Part 1 of a trip to Caracas which led to a world of discovery.
The Future Of Classical Music Is In Venezuela.
If you could create a culture of classical music from scratch, how would you do it? That’s precisely the sort of question Venezuelan José Antonio Abreu asked himself 30 years ago when he began his classical music course which would evolve into what is now the Fundacion del Estado para el Sistema Nacional de las Orquestras Juveniles e Infantiles (Foundation of the State for the National System of the Orchestras Youth and Children), which is commonly referred to in Venezuela as FESNOJIV. >>>

  The digital camera can cause certain non-rechargeable batteries, such as the Duracell CP-1, to overheat when the camera is connected to an AC adapter or docking station.
Besides fixing the safety issue concerning the battery, the version 2.00.24 firmware improves the quality of the TV display when in the slide show mode. It also fixes issues with SD cards to prevent corrupting files and transferring problems between the camera and computers. For more information follow the link:
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/recall_r707.html

What could this man have been thinking — or drinking?

In a review of the 40th anniversary opening-night concert at Lincoln Center of New York's venerable Mostly Mozart festival, New York Times classical music critic Allan Kozinn writes of piano soloist Garrick Ohlsson who performed Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 26:

STALIN, Khrushchev and Brezhnev all dreamed of a Soviet Union populated by dedicated citizens, working all day to build the Socialist dream and studying the high arts in the evenings. They encouraged piano production in order to boost culture among the people and upright versions of the instrument became the norm in the country's myriad blocks of flats. But now they are being sold in their thousands, many just being given away, as Russians decide they need room in the post-Soviet era for more than music practice. >>>

The story of Pete Townshend - The Who's Guitarist - is dramatic and typical. In the 70's, he discovered that he was suffering from hearing loss due to loud noise during concerts and recording sessions. (Pete's_Diaries)
He stopped touring for a while, then resumed performances trying to use smaller amplifier rigs to reduce the volume in order to save his hearing. >>>

Owners of Sony camcorders and digital still cameras, attention! If you have a defective camera they will fix your camera fixed at no cost. Click 'read more' to see the complete list of camcoders and still cameras covered. Sony Company has agreed to repair the CCDs in the above cameras until October 2, 2007 and will reimburse those who have already paid to fix the cameras.

The battle for the future of the handheld music player just got ugly, with Creative Labs suing Apple for patent infringement, and Apple suing Creative right back for the same reason. Creative is claiming that the interface for the ipod and the ipod Nano infringe on Creative patents. Apple claims Creative is infringing on four of its patents. Creative is seeking to block imports of the ipod, which would effectively prevent any ipods from being sold in the U.S.

Recently I read an interesting article on the topic of the modern symphony. However, it left me wondering. The author spoke of titans of symphony in the twentieth century, yet Prokofiev, Honegger, and Shostakovich completely escaped his attention. Was this an accident? It seems like the mighty stream of modern symphonic music of these composers has not been appreciated enough in the critical literature of European music. More appreciation of the atonal avant-garde and dodecaphony (Schoenberg’s music and the Second Viennese School, and late works of Stravinsky), but less of the tonal and traditionally melodic approach. >>>

A few days ago a friend of mine, who is a professional singer   with a gorgeous tenor voice, told me a story about how after one of his performances, a man from the audience approached him and asked for an audition. The man sang a few songs. Although my friend complimented the man on his pleasant voice, he also mentioned that it would be a good idea for the man to get some formal training to improve his singing. The man then proceeded to pull my friend into a debate on the vanity of musical training for singers. And my highly educated friend couldn't prove him wrong. >>>

Are you familiar with a tormenting feeling that starts little by little and gradually grows into inexplicable anxiety? Is it a tormented feeling that eventually turns into a nightmare? Or is it that tormenting feeling you get when you begin your performance on stage, and cannot remember a single note of the piece you are about to play? But then you wake up and realize that it was just a dream and everything is okay. But is it ... really? If you know what I am talking about then here's my advice. When we become fully aware of how disorganized our lives are and how we betray ourselves, it comes to us in the form of dreams and feeling uneasy. To remedy this condition we must start practicing on a regular basis.

When we become fully aware of how disorganized our lives are and how we betray ourselves, it comes to us in the form of dreams and feeling uneasy. To remedy this condition we must start practicing on a regular basis. We were forced to practice during our college days since we had no choice. There was always something new on the agenda every few weeks ... whether it was a test, a performance, or workshops ... something was always happening. Musicians rarely have steady schedules. We often have day jobs, such as church, school, chorus, seminars mixed with performances, substitute work, and covering for our sick colleagues. It's almost impossible to plan ahead for the next few days, let alone a week. Everything seems to be done in fits and starts ... sporadically. Perhaps we can count on one hour a day. But you may ask what can be done in one hour? >>>

Ever have that problem when you want to take a picture of your band or orchestra, and you just can't get 'em all in the frame? The latest two-lens camera from Kodak will help you with your next group shot. The V610 packs two lenses: an ultra-wide angle and a 10x optical zoom. This amounts to all the standard capabilities of a point-and-shoot, plus the ability to go to wide-angle for group portraits and the like. The camera has solid image quality, particularly indoors. The 2.8-inch LCD is crisp and performs well in all but the brightest outdoor settings, and the camera's controls, including automatic scene modes, are easy and comfortable to use. An included panoramic picture mode guides you through the process of snapping up to three pictures, providing image overlays on the LOD and then stitching them together in-camera. You can immediately view the result and determine whether you need to retake the shots.

Virgin's music festival is set to expand from its roots in the UK to Canada and the US this September. Festival takes place September 23 at the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland and will feature the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Keane, Gnarls Barkley, the Raconteurs, the Killers, Flaming Lips, Scissor Sisters, Wolfmother, and rock legends The Who.