A new musical by Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA) member Alanis Morissette will debut next year at the American Repertory Theater (ART) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The show, Jagged Little Pill, will include well-known songs from the album, including “You Oughta Know” and “Ironic.” ART has been a stop for a number of shows that later went on to Broadway, including Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, Finding Neverland, Pippen, and Waitress.
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UK Neuroscientists Identify Most Relaxing Tunes
Studies from Harvard and Stanford found that health issues resulting from job stress cause more deaths than diabetes, Alzheimer’s, or influenza. One easy and inexpensive way to help manage stress is to listen to music. UK neuroscientists have identified specific tunes that are the most efficient stress relievers.
In the study, participants listened to music while attempting to quickly solve difficult puzzles that caused stress measured through brain activity, heart rate, blood pressure, and rate of breathing. Of the tested music, the song “Weightless” produced the greatest state of relaxation, reducing overall anxiety by 65% and physiological resting states by 35%.
This is not surprising since the song by Marconi Union was created with the collaboration of sound therapists and includes carefully arranged harmonies, rhythms, and base lines designed to slow a listener’s heart rate, reduce blood pressure, and lower the stress hormone cortisol.
Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson of Mindlab International says “Weightless” was so effective that it made people drowsy and probably shouldn’t be listened to while driving. The other songs that made the list were:
10) “We Can Fly,” by Rue du Soleil (Café Del Mar)
9) “Canzonetta Sull’aria,” by Mozart
8) “Someone Like You,” by Adele
7) “Pure Shores,” by All Saints
6) “Please Don’t Go,” by Barcelona
5) “Strawberry Swing,” by Coldplay
4) “Watermark,” by Enya
3) “Mellomaniac (Chill Out Mix),” by DJ Shah
2) “Electra,” by Airstream
1) “Weightless,” by Marconi Union
Symphony for a Broken Orchestra Supports School Music Programs in Philadelphia
What do you do with more than 1,000 musical instruments in disrepair and no funds to fix them? That was the dilemma faced by The School District of Philadelphia. Now a new project, Symphony for a Broken Orchestra (symphonyforabrokenorchestra.org), funded by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage and The Barra Foundation, seeks to remedy the situation. A city-wide effort initiated by Temple Contemporary in partnership with the school district, the Philadelphia Orchestra, The Boyer College of Music & Dance, the Curtis Institute, and numerous professional and amateur musicians, will see musicians perform a composition December 2017 written by David Lang specifically for the sounds of the instruments in their current broken state.
The brainchild of Tyler School of Art Temple Contemporary Director Robert Blackson, the project invites the public to “adopt” an instrument, effectively paying for its repair. All of the instruments available for adoption are pictured on the website, which also lists what school the instrument belongs at and what repairs it needs. You can also hear the sound the instrument is capable of making in its current state.
Unpaid Brazilian Musicians Protest in Rio
Amidst the financial crisis in Brazil, the artists of the Brazilian Symphonic Orchestra and ballet of the Rio de Janeiro Municipal Theater, have not been paid their salaries since February. In May, they took to the streets to protest by giving a free concert in the plaza in front of the Municipal Theater. They handed out fliers denouncing “the complete disorganization, chaos, and financial misery caused by the continuous nonpayment of salaries.” Aside from creating awareness they asked for donations of non-perishable food items for colleagues going through very hard times.
“We’ve come to the point where some artists haven’t enough money to come to work. Many are in debt and are asking for loans to buy food,” says Pedro Olivero, president of the Municipal Theater Employees Union.
Songwriting in the Modern Era
A Music Week study that analyzed the top 100 singles of 2016 found that an average of 4.53 people wrote the hits, and those in the top 30 averaged 4.67 people. Many songs feature even more writers, with 13% of the top 100 written by eight or more songwriters. Only five top 100 songs were written by a single songwriter. Aside from being more likely to rightly recognize minor contributors today, the labels and publishers are increasingly bringing multiple songwriters together to create songs with a particular client in mind. What can be sacrificed in the process is creativity. Often using this “team” approach leads to more formulatic songwriting.
Obama Center to Include Recording Studio
In May, former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled plans for the Obama Presidential Center and park to be built in Chicago’s South Side. Aside from the presidential library, the three-building complex will include an auditorium, restaurant, spaces for exhibition and education/meetings, plus a recording studio. According to the New York Times, the former president said, “I could invite Chance [the Rapper, a Chicago native] or Bruce Springsteen, depending on your tastes, to talk about how you could record music that has social commentary and meaning” and “a studio where I can invite Spike Lee and Steven Spielberg to do workshops on how to make films.”
Musicians Recognized for Community Service
Three AFM musicians received 2017 Ford Musician Awards for Excellence in Community Service in May. Violinist Diane McElfish Helle of Local 56 (Grand Rapids, MI) leads the Grand Rapid Symphony’s Music for Health initiative, which sends symphony musicians into hospitals to assist with patient rehabilitation and support. Since 2002, she has also worked with the String Discovery Ensemble, a violin quartet offering hands-on musical experience to 4th graders. In her 37th year with Grand Rapids Symphony, McElfish Helle also created Grand Rapid’s Upbeat pre-concert lecture series.
In addition to being a violist with The Phoenix Symphony since 1995, Mark Dix of Local 586 (Phoenix, AZ) has been active in educational and health and wellness programs including Mind Over Music (science based string orchestra programs), B-Sharp Music Wellness, and A WONDER Project Alzheimer’s Initiative.
Kansas City Symphony principal flute since 2007, Michael Gordon of Local 34-627 (Kansas City, MO) has worked hard to promote the value of music in his community through Community Connections. He collaborated with Arts in Prison to produce a series of chamber music concerts for inmates at Lansing Correctional Facility. He’s also a board member of the Northeast Community Center, which operates Harmony Project KC, a tuition-free music education program for underprivileged children.
A panel of peer professionals selected the musicians through a competitive nomination process. The awards include a $2,500 grant for each musician and a $2,500 grant to each musician’s home orchestra to support professional development focused on community service and engagement for musicians.
Sensaphonics celebrates May as Better Hearing Month with 3rd annual Facebook giveaway
Sensaphonics is running a Facebook giveaway contest for the month of May in celebration of Better Hearing Month. The company will award one winner with a pair of classic 2X-S custom in-ear monitors and a dB Check in-ear sound level analyzer.
“Better Hearing Month is the perfect time to show musicians how the right in-ear equipment can deliver amazing, high-impact audio while still supporting long-term hearing health,” says company founder and president, Dr. Michael Santucci. “As our clients know, Sensaphonics is committed to delivering both.”
Known for their dedication to hearing wellness, Sensaphonics designs IEM products that help prevent hearing loss. The 2X-S custom in-ears feature soft silicone earpieces for maximum isolation and comfort. The patented dB Check in-ear level analyzer is the only device that measures actual IEM levels in real time and displays how long one can listen safely at that volume.
Click below to see how you can enter!
Progress for Tyson Food Workers
Tyson Foods pledged last week to build a better workplace for its 95,000 workers. The promise came after a long campaign by hunger-fighting coalition Oxfam America, which challenged four large chicken producers—Tyson, Pilgrim’s Pride, Perdue, and Sanderson Farms—to improve on their worker safety, poverty-level wages, and anti-union attitudes.
Though the other companies have so far refused to engage with the Oxfam-led coalition, Tyson has pledged to: improve worker illness/injury 15% year-over-year; improve company retention by 10%; hire more safety trainers; shorten the time required for new workers to move to higher pay rates; and expand company-wide programs to improve worker health and well-being.
“Tyson Foods’ commitment to worker safety and worker rights shouldn’t just be applauded—it should serve as a model for the rest of the industry,” says United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) president Marc Perrone. UFCW is the largest union at Tyson, representing around 24,000 workers.
150 Workers Die Every Day
A recently released AFL-CIO study showed that 4,836 workers died in 2015 after suffering workplace accidents and 150 workers died each day from hazardous working conditions. The study was compiled from 2015 injury and fatality data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and FY 2016 enforcement data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. This is the 26th year the AFL-CIO has published Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect, which usually comes out close to Workers Memorial Day, April 28—a day of remembrance to those who have suffered and died on the job and to renew the fight for safe jobs.