New article on music in Second Life

Music Island: Five Years of “Virtual Concerts in the Park”
An article I recently published in my default identity in H+ magazine.

November 27 Women in SL Music

What's this?

No concert at Music Island this week?

Yes, but wait!

It's time for the annual festival of SL Women in Music offered in partnership with Ohio State University's Department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies. This year the festival will be a kick off event for16 Days of Action against Gender Violence with events in RL and SL both.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Minerva/10/10/29/

11 am Cindy Ecksol, folk

12 noon AMFORTE Clarity, rock

1 pm Prowess Rayna, piano

2 pm SonyaJevette Charisma, blues

3 pm Choo Choo Chicks, vocal trio with live ensemble..

DETAILS:

11 am Cindy Ecksol - American Folk
Cindy Ecksol has been making and teaching music with voice, autoharp, fiddle and a variety of other instruments for as long as she can remember. She is particularly interested in traditional music of many varieties, and her repertoire includes everything from Irish tunes and Israeli dance music played on autoharp to dark Appalachian fiddle tunes from the mountains of West Virginia. But her playful side can't resist amusing modern songs about real life, which somehow co-exist with folk songs from long ago.

12 pm AMForte Clarity - Rock and Blues
Driven to succeed, A.M.Forte has sought out different avenues for exposure. As a singer/songwriter, she will never give up in her dreams . With Punk/Rock/Pop flairs, this artist has influences that include, U2, Nirvana, RadioHead, Alanis Morrissette, Coldplay, MCR, AAR, The Cranberries, Our Lady Peace and Elliott Smith. She WON the Best of SL Magazine Musician of 2009 Ministry of Motion Contest!

Visit her at the following Websites:
http://www.amforte.com
http://www.myspace.com/amforte
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFMvM0JSOXc

1 pm Prowess Rayna, piano
Prowess Rayna, a true artist on the piano, began playing at 3, composing at 7 & performing professionally by 14. Countless souls have been uplifted by her sensuous, passionate expression, fluid technique & beautiful melodies. Her reputation flourishes as she shares her evolving talents with live music lovers in SL


2 pm SonyaJevette Charisma
The words sultry, cool, and eccentric best describe the singer, songwriter, and musician Sonya Jevette. She grew up singing to the great R&B tunes that dominated the airwaves in the seventies. As a teen she honed her vocal talent through the church choir. Winning a talent contest at the age of seventeen was the beginning of Jevette's journey. From there, she went on to win dozens of competitions. These successes translated into media attention from radio & newspaper with appearances at over one hundred festivals.

Jevette combines her rich, passionate voice and her gut-wrenching lyrics with classical, latin and jazz style guitar. Jevette's configuration produces a style that can only be described as unique.

http://www.iTunes.com/sonyajevette
http://www.cdbaby.com/sonyajevette

3 pm The Choo Choo Chicks
The Choo Choo Chicks are sassy, sizzling jazz and blues live from Red Lotus Records in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Tight harmonies and a kickin' rhythm section are the hallmarks of this group, who perform original music written by lead singer Angua Ashbourne and cover the classics from Robert Johnson to Lady Day.

Weblinks: www.redlotusrecords.net http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5V0F-9xMuo

Nov. 20 Atheene Dodonpa: Songs of the Anunciation & Advent Season

Atheene Dodonpa, soprano
Early Songs of the Anunciation & Advent Season
(live concert in 3D virtual reality)
Sunday November 20, 2011
12 noon SLT (Pacific Time)
Music Island, Sea Turtle Island

Atheene Dodonpa is the pre-eminent wandering minstrel of Second Life, entertaining townsfolk and castle dwellers alike with authentic music from many cultures delivered in her thrilling soprano, accompanying herself on period instruments and illuminating the audience with warm, engaging, explanatory chat.

PROGRAM:

Songs of the Annunciation and the Advent Season

4 Early Syrian hymns

• Yawnu Tlitu (Little Dove, Birth of Christ)
• Qurbone Qarebun (Prayer of the Priests)
• Enono nuhro shariro (I´m the true Light)
• Ayn Qai (People died in faith)

6 songs from the Laudario di Firenze

• Laude novella (Virgin Mary)
• Voi ch´amate lo criatore (Virgin Mary´s lament)
• Novel canto dolce sancto (Apostle Thomas)
• Peccatrice nominata (Mary Magdalene)
• Sancto Marco glorioso (Evangelist Mark)
• Sancto Symeom beato (Simeon who saw the baby Jesus)

3 songs by Hildegard von Bingen

• O quam preciosa (Virgin Mary)
• O nobilissima viriditas (Praising the virginity)
• Mathias sanctus (Evangelist Matthew)

The Florence Laudario is a collection of monophonic hymns dating from the 14th century, and is only one of two extant that include the written music, the other being the Cortona Laudario from the 13th century. The Florence Laudario belonged to the Company of Santo Spirito, an ensemble of “laudesi” (much like a group of cantors, or even a schola), which sung the compline service every evening for the Church of Santo Spirito. A church of any renown had its company of laudesi whose chief job it was to help the congregation sing the hymns, the way we still use cantors today. Hymns were composed with a ritornello (“refrain”) that was easy enough for the congregation to learn. All text, notably, was in the vernacular, not in Latin, again providing the congregation with access to the language. This is probably why these hymns are still around in some version or another. Unlike the Cortonese who kept their laude simple, the laudesi of Florence, being Florentine, of course refined and ornamented their laude such that only trained singers could successfully sing the complex bits. However, the ritornello was always there to return to, and the congregations could, and would, join in.
- Amelia LeClair

HILDEGARD VON BINGEN, (1098-1179), was a remarkable woman, a "first" in many fields. At a time when few women wrote, Hildegard, known as "Sybil of the Rhine", produced major works of theology and visionary writings. When few women were accorded respect, she was consulted by and advised bishops, popes, and kings. She used the curative powers of natural objects for healing, and wrote treatises about natural history and medicinal uses of plants, animals, trees and stones. She is the first composer whose biography is known. Clearly a force to
contend with, she wrote books and letters on all of the above topics, traveled widely, and penned what is arguably the first opera in western music, the “Ordo Virtutem”. She founded a vibrant convent, where her musical plays were performed. Her music is radically different from the chant that surrounded her: she takes great leaps of fifths followed by fourths frequently (thus spanning an octave), and the expressive writing is not meant for the faint of heart. She obviously had very well trained singers at her disposal. Her poetry is raw and wonderful, and has no known precedent.

Although not yet canonized, Hildegard has been beatified, and is frequently referred to as St. Hildegard. Revival of interest in this extraordinary woman of the middle ages was initiated by musicologists and historians of science and religion. More controversially, Hildegard's music had been adapted and interpreted by the New Age movement, whose music bears some resemblance to Hildegard's ethereal airs.

Her story is important to all students of medieval history and culture and an inspirational account of an irresistible spirit and vibrant intellect overcoming social, physical, cultural, gender barriers to achieve timeless transcendence. For her, Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a frequent artistic theme.

Sept 11 "The Language of Peace" 12 noon SLT

"The language of peace"
Shprav OODLES & Sandia BEAUMONT, piano, harpsichord & organ
Sunday Sept 11 @ 12 pm (NOON)
Music Island, Sea Turtle Island
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sea%20Turtle%20Island/54/21/23

PROGRAM:
Bartok Grasshopper Wedding
Heliodoro de Paiva Tento de IV Tom
Bartok BEAR dance
Tchaikovsky June Barcarolle
Handel Sonatina in A minor
Improv
Bartok: Slovakian Boys Dance
Sondheim: Send in the Clowns
Chopin/Beaumont: Cat & Dog
Improv
Debussy: Arabesque
Oodles: Africa Laughing

Is there a creative economy in Second Life?

In the context of a maillist discussion, this video was posted, sparking my comments as below.

SLCC 2011 The Creative Economy In Second Live by Sitearm Madonna aka James Neville from Sitearm Madonna on Vimeo.

It is interesting to note that Richard Florida moved to Canada, citing in part the Canadian national and Toronto civic understanding of the role of the public sector in supporting cultural assets for the creative economy. Second Life by contrast is a very libertarian, free-enterprise environment with extremely limited public support for the inworld arts community.

Different art forms are able to support themselves more or less in a free market system depending upon costs, popularity, and market fluctuations in ticket prices or art sales. Only the "lowest common denominator" in the arts are able to survive solely on earned revenues: pop music, mass-market films, etc. The economic formulas for successful museums, orchestras, opera companies have been remarkably stable for more than 100 years and across national borders although the form of public support may vary. In one nation it is all direct grants, in others there are mail discounts, some offer tax breaks for private/corporate donors or subsidies to concert halls for the provision of free or inexpensive facilities. I can expound in a lot of detail on this topic (and have elsewhere). In 1881 when the Boston Symphony was founded (the first professional symphony in N. America) the Board proposed a business plan to the City of Boston that showed only 50% of revenues coming from ticket sales. The rest of the income was to come from government 25% and private/corporate donors 25%. With slight variations, that is the formula for a successful orchestra today. If government support & private support goes down and you raise ticket prices, people stop coming. If you reduce costs by using lower quality musicians or a cheaper hall, people stop coming. There is no way to beat the formula in the long run. (God knows I have tried, like every other artistic manager in the biz.)

Second Life arts is full of dedicated volunteers, curious arts experimenters and trial projects. It is not home to many arts projects that are professional and sustainable. (I can't name one.) Every year that I have run Music Island, I have seen colleagues leave Second Life because their efforts have not been sustainable. Sometimes they leave happy for the good experiences and sad to not be able to continue, other times they leave bitter and disillusioned. Reasons for disillusionment vary. My own series is made possible because I elected to work parttime because I found SL music interesting and restorative. The cost to me and my family was about a $25,000 reduction in income annually for the past two years. Had I taken that step in order to launch.... oh... a chamber series in a Toronto church, I have absolutely no doubt that I could have raised more than enough from Canadian arts foundations & others to pay myself and the artists. However Second Life is a different animal. RL arts funders are interested in RL arts projects in a particular location featuring local or national artists. International virtual projects are too "far out", outside the scope of the funders, and on top of that Linden Lab seems intent on sending a marketing message about the world that is not welcoming to education and culture, but rather highlights the social and game-like elements. Within the virtual world itself I feel there is little understanding by Linden Lab of the vital role cultural assets have played in making the community attractive to its creative class, the damage that has been done to that creative class by driving out educators and non-profits, and the number of arts series, like my own, that are running out of steam. The libertarian philosophy that seems to be at the core of Linden thinking is that if something is worthwhile it will be able to raise its own funding in the free market. History refutes this view. Historically the arts have only flourished with the support of the King, the Church, or democratic governments. I'm not sure which of these the Lindens are most like, but whichever, there is little public arts support available within SL.

I'd like to add that I am far from bitter or disillusioned. I made my own decisions and I have found the generosity of the musicians that perform at Music Island, humbling and heart-warming. We are all here for the music and the fans, but persevere despite the Lindens and the crass free-enterprise, commercial & adult-entertainment community they have fostered.

Saturday August 13 Joaquin Gustav, 2 pm SLT

Joaquin Gustav, latin guitar
Music Island, Sea Turtle Island
August 13, 2 pm SLT

Joaquin is a highly trained guitarist, born and received his music education in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the birthplace of tango. Out of his fingers comes an array of string sounds that blend the colors of Latin American culture with his own elegant performing style. Inspired by tradition, he is not afraid to experiment with new styles and techniques.

His wide range playlist includes smooth jazz, rock, tango, milonga, candombe and much more.

Benito Flores, July 24 @ 12 noon

PROGRAM:

Muzio Clementi
“Batti batti” dal Don Giovanni di Mozart

Andrea Padova
Waterscape in motion*

Ferruccio Busoni
Elegia n. 2 “All’Italia!” (in modo napoletano)

Gioachino Rossini
da “Péchés de Vieillesse” Vol. VII: Album pour les enfants dégourdis - n. 8 Barcarole

intervallo

Gioachino Rossini
da “Péchés de Vieillesse” Vol. V: Album de chaumière - n. 5 Prélude inoffensif

Marcell Dargay
Légendes no. III “Le pianiste prêche pour soi-même”*

Fryderyk Chopin
Scherzo n. 2 in si bemolle minore - re bemolle maggiore op. 31

ARTIST BIO:
Alessandro Marangoni (Benito Flores in SL)
Born in Italy in 1979, studied the piano with Maria Tipo at Scuola di Musica di Fiesole. Besides his musical studies he also graduated with honours in philosophy at the Università di Pavia with a thesis on Fernando Liuzzi’s philosophy of music. He was also a merit student of the Almo Collegio Borromeo, one of the oldest and most important European colleges. After winning several national and international awards, he has appeared in many important musical events in Europe, both as a soloist and as a chamber musician, with performances in Rome at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, in Florence for the Accademia della Crusca, in Lucca for the Associazione Musicale Lucchese, for the Walton Foundation on Ischia, the Cittadella in Assisi, and the Teatro Verdi in Trieste, as well as at the Engadiner Internationale Kammermusik-Festspiele, Sagra Musicale Umbra, the Italian Cultural Institute in London, the Teatro Dal Verme, Milan, and St John’s College, Cambridge.

As a chamber musician he has collaborated with some of the most important Italian musical personalities and groups, including Mario Ancillotti, Vittorio Ceccanti, Fanny Clamagirand, Daria Masiero, Stefano Parrino, Quirino Principe, Carlo Zardo and the Nuovo Quartetto Italiano. He won great success in Spain with the Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra and in Bratislava with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the great Italian conductor Aldo Ceccato.
He has recently started artistic cooperation with the Italian actress Valentina Cortese. He is the pianist of the Trio Albatros Ensemble, with which he has won international acclaim: they recorded a cd with Nino Rota's chamber music for Stradivarius. In 2007 he made a recording for la Bottega Discantica of the piano works of Victor de Sabata, for the fortieth anniversary of the great Italian conductor’s death. In December of that year he played in a recital at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, with Daniel Barenboim, in further tribute to De Sabata. In 2007 he won the prestigious Amici di Milano International Prize for Music. He has recorded all of Rossini's piano music and "Gradus ad parnassum" by Clementi for Naxos.

For more information, please visit www.alessandromarangoni.com.

Does dissemination trump virtual presence for artists?

Last week I read Thom Dowd's notice to the Early Music group with no surprise but with considerable sorrow and regret. The Second Life music pioneer was announcing the migration of his musical activities to Livestream & Livestream/Facebook. The rationale, he reported, was the ability to reach a larger audience. We will miss him in Second Life and at Music Island if this is--as it sounds--a final exit from virtual reality live concert events.

Almost two years ago I started to help Thom to research and develop video-streaming of his concerts into Second Life and I wondered how that might affect the magical feeling of "presence" that makes live SL concerts social occasions as opposed to the solitary experience of viewing a podcast on the web. Would it be possible to have that connection when the music was delivered via a flat screen in SL rather than avatar standins for real people? We found that having even one avatar (Thom) as MC at the video concerts connected the audience to the people on camera, and of course avatars were still gathered in one place sharing the concert in livetime, commenting and having their questions addressed. Actually the new format for sharing concerts worked better than I had imagined it would--in part because of Thom's engaging personality.

Recently I have been adding livestreaming to selected Music Island SL concerts as a way to give a keyhole into the virtual world for people without SL accounts. I use a second computer and an alt avi as "camera" and begin the broadcast live on http://www.livestream.com/musicisland as soon as the concert is set to begin. To me this is a way of drawing people into the magic of virtual reality, perhaps might help them choose to create an account and share a concert live, rather than taking the virtual presence out of the equation altogether.

At the root of the dissemination question are the limitations for attendance at SL concerts. Sim capacities are 30, 40 or 50 avatars in a sim (dependent upon server conditions and sim build & scripts). While musicians might hope to reach 100's or 1,000's via electronic dissemination, I know from coordinating live concerts that an audience of 50 or so for a new music or chamber concert by relatively unknown artists is par for the course. Research continually shows that people attend cultural events because people they know and trust recommend those events, and not because of advertising or hype. Star quality appeal is a rare and fragile phenomenon. This word-of-mouth dissemination is as true in Second Life as it is in meatspace. We tell our friends, our friends tell friends and the reputation of an artist and a musical series in Second Life grows. The commitment of those audience members to a series and the artists they follow in SL are very similar to RL subscribers. But because they are an international audience, the opportunities for new and valuable communication vectors for artists is substantial and proven by a number of international debuts and collaborations within the SL musician community.

Will the same connection and loyalties develop via Livestream only? At this point, I am a doubter. While the Livestream stations allow a chat feature during the broadcast, you need to be viewing the action on the station itself to enter text. Embedded livestream windows do not necessarily show chat and entering chat from the embedded windows did not work for me during my one attempt. Chat totally fails to engage me in the same way as SL. I have no sense of presence from knowing that others are in a chat space. Will others feel the same way? I'd like to know your thoughts.

How many online fans is enough for the purposes of the artists and music educators currently using? I know that will vary with individual goals. For the Oriscus Ensemble, it seemed enough to gaze out at 35 or 40 avatars from 15 or more nations around the globe.

What I'd like to see is parallel development of SL music with Livestream options. It is disappointing to hear some say that avatars are not necessary and an uneeded complication to offering a live musical experience. Am I just a dinosaur SL immersionist, or do others feel that there is a qualitative loss of audience experience to watching a Livestream concert on the flat web? I see it as scant improvement over live television.

One of the more difficult to tackle issues that hobbles the promotion of virtual concerts and mixed reality concerts, especially as education vehicles is the "gaming" and "adult content" reputations of Second Life. While Music Island is a PG area and our audience is very engaged and respectful, I have no ability to ensure that some avatar new to our content or new to SL will not behave or speak in an inappropriate manner before I can eject them. Just like a concert venue in RL, such disruptions happen. We toss the person and ban them in future. Why is the fear of such disruptions higher in virtual reality than in a downtown park concert where we know a crazy might disrupt with shouted obscenities? Those of us that are trying to raise the profile of Second Life artistic activity and engage RL arts organizations, sponsors and funders in supporting arts events in SL, really need the help of Linden Lab, starting with representing some of the creative uses of virtual reality on the front page. At one time the picture was balanced but now the dating and shopping aspect of SL predominates. Making new avatars aware that inappropriate behaviour in PG sims can get them ejected and banned should be an orientation station. Most avatars I eject and ban are surprised and shocked, often very angry, a situation that I expect does not aid in their retention. More education about sim appropriate behaviour would help.

Linden Lab have been keen to develop ties between Second Life and social media like Facebook. It appears that some SL musicians are saying that they can connect to social media without including the virtual audience at all. The virtual audience will be the losers in this and there will be fewer reasons to log in and stay in Second Life if this becomes a trend.

Liszt: Via Crucis April 20

HEAVEN, EARTH, METAVERSE 12 pm PDT (SLT), 3 PM EDT, 9 PM in Italy

BENITO FLORES, piano (Alessandro Marangoni in RL)

Ars Cantica, choir

Marco Berrini, conductor

To view inworld you need a Second Life account and to be at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sea%20Turtle%20Island/57/23/22 at 12 noon Pacific Time or you can view on the old flat web via Livestream in this location.

Watch live streaming video from musicisland at livestream.com

March 27/11 Steam Organ, Piano, Harpsichord, Wind… and words

Sandia Beaumont (Piano) & Shprav Oodles (Organ)
Steam Organ, Piano, Harpsichord, Wind… and words.
SUNDAY MAR 27
12 NOON SLT
Music Island, Sea Turtle Island
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sea%20Turtle%20Island/53/20/23

In First Life, as a solo pianist, Sandia Beaumont is regularly accompanied by symphonic orchestras. In Second Life, Sandia could only dream of having an orchestra to accompany her. The cost of orchestral performance is such that only a handful of full symphony concerts have been held in Second Life. Most orchestral accompaniments are synthesized or pre-recorded tracks.

But then along came Shprav Oodles, the exotic organist from Africa. Oodles made the outrageous claim that on the organ, he could accompany her and that he would out-orchestra any orchestra she cared to name. Beaumont laughed when he said this, but politely agreed to listen. Sandia stopped laughing when she heard Oodles play.

That was six months ago, and planning has been intense since then! Join us at Noon SLT (Pacific Time) on Sunday March 27, on Music Island, you can hear Oodles & Beaumont play for the very first time in Second Life or any other Life.

The Programme

A programme as hybrid (how contemporary !) as this could only be found in Second Life…

Michel Legrand – Melodies
W.A. Mozart – "Concerto in A K488" 1st & 2nd mvts, for piano and organ
G.F. Handel – "Concertino in A minor" for Harpsichord and Great Organ
Structured Improvisation – "Marzipan Mischief Boogie-Woogie"
Shprav Oodles – "Ex Machina" for piano, organ and synthesizer
Oodles & Beaumont – "Rain, Steam and Slivovitz" for piano and Steam Organ.

Eveline Noth and Ensemble
Saturday 19 Feb. at 12 pm SLT (PST)
Music Island, Sea Turtle Island
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sea%20Turtle%20Island/57/23/23

If you attended Thom Dowd's concert with his colleague Eveline Noth in November then you know that you want to be there when the lovely Eveline Noth returns with 3 of her pre-professional students to present a virtuoso concert of music for recorders. If you missed the November concert, don't make the same mistake twice! They will perform music from the renaissance, baroque and modern periods.

This will be a multi-lingual world event presented in the virtual world of Second Life and over the Internet live via Itunes.

Open ITUNES/ advanced/ open audio stream/ paste http://38.96.148.45:8888
ok

PROGRAMME:

MUSIC ISLAND

Samedi, 19 février 2011, 12 P.M. SL
Concert de flûte à bec
Nadine PernyMarc Pauchard
Michèle Mülhauser
Eveline Noth

Hayne van Ghizeghem (1445-1497) De tous biens plaine, Nadine Perny, Michèle Mülhauser, Marc Pauchard
Marco Uccelini (1603-1680)
Aria sopra la Bergamasca, Nadine Perny, Marc Pauchard

Jacob van Eyck (1590-1657)
Pavane Lachrimae Marc Pauchard

Hans Ulrich Staeps(1909-1988), Presto possibile,Nadine Perny

Francesco Maria Veracini (1690-1768) Sonata Terza
Largo - Allegro - Largo - Allegro, Nadine Perny

Isang Yun (1917-1995), Der Affenspieler, Marc Pauchard

Jaques-Martin Hotteterre (1674-1763) Suite en mi mineur
Prelude Lentement, Vivement, Allemande, Tendrement, Marc Pauchard

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) Quartett d-Moll
Andante - Vivace
Nadine Perny
Michèle Mülhauser
Marc Pauchard

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Eveline started playing the recorder when she was 6 and never stopped.

As a child, she also played the clarinet and the traverse flute, but this special feeling, when the air goes through these little holes, the sound - no other instrument could compete with the recorder!

Eveline studied the recorder at the Universities of Biel and Zürich and got a degree in teaching and performance practice from Carsten Eckert and Kees Boecke. She presently teaches at the Conservatories in Fribourg and Bern as well as at the University of Arts in Bern (Switzerland.)

Music Island launches new outreach initiative at Rockcliffe University

Rockcliffe University has graciously invited the Music Island concert series to be part of the distinguished educational and cultural offerings that the online university has been making happen in Second Life (and beyond) for the past three years.


We'll be bringing selected representative concerts from the Music Island series to a newly created Festivale Park location at Rockcliffe for the enjoyment of Rockcliffe students and faculty while also connecting the Music Island audience to the rich educational opportunities at Rockcliffe.


On Saturday, Jan 29, at 12 noon Thom Dowd will open the series with a concert of Renaissance duets


A very esoteric concert of Renaissance duos for Recorders featuring Thom Dowd and Françoise Prongué playing some very special renaissance recorders made by Thomas Prescott. The music is from the very end of the Italian renaissance and is a great example of the polyphony of the period.

Guiseppi Giamberti (ca.1600 in Rome, † ca. 1662) was an Italian Chapelmaster and Composer. Giamberti was a pupil of Nanino and Agostini and became the master of the chapel of the Orvieto Cathedral in Rome. Most of his compositions were of a sacred nature and his last published works went through three further editions they were so popular.
~ Keith Johnson, Rovi

PROGRAM

Gioseppe Giamberti 1657

I Perfidia sopra Ut Re Mi Fa Sol La Ténors
IX Ténors
XII Cantilena Ténors
XXI Alto-Ténor
XXII Alto-Ténor
XXXVI Villan di Spagna Ténors
XXXVIII Civetta Ténors
VIII Ballo di Mantua Soprano-Ténor
XVI Soprano-Ténor
XXV Ténor-Basse
III Scherzi sopra la Girometta Ténor-Basse
IV Bergamasca Ténor-Basse
V Fra Iacopino Alto-Basse
XXX Piva Alto-Basse
XXXIV Corrente Alto-Basse
XXXVII Corrente Alto-Basse

Paolo Fonghetti

12 Madrigali A cura di Andrea Bornstein (Verona 1598)

No 2 Deh, Dove Senza Me Alto-ténor
No 3 A Caso Un Giorno (Prima Parte) Soprano-Alto
No 16 Vidi Da Dui Bei Lumi Soprano-Alto

This concert can be heard live in ITUNES.
Open ITunes/advanced/open audio stream
paste http://38.96.148.45:8888/
ok

(Follow all Music Island concert listings regularly at http://musicisland.spruz.com)

Will Microsoft or any other buyer want to buy an empty Second Life shell?

Linden Lab recently served notice that they were going to double the tier fees for non-profits and educational sims, sending universities, non-profits and graduate students with limited budgets into a flurry of thoughts about how to cut 50% of their costs. Some are talking about reducing sims, some are talking about sharing sims, and others are talking about leaving SL entirely. Very few have the ability to simply double what they pay to Linden Lab. Average residents reel as awareness grows that the heart will be carved out of the SL community with the loss of so many of the educational and non-profit organizations and individuals who have contributed so much.

Speculation on listservs and blogs includes the thought that LL hopes to make their bottomline more attractive by inflating their Accounts Receivable, but are these rents that they will really be able to collect?

In an economic climate where most are cutting their budgets (from all sectors)it is guaranteed that, instead, those organizations who elect to stay in Second Life will make do with half of the space. Even in good times, a increase in project budget of this size would take time for an educational institution or research project within the organization to respond to: allocation requests would have to be submitted and approved, grants would have to be applied for, decisions would have to be made. Had there been any warning of this fee increase, or had it been phased in gradually, some institutions might have been able to adjust. However a sudden increase like this in another lightening fast reversal of previous Linden policy not only makes educators feel unwanted, it adds to the long list of sudden reversals, changes, flip-flops, contradictory policies that have shaken the confidence of residents at every level of participation in the virtual world. But the bad news won't stop there!

I fear that some decision-makers at Linden Lab may think "So what, let them go, we don't make most of our money on educational sims and non-profits! Let's free up resources to be used at full market value."

The trouble with that view is a blindness that has plagued LL since the beginning. Despite the occasional platitude, all their actions seem to betray a firm mindset that Second Life's attraction and retention rate is solely or primarily the result of what Linden Lab has developed, Linden marketing and orientation of new avatars. What would Second Life be like without the user-created content? Vast lands of the same few trees, land textures , or and let's not forget those Linden Homes! Is this a place anyone would find interesting? How many of the more interesting builds in SL have been created by non-profits, universities, students and non-profit volunteers within Second Life? I don't have any research but anecdotally most of the interesting builds I am aware of from the Sistine Chapel to the Center for Water Studies to the SL Quaker Meeting House are all educational or non-profit sims. How many interesting builds are created by business? Will an SL of endless shopping malls and big box stores attract more or less citizens?

But avatars' engagement with SL and retention of interest in the virtual world does not stop with exploring builds, in fact in my observation, that's a minority interest. I meet a lot of new residents at Music Island. People come into Second Life wanting to socially interact with others and to do things that interest them. If you look at the listings in the Second Life search engine for things to do, how many of those opportunities are provided by business? How many are provided by individuals? How many are offered by non-profits? How many are hosted by educators?

Once you get past the sales and gimmicks to increase sim traffic stats for businesses, you find many events, exhibits, conferences and discussion groups are created by educators and non-profits. With Linden Lab's doubling of fees, will these events decrease by a corresponding 50% or will there be more of a snowball effect that will more drastically reduce interesting educational, artistic, and informational content within Second Life?

A fair number of other events you see on the SL listings are created by well-meaning individual residents as volunteers. Music Island concerts falls into this group. Many of these individuals, whom I know as colleagues, are willing to give back to the Second Life community because of the quality of the community--a community that includes educational institutions and non-profits that they are a part of or support. In turn, they enjoy being in Second Life themselves because of the enriching atmosphere of learning, discussion, discovery and fun. Other individuals are running pilot projects that they had hoped to run in association with an educational or non-profit organization in the future, or incorporate as a non-profit themselves.

New residents' principle source of help in Second Life is from educational organizations and non-profits who provide free or PWYC (pay what you can) resources including freebie walls, orientation packages and courses in building, making clothing, how to roleplay, and discussion groups on SL relationships/identity issues. I think it is highly likely that I would not have been in SL for the past 5 years had it not been for groups like NCI that taught me to build and pointed me to things of interest. Over those years I have contributed thousands of dollars to the SL economy directly, and contributed much more indirectly through my unpaid labour in coordinating concerts for the benefit of SL musicians and audience members. Every potential resident like me who fails to be engaged in SL because there are fewer non-profit courses, events and support location is a huge loss in revenue stream down the line for Second Life.

Last week, at Music Island I hosted a concert by an SL musician who is a great favorite among our audience, Young Zeid. The sim was full and I was gratified to see among the audience some avatars who had not been online for awhile. I spoke to some in IM. From them I heard similar stories. "SL has not been the same lately with the lay-offs, the damned new viewer, a lot of sims closing, my friends leaving, my project cancelled. . . BUT... I saw your listing for a concert by Young in my email and it seemed like a good time to come back online and visit here and see what's going on. Concert is great and it is good to be here". This was a demonstration of something that should be obvious to Linden Lab, people are retained in Second Life when they have a community and as Richard Florida has pointed out, the creative class of educational and creative workers contribute their weight in gold to the economic health of communities.

If educators and non-profits leave Second Life, it will be less painful for them than it will be for Linden Lab and for individual Second Life residents. Educators and non-profits can migrate their projects to OpenSim or other virtual worlds, for many it will have little impact on their ablity to deliver their courses and projects. However individual SL residents will miss out on the participation and content contributions of educators and students in the community.

My dedication to Second Life was based on the idea that it was a platform that could make a difference in global understanding, the environment, democratic participation, arts practice... a score of different things that were the result of non-profits and volunteers choosing to work within this virtual world.

My Second Life includes non-profit workers, volunteers and educators.

On the demonstrated principle that Linden Lab only cares about money in these days, I would suggest that as a community we take the following actions:

1. Twitter/blog/post everywhere that there will be a vast reduction in interesting content on SL if non-profits and educational institutions leave SL.

2. Boycott Marketplace in protest but support your SL businesses inworld.

3. Ask people to pledge a discontinuance of Premium Accounts by Dec 31, 2010 if LL does not continue discounts for Education and Non-profits.

4. Start Facebook/Linked-In groups to publicize actions.

5. Spend spare minutes in SL at welcome centres handing out notecards to newbies telling them how their SL experience will be adversely affected by the reduction in non-profit and educational presence in SL

6. On a protest day (TBD) cancel all eductional, non-profit, and affiliated events. Publicize the results in attendance.

If you do any of the above, please post in comments here so we can all support each other's effort to build a protest to this disasterous course of action.

Cindy Ecksol, September 19 @ 12 pm SLT

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 19 @ 12 pm SLT
Labour Day Echoes
Cindy Ecksol, American Roots music
In this program, Cindy will wander through the songs of work and workers with her usual mixture of historical and musical context and a dash of warm humour about the absurdities of life in our own century.

Cindy Ecksol has been making and teaching music with voice, autoharp, fiddle and a variety of other instruments for as long as she can remember. She is particularly interested in traditional music of many varieties, and her repertoire includes everything from Irish tunes and Israeli dance music played on autoharp to dark Appalachian fiddle tunes from the mountains of West Virginia. But her playful side can't resist amusing modern songs about real life, which somehow co-exist with folk songs from long ago.

at: MUSIC ISLAND, SEA TURTLE ISLAND

Have you noticed the new SL "Destination Guide" ?

I think we all need to keep our eye on the changes and new content on the SL homepages.

A few days ago a Music Island audience member came to me to say that she'd tried to point a new resident in the direction of my Music Island concert series, telling her that it could be found under the Showcase tab in "Music Venues".... but... it wasn't there! She'd looked on the web and discovered that there was a new "Destination Guide" replacing showcase and that "classical" had ceased to exist as a genre so Music Island had ceased to exist as well apparently. (And yet we are still hosting concerts weekly).

I finally got around to wrestling with this yesterday morning. Indeed at that time there wasn't a single category in "Music" that I could put our series in. "Indie/Alternative" was perhaps the closest among the choices which ranged from Club/Bar, to Rock, to Blues/Jazz, Country... and so on. All the sub-sets of popular, social music were there.

With some difficulty I found a link to a submission form for a "new" listing (for a series operating since 2007) and started to fill it in. First problem, I needed a photo with specific dimensions hosted on Flickr only. (I use Picassa). Damn... searching on my old computer for an old Flickr account user-name. Edit a photo to exact specs and upload, figure out how to get the URL for the photo in a changed Flickr interface. Next problem.... the field with "genre".... I leave it blank. Write my summary and comments. Hit submit. Submission fails. I try again picking Indie/Alternative and sending along comments about how this was just to get the bleeping submission form to load. Submission fails. I have now spent two hours trying to solve this. I do more searches on the SL site and in the wiki I find a link to an email address to send to if the Destination Guide submission form borks up on you. I pile all my information in an email ... with assorted bitching attached... and fire it off.

Later in the day I tell this story at an inworld meeting and someone searches on Music Island and surprisingly finds it on the Destination Guide. It was in fact the submission I had made earlier in the day (miracle of miracles) but it was slotted with 18 assorted others in a new "genre" category called "Live Music Spots". Hmmmm. I think a number of the rock, country, etc. venues also hold "live events" so this is confusing and a "live music spot" is not a "genre". Since Music Island is on page 3 of the category, I'm sure that we weren't the first ones to say... "hey where are we supposed to fit in this guide?" I was left wondering why in this age where "everything is miscellaneous" we weren't seeing a system based on tagging with the resultant folksonomy rather than trying to create a classification system which will always be limited by the knowledge and worldview of the classifier.... as demonstrated by his/her ignoring of classical music in SL.

Although this might seem like a somewhat happy ending to the story, no one at the meeting using the old viewer or a TPV could access all of the information on the Destination Guide intuitively. Clicking the old "Showcase" tab on search brought up a link to the new Destination Guide but only showed them up only the first few categories on the guide.

Just in case you thought "search" was getting better.

This is not a deathly blow to the Music Island series because I have built up an inworld group of 1575 members and a maillist of 900 more. Most people come to concerts through group notices or at the invitation of a group member. I also post on a few other related groups where appropriate. However, I initially built the group from people finding the venue listing in events or showcase and checking us out. I don't know how many times people have said to me that it took them weeks/months to find Music Island and once there they connected to other events, groups and individuals who led them to an enriched cultural life in SL, that in fact their attendance had been a major turning point in their participation and retention in SL. For the most part these are well-educated and affluent consumers with a lot to offer the virtual world.

So let's make it difficult for them to find the cultural activities they crave?

p.s. Since writing this post I have heard from someone else not happy with another classification of their favorite spot.

Yuki Ukita, piano Thurs April 15 @ 7 am SLT

Yuki Ukita, piano
Thursday April 15
7 am SLT (PDT)
Music Island, Sea Turtle Island

A wave of great musicians have been arriving in Second Life from Japan and Music Island audiences are fortunate enough to be hearing from two leading lights this month. First pianist Yuki Ukita (YukithePianoPlayer Hutchison in SL) and later this month soprano Haruno Watanabe.

Yuki has planned an ambitious program sure to delight the audience.



Program:
Part I：

1 BWV 1068 Air/　--　J.S. Bach
2 Kanon　--　Johann Pachelbel
3 K.331　--　Mozart
4 Etude Op.10 No.3　--　Chopin
5 Etude Op.10 No.12--　Chopin
6 Nocturne Op.9 No.2　--　Chopin
7 Ave Maria　--　Gounod
8 La Campanella　--　Liszt
9 Liebestraume No.3　--　Liszt
10 "Un sospiro"--　Liszt
11 Lieder ohne Worte Op.30 No.6　-- Mendelssohn
12 Lieder ohne Worte Op. 62 No.6 --Mendelssohn
13 Ave Maria　--　Schubert
14 Traumerei　--　Schumann


Part II：

15 Radetzkymarsch　--　Strauss
16 Op.37b No.10　--　Tchaikovsky
17 Aufforderung zum tanz　--　Weber
18 Clair de lune　--　Debussy
19 Reverie　--　Debussy
20 Op.43 No.6　--　Grieg
21 Op.3 No.1 Elegie　--　Rachmaninoff
22 Pavane pour une infante défunte　--　Ravel
23 Gymnopedie No.1　--　Satie
24 Je te veux　--　Satie

Zachh Cale, piano Sat Apr 10 @ 12 pm SLT

Zachh Cale, piano
Saturday, April 10
12 pm SECOND LIFE TIME (Pacific Daylight Time)
at Music Island, Sea Turtle Island

Join Zachh for some standards and originals. Zachh is a Music Island favorite performer who we've not heard from since December 2009.

At Zachh's first performance, Linden Lab (in their usual lack of regard for the quality programming that makes people want to visit Second Life) decided to restart the sim that the audience was sitting in. As the stage area was in another sim, the ever calm and affable Zachh called out, "Come up and gather round the piano" and we did, weathering the re-start storm on stage for 10 minutes.

I have thought since that day that "Gather 'round the piano" is an apt description for the relaxed and intimate experience of a Zachh Cale concert.

Atheene Dodonpa, early music Thurs Apr 8 @ 1 pm

ATHEENE DODONPA
Medieval Song
Thursday, April 8 @ 1 pm SLT

Accompanying herself on the nun's fiddle, lap harp, hurdy-gurdy or other rarily heard instruments as needed, Atheene's haunting soprano travels the world of the Middle Ages to bring us songs from all cultures in the languages that the works were written and performed in.

If you have attended one of Atheene's concerts previously you will know why they are not to be missed and will prudently arrive at Music Island early to avoid disappointment.

Young Zeid, violin @ Music Island Mar 28, 2010 12: 30 pm SLT

Young Zeid, violin/Viola Music Island, Sea Turtle Island
March 28, 2010
12: 30 pm SLT (Pacific Daylight Time)

Program:

Bee F. Schubert ( 1808-1878)
From a set of bagatelles, published in 1856 by the German composer and violinist Franz Anton Schubert. (not to be confused with the earlier and much more famous Austrian composer Franz Schubert. )

Meditation" from Thais J. Massenet(1842-1912)
Though the 3 act opera by Massenet is seldom performed, the intermezzo that opens the third Act remains a popular work for violin.

Romanza Andaluza P. Sarasate (1844-1908),
One of the leading violinists of his era Spanish-born, Pablo de Sarasate was well-known for composing stunning showpieces for the violin that would leave his audiences gasping.

Czardas v. Monti (1868-1922)
A popular rhapsody inspired by a Hungarian gypsy dance, composed for violin and piano is the only famous work by Monti. It has been re-arranged for just about every instrument and also for orchestra.

Milonga en Re A. Piazzolla (1921-1992)
A popular tango from the Argentinian composer.

Entertainer Joplin (1868-1917) arr. J. Heifetz
A member of the first generation of American black citizens after slavery, Scott Joplin was a successful composer of ragtime pieces for the piano. His work has never entirely disappeared from American music but had a popular revival due to being featured prominently on the score of the popular 1970's film, "The Sting". Jascha Heifetz arranged "The Entertainer" for violin to serve as a crowd-pleasing encore for his own concerts.

Kol Nidrei M. Bruch (1838-1920)
Bruch was not Jewish but was struck by the beauty of a traditional Jewish hymn Kol Nidre that forms a part of the Yom Kippur service. The melody was inspiration for a work originally composed for cello and orchestra.

Violin concerto in e minor F. Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
One of the most popular violin concerti, this work was Mendelssohn's first major work and is a staple of the violin repertoire. In three movements.

1. Allegro, molto appassionato (E minor)
2. Andante (C major)
3. Allegretto non troppo – Allegro molto vivace (E major)


About the Artist:

Young Zeid (SL)/Xi Yang (RL), violin/viola
BIO

Xi Yang began his distinguished music career when he was a student at the Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China where he studied both violin and viola Performance. He had his first solo debut when he was 9 years old. By the age of 12 he made an average of 200 solo appearances a year in China. He won the National Violin Competition in Shanghai and made his solo debut with the Beijing Philharmonic Orchestra. He then, toured China with the Beijing Youth Symphony as a soloist and concertmaster. At the age of 17, he was a semi-finalist in the prestigious Jacques Tibaud International Violin Competition in Paris, France. The youngest violinist entered the competition for that year which earned him a place in the Encyclopedia of Chinese History.

Arriving in the United States, Mr. Yang won a National Strings Competition in Arkansas and has performed numerous solo recitals, chamber music concerts and gave master classes to young string players from many public schools and colleges. A graduate of Indiana University School of Music, he studied violin and chamber music ensemble, from baroque style to modern composers, under the guidance of James Buswell, Nelli Shkolnikova, Josef Gingold and Rostislav Dubinsky. "Mr. Yang has all the ability and potential to become one of the greatest solo violinists in the world today..." ( Isaac Stern 1987, Indiana University )

Mr. Yang was the Principal Violist for the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, Florida Grand Opera and the Principal Viola with the Symphony of the Americas. He is also the Assistant Concertmaster and a guest conductor, soloist with the Raleigh Symphony Orchestra. He has performed for Two Presidents of the United States, President Clinton and President Bush Snr. and been requested to perform by celebrities such as Donald Trump and Sylvester Stallone. He has collaborated with highly regarded classical artists such as Isaac Stern, Placido Domingo,Luciano Pavarotti, Leonard Bernstein, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, as well as some of the great pop stars such as Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Tony Bennett, Michael Jackson, Bary Manilow...among others.

A well established violinist and violist in the Triangle area and beyond, his students are age from 7 years old to adults. He is a member of the Arcangelo Piano Quartet www.arcangelopianoquartet.com and Duo Appassionato. www.duoappssionato.org

Fostering the next generation of musicians is important to Xi Yang. He is the founding music director and conductor of the Youth Symphony of Florida.

Temporary Remodelling of Music Island for AOM concert

"Why is Music Island all mixed up?" said one visitor to MI this morning.

Instead of one stage and seating areas there are two. This state of affairs will persist only until after the Avatar Metaverse Orchestra concert on Sat. Mar. 27. Because of the unique nature of the performance, audience and musicians must be in the same simulation.

For streamed music having the performers across a sim line shelters them from audience lag and assures performers won't be locked out of a full sim should they be disconnected. But for AOM that uses inworld sounds, the sim line is an obstacle to the transmission of their inworld sound content.

So don't be surprised by the changes. Also, get there early as the one sim format means lower capacity! Come early to avoid disappointment.