Life's A Pitch

Beethoven Bump

Amanda Ameer — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 05:25:23 +0000

Classical music on TV alert!! Matthew Guerrieri joins a prestigious group of classical music luminaries (only one of whom took off his shirt) when he appears as the guest on The Colbert Report tonight! He will be promoting his book, “The First Four Notes: Beethoven’s Fifth and the Human Imagination”. Buy it here. The Colbert Report is on Comedy [...]

Hair today, gone tomorrow

Amanda Ameer — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 02:39:37 +0000

The Interwebz were abuzz today with news of the Oscar Nominations Sir Simon Rattle’s departure from the Berlin Philharmonic. Many intelligent classical music writers speculated on who would be his successor, but my question is, who will be the HAIR to the throne. Ba-zing! So, as I promised my loyal Twitter followers, we’ll just settle this [...]

“You can’t leave the quartet, man.”

Amanda Ameer — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 16:50:02 +0000

Two movies are coming out about ye olde classical music with CELEBRITIES – real, live ones! And the films basically have the same title. The first is A Late Quartet, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman (!) and Christopher Walken (!). It chronicles the “Fugue String Quartet” as they learn of their cellist’s Parkinson’s disease diagnosis. Description, from [...]

Bravo!

Amanda Ameer — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 14:18:53 +0000

Van Cliburn, who has been reported as being extremely ill, gives a beautiful and sprited speech at his foundation’s 50th Anniversary Gold Medalists Concert on September 6, 2012. We should all look and act so good!

R.I.P. Authenticity, you had a good run

Amanda Ameer — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 17:32:50 +0000

The last shark in the Atlantic was jumped today when a former classical music magazine editor’s consulting firm issued a press release announcing that the company would be handling pianist Lang Lang’s social media. Said shark-jumping was posted about on Slipped Disc earlier today. The press release, which can be found in its entirety here, [...]

Some photos from The Armory that I probably wasn’t allowed to take but I didn’t do it when the Phil was playing

Amanda Ameer — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 03:04:12 +0000

…promise! The New York Philharmonic’s concert at The Park Avenue Armory last night was wonderful. I assume tonight’s was terrific, too, but I’m home watching Step Up. The Philharmonic performed unannounced Gabrieli, Gruppen by Stockhausen, Rituel in Memoriam Bruno Maderna by Boulez, a smidge of Don Giovanni, which I’m sure the critics will like least, [...]

“You have viewers?”

Amanda Ameer — Fri, 25 May 2012 15:21:09 +0000

Cellist Nick Canellakis hosts a series of ”Conversations” with classical musicians along with the guest who gets invited every time, pianist Michael Brown. Each episode comes complete with that nice, bookended Curb Your Enthusiasm traveling music. Here is Season 1. Pilot: Michael Brown, pianist Episode 2: Michael Brown, pianist Episode 3, Michael Brown, [...]

We’ll have a Campari about it.

Amanda Ameer — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:23:53 +0000

A few weeks ago, Vivien Schweitzer tracked my meteoric rise to fame in The New York Times: OK well actually, it was a profile of pianist Yuja Wang, the reaction to whose concert dress I discussed here. The dress was written about in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, by Perez Hilton, and by [...]

Things go better with music

Amanda Ameer — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 19:04:37 +0000

From AdAge: Just months after 4-year-old music startup Spotify partnered with Facebook to goose new-user signups and reach new audiences, it’s turning to a behemoth of an entirely other type: Coca-Cola. Spotify and the Coca-Cola Co.have forged a strategic partnership to promote the music-streaming service as it launches in new countries. In turn, Coca-Cola will [...]

The Internet is a delight

Amanda Ameer — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:16:56 +0000

Pitches, I have neglected you. I have no excuses except my Real Job and the 7 weddings I have to go to this year. I Tweet a lot: the lazy woman’s blogging. But the Interweb continues to entertain, with or without my presence. First, via Alex Ross, we have Dan Deacon’s Twitter exchange with Amtrak [...]