exciting American composer Nico Muhly is updating that paradigm to the 21st century with his opera Two Boys.

1:20 pm

Thu May 9, 2013

Moms In Opera: Women On The Edge

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Credit AFP/Getty Images

Mozart's Queen of the Night (portrayed here by soprano Diana Damrau), in his The Magic Flute, is one of opera's more intense mothers.

Credit Sony

Credit DG

Credit EMI

Maria Callas in Bellini's Norma.

Credit Decca

By Tom Huizenga

Originally published on Thu May 9, 2013 2:43 pm

We love mothers for all the Hallmark reasons: for their compassion and patience, not to mention giving birth. But some moms aren't exactly greeting card friendly — and none less so than those who live in the opera house.

This is opera, after all, so we expect the outrageous. But operatic moms seem to be disproportionately portrayed as murderers, harpies or generally women on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Your Normas, Medeas, Butterflies, Queens of the Night and Clytemnestras.

7:36 pm

Wed May 8, 2013

Singer Tim Lambesis Arrested In Alleged Plot To Kill Wife

Credit Frazer Harrison / Getty Images

Metal vocalist Tim Lambesis performs at Club Nokia in Los Angeles in 2010.

By Scott Neuman

Originally published on Thu May 9, 2013 9:23 am

Tim Lambesis, the lead singer of the Grammy-nominated band As I Lay Dying, has been arrested on suspicion that he plotted to kill his estranged wife.

Lambesis, 32, allegedly tried to hire an undercover detective to kill his wife, Meggan, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said in a statement.

The heavily tattooed singer was arrested in Oceanside five days after his contact with the undercover officer. His wife lives in nearby Encinitas.