Podcast appearances and mentions of mark swed

Synopsis On this day in 1900, the world first heard the Requiem of Gabriel Fauré in its full orchestral version at a concert at the Paris World Exhibition. Faure's Requiem ranks today among his best-known and best-loved compositions, and omits all reference to the terrors of the Last Judgment which appear in the traditional liturgical text, concentrating instead on comforting the bereaved. The Requiem was originally written for chorus and a more intimate chamber ensemble, and was occasioned by Fauré's sorrow at the death of his own father. The American composer Christopher Rouse has written a number of works dealing with the passing of friends and colleagues – works half-seriously, half-jokingly referred to as Rouse's “Death Cycle.” Rouse's Pulitzer Prize-winning Trombone Concerto from 1991 is dedicated to the memory of Leonard Bernstein; his Symphony No. 2, from 1994, contains a tribute to the young composer Stephen Albert, who died in a car crash; and a section of his Flute Concerto from 1993 reflects the composer's shock upon reading an account of the senseless tragedy of a two-year-old child, abducted from an English shopping mall and killed by two ten-year-olds. Los Angeles Times critic Mark Swed has noted that much of Rouse's work is “music of leave-taking… but it is also a music of catharsis, survival and a celebration of being alive.” Music Played in Today's Program Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) – Requiem (The Cambridge Singers; John Rutter, cond.) Collegium 101 Christopher Rouse (b. 1949) – Symphony No. 2 and Flute Concerto (Carol Wincenc, flute; Houston Symphony; Christoph Eschenbach, cond.) Telarc 80452

The Piano Pod team had a wonderful conversation with the musical power couple, Juhi Bansal & Nic Gerpe, from L.A.! 

Today's guest is Steph Richards. Editing this episode in the wake of the New York Philharmonic's news, seemed serendipitous. During this pandemic we have all been scrambling to find a way forward, and most artists have been lost in this effort, because they have not been accustomed to swimming in the waters of change and hunger for far too long. This is obviously not the case with artists like Stephanie Richards, whose latest project, Supersense, is awe inspiring. Steph is NOT going to be caught in the wave of extinction facing many artists in the coming years. Conversations like the one you are about to hear matter, it's time to understand that the people we are propping up in this fetishistic madness, are those stuck in the structures that led to a catastrophe which Covid has only accelerated: boring programming, poor audience relations, unsound financial practices, and exorbitant salaries for administrators, music directors, and concertmasters. For those out there listening who are starting their careers, or who still have ambition, it's time to think more deeply about what it means to be an artist, and take your destiny into your own hands…the institutions won't be here for you. But for now, if Mark Swed's list constitutes the heroes of the industry…count me out, and sign me up a ticket to the first Steph Richards or Dan Rosenboom show at the earliest convenience. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/artssalon/support

Concert: CDMX: New Music from Mexico (Contemporary Mexico) Upbeat Live provides historical and cultural context for many concerts, featuring engaging speakers, audio examples, and special guests. These events are free to ticket holders and are held in BP Hall, on the second floor, accessible after your ticket is scanned. For more information: laphil.com/upbeatlive About the Speaker: Of Lithuanian heritage, composer Veronika Krausas was born in Australia raised in Canada, and lives in Los Angeles. She has directed, composed for, and produced multi-media events that incorporate her works with dance, acrobatics and video. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) writes “her works, whose organic, lyrical sense of storytelling are supported by a rigid formal elegance, give her audiences a sense that nature's frozen objects are springing to life.” She was one of 6 composers involved in the acclaimed mobile opera Hopscotch. Alex Ross of the New Yorker called Hopscotch, “a remarkable experimental opera.” Her first opera, The Mortal Thoughts of Lady Macbeth, based on Shakespeare's Macbeth, was premiered at the New York City Opera's VOX 2008 festival. A full production was mounted in Los Angeles in August 2010 to sold-out audiences. Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times said of her chamber opera, “Something novel this way comes.” Her newest opera Ghost Opera, a dramma giocoso with libretto by André Alexis and The Old Trout Puppet Company, will première with Calgary Opera at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in May 2019. Commissions and performances include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Industry, New York City Opera, Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival, Ensemble musikFabrik, Chicago Architecture Biennial (2016), Piano Spheres for Gloria Cheng, The Vancouver Symphony, ERGO Projects, Esprit Orchestra, Fort Worth Opera, Jacaranda Music, Motion Music, and the Penderecki String Quartet. Krausas has music composition degrees from the University of Toronto, McGill University in Montreal, and a doctorate from the Thornton School of Music at USC in Los Angeles, where she is a faculty member in the Composition Department. She serves on the advisory boards of Jacaranda Music and People Inside Electronics.

Concert: Salonen & Sibelius Upbeat Live provides historical and cultural context for many concerts, featuring engaging speakers, audio examples, and special guests. These events are free to ticket holders and are held in BP Hall, on the second floor, accessible after your ticket is scanned. For more information: laphil.com/upbeatlive About the Speaker: Of Lithuanian heritage, composer Veronika Krausas was born in Australia raised in Canada, and lives in Los Angeles. She has directed, composed for, and produced multi-media events that incorporate her works with dance, acrobatics and video. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) writes “her works, whose organic, lyrical sense of storytelling are supported by a rigid formal elegance, give her audiences a sense that nature's frozen objects are springing to life.” She was one of 6 composers involved in the acclaimed mobile opera Hopscotch. Alex Ross of the New Yorker called Hopscotch, “a remarkable experimental opera.” Her first opera, The Mortal Thoughts of Lady Macbeth, based on Shakespeare's Macbeth, was premiered at the New York City Opera's VOX 2008 festival. A full production was mounted in Los Angeles in August 2010 to sold-out audiences. Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times said of her chamber opera, “Something novel this way comes.” Her newest opera Ghost Opera, a dramma giocoso with libretto by André Alexis and The Old Trout Puppet Company, will première with Calgary Opera at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in May 2019. Commissions and performances include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Industry, New York City Opera, Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival, Ensemble musikFabrik, Chicago Architecture Biennial (2016), Piano Spheres for Gloria Cheng, The Vancouver Symphony, ERGO Projects, Esprit Orchestra, Fort Worth Opera, Jacaranda Music, Motion Music, and the Penderecki String Quartet. Krausas has music composition degrees from the University of Toronto, McGill University in Montreal, and a doctorate from the Thornton School of Music at USC in Los Angeles, where she is a faculty member in the Composition Department.  She serves on the advisory boards of Jacaranda Music and People Inside Electronics.

Concert: Mirga Conducts Mozart & Haydn Upbeat Live provides historical and cultural context for many concerts, featuring engaging speakers, audio examples, and special guests. These events are free to ticket holders and are held in BP Hall, on the second floor, accessible after your ticket is scanned. For more information: laphil.com/upbeatlive About the Speaker: Of Lithuanian heritage, composer Veronika Krausas was born in Australia raised in Canada, and lives in Los Angeles. She has directed, composed for, and produced multi-media events that incorporate her works with dance, acrobatics and video. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) writes “her works, whose organic, lyrical sense of storytelling are supported by a rigid formal elegance, give her audiences a sense that nature's frozen objects are springing to life.” She was one of 6 composers involved in the acclaimed mobile opera Hopscotch. Alex Ross of the New Yorker called Hopscotch, “a remarkable experimental opera.” Her first opera, The Mortal Thoughts of Lady Macbeth, based on Shakespeare's Macbeth, was premiered at the New York City Opera's VOX 2008 festival. A full production was mounted in Los Angeles in August 2010 to sold-out audiences. Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times said of her chamber opera, “Something novel this way comes.” Her newest opera Ghost Opera, a dramma giocoso with libretto by André Alexis and The Old Trout Puppet Company, will première with Calgary Opera at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in May 2019. Commissions and performances include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Industry, New York City Opera, Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival, Ensemble musikFabrik, Chicago Architecture Biennial (2016), Piano Spheres for Gloria Cheng, The Vancouver Symphony, ERGO Projects, Esprit Orchestra, Fort Worth Opera, Jacaranda Music, Motion Music, and the Penderecki String Quartet. Krausas has music composition degrees from the University of Toronto, McGill University in Montreal, and a doctorate from the Thornton School of Music at USC in Los Angeles, where she is a faculty member in the Composition Department.  She serves on the advisory boards of Jacaranda Music and People Inside Electronics.

Concert: Dances of Death Upbeat Live provides historical and cultural context for many concerts, featuring engaging speakers, audio examples, and special guests. These events are free to ticket holders and are held in BP Hall, on the second floor, accessible after your ticket is scanned. For more information: laphil.com/upbeatlive About the Speaker: Of Lithuanian heritage, composer Veronika Krausas was born in Australia raised in Canada, and lives in Los Angeles. She has directed, composed for, and produced multi-media events that incorporate her works with dance, acrobatics and video. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) writes “her works, whose organic, lyrical sense of storytelling are supported by a rigid formal elegance, give her audiences a sense that nature's frozen objects are springing to life.” She was one of 6 composers involved in the acclaimed mobile opera Hopscotch. Alex Ross of the New Yorker called Hopscotch, “a remarkable experimental opera.” Her first opera, The Mortal Thoughts of Lady Macbeth, based on Shakespeare's Macbeth, was premiered at the New York City Opera's VOX 2008 festival. A full production was mounted in Los Angeles in August 2010 to sold-out audiences. Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times said of her chamber opera, “Something novel this way comes.” Her newest opera Ghost Opera, a dramma giocoso with libretto by André Alexis and The Old Trout Puppet Company, will première with Calgary Opera at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in May 2019. Commissions and performances include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Industry, New York City Opera, Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival, Ensemble musikFabrik, Chicago Architecture Biennial (2016), Piano Spheres for Gloria Cheng, The Vancouver Symphony, ERGO Projects, Esprit Orchestra, Fort Worth Opera, Jacaranda Music, Motion Music, and the Penderecki String Quartet. Krausas has music composition degrees from the University of Toronto, McGill University in Montreal, and a doctorate from the Thornton School of Music at USC in Los Angeles, where she is a faculty member in the Composition Department.  She serves on the advisory boards of Jacaranda Music and People Inside Electronics.

Concert: Green Umbrella: All-Reich Upbeat Live provides historical and cultural context for many concerts, featuring engaging speakers, audio examples, and special guests. These events are free to ticket holders and are held in BP Hall, on the second floor, accessible after your ticket is scanned. For more information: laphil.com/upbeatlive About the Speaker: Of Lithuanian heritage, composer Veronika Krausas was born in Australia raised in Canada, and lives in Los Angeles. She has directed, composed for, and produced multi-media events that incorporate her works with dance, acrobatics and video. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) writes “her works, whose organic, lyrical sense of storytelling are supported by a rigid formal elegance, give her audiences a sense that nature's frozen objects are springing to life.” She was one of 6 composers involved in the acclaimed mobile opera Hopscotch. Alex Ross of the New Yorker called Hopscotch, “a remarkable experimental opera.” Her first opera, The Mortal Thoughts of Lady Macbeth, based on Shakespeare's Macbeth, was premiered at the New York City Opera's VOX 2008 festival. A full production was mounted in Los Angeles in August 2010 to sold-out audiences. Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times said of her chamber opera, “Something novel this way comes.” Her newest opera Ghost Opera, a dramma giocoso with libretto by André Alexis and The Old Trout Puppet Company, will première with Calgary Opera at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in May 2019. Commissions and performances include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Industry, New York City Opera, Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival, Ensemble musikFabrik, Chicago Architecture Biennial (2016), Piano Spheres for Gloria Cheng, The Vancouver Symphony, ERGO Projects, Esprit Orchestra, Fort Worth Opera, Jacaranda Music, Motion Music, and the Penderecki String Quartet. Krausas has music composition degrees from the University of Toronto, McGill University in Montreal, and a doctorate from the Thornton School of Music at USC in Los Angeles, where she is a faculty member in the Composition Department.  She serves on the advisory boards of Jacaranda Music and People Inside Electronics.

VERONIKA KRAUSAS Of Lithuanian heritage, composer Veronika Krausas was born in Australia, raised in Canada, and lives in Los Angeles. She has directed, composed for, and produced multi-media events that incorporate her works with dance, acrobatics and video. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) writes "her works, whose organic, lyrical sense of storytelling are supported by a rigid formal elegance, give her audiences a sense that nature's frozen objects are springing to life." Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times said of her chamber opera The Mortal Thoughts of Lady Macbeth “Something novel this way comes.” Performances ?include Ensemble musikFabrik (at the Darmstadt Music Festival), The Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York City Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Esprit Orchestra, The Vancouver Symphony, San Francisco Choral Artists, Alexander String Quartet, Fort Worth Opera, Motion Music, and the Penderecki String Quartet. Her work was an official selection of the US for the 2012 World Music Days in Belgium and she was the featured composer at the 2013 Céret Music Festival. She was one of the composers for The Industry’s mobile opera project Hopscotch. The Los Angeles Philharmonic has commissioned a work for 5 basses to be performed in a tent designed by artist Ana Prvacki in the fall of 2016. Krausas has music composition degrees from ?the University of Toronto, McGill University in Montreal, and a doctorate from the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where she is currently on faculty. www.veronikakrausas.com

VERONIKA KRAUSAS Of Lithuanian heritage, composer Veronika Krausas was born in Australia, raised in Canada, and lives in Los Angeles. She has directed, composed for, and produced multi-media events that incorporate her works with dance, acrobatics and video. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) writes "her works, whose organic, lyrical sense of storytelling are supported by a rigid formal elegance, give her audiences a sense that nature's frozen objects are springing to life." Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times said of her chamber opera The Mortal Thoughts of Lady Macbeth “Something novel this way comes.” Performances ?include Ensemble musikFabrik (at the Darmstadt Music Festival), The Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York City Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Esprit Orchestra, The Vancouver Symphony, San Francisco Choral Artists, Alexander String Quartet, Fort Worth Opera, Motion Music, and the Penderecki String Quartet. Her work was an official selection of the US for the 2012 World Music Days in Belgium and she was the featured composer at the 2013 Céret Music Festival. She was one of the composers for The Industry’s mobile opera project Hopscotch. The Los Angeles Philharmonic has commissioned a work for 5 basses to be performed in a tent designed by artist Ana Prvacki in the fall of 2016. Krausas has music composition degrees from ?the University of Toronto, McGill University in Montreal, and a doctorate from the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where she is currently on faculty. www.veronikakrausas.com

VERONIKA KRAUSAS The works of composer VERONIKA KRAUSAS are performed throughout Europe and North America, where she is recognized for her innovative use of dance, acrobatics and video. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) writes "her works, whose organic, lyrical sense of storytelling are supported by a rigid formal elegance, give her audiences a sense that nature's frozen objects are springing to life." Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times said of her chamber opera "Something novel this way comes." Since 1998 Krausas has directed, composed for, and produced multi-media events in Los Angeles that incorporate her works with dance, acrobatics and video. Her chamber opera The Mortal Thoughts of Lady Macbeth, based on Shakespeare's Macbeth, was premiered at the New York Opera's VOX 2008 festival. A full production was mounted in Los Angeles in August 2010 to sold out audiences. Other productions were by Goat Hall Productions in San Francisco, Fort Worth Opera's Frontiers Festival, and New Fangled Opera in New Orleans. Her chamber orchestra work Spirals was premiered at the Darmstadt Music Festival (1996) and had a subsequent performance by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. The Penderecki String Quartet gave the US Premiere of midaregami, her work for string quartet and mezzo-soprano at REDCAT Theater in Los Angeles and was performed by the Opium Quartet at the Céret Music Festival. Language of the Birds, a commission for the 25th Anniversary of the San Francisco Choral Artists and the Alexander String Quartet, using text by the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, was premiered in 2011 in San Francisco and released on CD with Foghorn Classics. Analemma for chamber orchestra was an official selection of the US for the 2012 World Music Days in Belgium. Recent premières have included: her solo piano pieces UN-intermezzi, performed and recorded by pianist Aron Kallay with subsequent performances by Steven Vanhauwaert at the Amigos De Música de São Lourenço in Almancil Portugal, a new work for harpsichord solo l'ombre du luth (shadow of the lute) for Gloria Cheng for Piano Spheres, and a song cycle The Alchemist's Suite for bass-baritone Nicholas Isherwood and Sillages for 4 double basses on the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Chamber Music Series at Disney Hall in Los Angeles, and a Piano Spheres commission for pianist Steven Vanhauwaert at REDCAT in June 2015. She is one of six composers involved in The Industry's new mobile opera project Hopscotch, the first mobile opera premiering in Los Angeles October 31, 2015. Of Lithuanian heritage, she was born in Australia and raised in Canada. Krausas has music composition degrees from the University of Toronto, McGill University in Montreal, and a doctorate from the Thornton School of Music at USC. She is currently a Professor in the Composition Department at the Thornton School of Music, on the advisory council of Jacaranda Music and People Inside Electronics, an associate artist with The Industry, and a pre-concert lecturer at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. http://www.veronikakrausas.com/

VERONIKA KRAUSAS The works of composer VERONIKA KRAUSAS are performed throughout Europe and North America, where she is recognized for her innovative use of dance, acrobatics and video. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) writes "her works, whose organic, lyrical sense of storytelling are supported by a rigid formal elegance, give her audiences a sense that nature's frozen objects are springing to life." Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times said of her chamber opera "Something novel this way comes." Since 1998 Krausas has directed, composed for, and produced multi-media events in Los Angeles that incorporate her works with dance, acrobatics and video. Her chamber opera The Mortal Thoughts of Lady Macbeth, based on Shakespeare's Macbeth, was premiered at the New York Opera's VOX 2008 festival. A full production was mounted in Los Angeles in August 2010 to sold out audiences. Other productions were by Goat Hall Productions in San Francisco, Fort Worth Opera's Frontiers Festival, and New Fangled Opera in New Orleans. Her chamber orchestra work Spirals was premiered at the Darmstadt Music Festival (1996) and had a subsequent performance by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. The Penderecki String Quartet gave the US Premiere of midaregami, her work for string quartet and mezzo-soprano at REDCAT Theater in Los Angeles and was performed by the Opium Quartet at the Céret Music Festival. Language of the Birds, a commission for the 25th Anniversary of the San Francisco Choral Artists and the Alexander String Quartet, using text by the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, was premiered in 2011 in San Francisco and released on CD with Foghorn Classics. Analemma for chamber orchestra was an official selection of the US for the 2012 World Music Days in Belgium. Recent premières have included: her solo piano pieces UN-intermezzi, performed and recorded by pianist Aron Kallay with subsequent performances by Steven Vanhauwaert at the Amigos De Música de São Lourenço in Almancil Portugal, a new work for harpsichord solo l'ombre du luth (shadow of the lute) for Gloria Cheng for Piano Spheres, and a song cycle The Alchemist's Suite for bass-baritone Nicholas Isherwood and Sillages for 4 double basses on the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Chamber Music Series at Disney Hall in Los Angeles, and a Piano Spheres commission for pianist Steven Vanhauwaert at REDCAT in June 2015. She is one of six composers involved in The Industry's new mobile opera project Hopscotch, the first mobile opera premiering in Los Angeles October 31, 2015. Of Lithuanian heritage, she was born in Australia and raised in Canada. Krausas has music composition degrees from the University of Toronto, McGill University in Montreal, and a doctorate from the Thornton School of Music at USC. She is currently a Professor in the Composition Department at the Thornton School of Music, on the advisory council of Jacaranda Music and People Inside Electronics, an associate artist with The Industry, and a pre-concert lecturer at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. http://www.veronikakrausas.com/

Last week, a Los Angeles jury found that the pop stars Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams copied Marvin Gaye's 1977 song "Got to Give it Up" in their song "Blurred Lines." The jury awarded the singer's estate $7.4 million. Gaye’s family celebrated the decision. But a lot of composers wondered if copyright is now being extended to cover not just song lyrics and melody but much else – tone, rhythm, tempo. On this week's episode, Naomi Lewin speaks with two experts about the case's implications: Mark Swed, the classical music critic of the Los Angeles Times, and Lawrence Ferrara, a professor of music at New York University. He's also a music copyright consultant for record labels, music publishing companies and film studios, and was briefly involved in the "Blurred Lines" case. Segment Highlights Add Caption Here Our guests have vastly different takes on the case's implications. For Swed, "the tradition in music, in most musical traditions, is to build one thing on another. Rhythmic patterns, bass lines, and things like this are generally thought of as common property." Besides, Renaissance composers such as Josquin des Prez frequently built "paraphrase" or "parody" masses on preexisting Gregorian chants. J.S. Bach lifted entire from Vivaldi. Debussy quoted Wagner's "Tristan" chord. "Everything is very vague and nobody is quite sure how this is all going to work out," said Swed, who recently wrote about the case. "Music works in a different way than the courts work. The arts are often about breaking rules and the courts are about maintaining rules." Robin Thicke (L) and T.I. perform the song 'Blurred Lines' at the The Grammy Nominations Concert Live. (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images) Ferrara, however, believes that the rules around copyright enforcement are clear. "One can always find works with similarities," he said, but the "feel and vibe" of a composition cannot be monopolized by one composer. "Melody tends to be the meat in a copyright issue. That's what gets you at the musical expression that's ultimately the test of whether there's ultimately been an infringement." Listen to the full segment at the top of this page and tell us what you think below: Is plagiarism a problem in music? Should copyright laws be more or less strictly enforced?

The Metropolitan Opera's decision last week to drop its HD and radio broadcasts of the John Adams opera The Death of Klinghoffer continues to draw strong responses – from newspaper editorial boards, anti-censorship groups, and music critics around the world. But this is only the latest chapter in the fraught history of this work. The opera's January 1991 premiere at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels took place in a tense atmosphere around the launch of the Gulf War, and patrons were greeted with metal detectors in the lobby (a rarity at that time). After the U.S. premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in March 1991, two co-commisioning organizations – the Glyndebourne Festival and Los Angeles Opera – decided to drop Klinghoffer from their schedules. And in 2001, the Boston Symphony dropped a scheduled performance of choruses from the opera.  But in recent years, performances have gone off as scheduled, and with mostly minimal debate; many critics have lauded the work's music and drama. The dialogue ramped up again when the Met cancelled its HD broadcasts, citing fears by Jewish groups that it could incite global anti-Semitism. In this week's podcast, Mark Swed, the classical music critic of the Los Angeles Times and longtime Adams-watcher, tells us what he thinks is behind the outcry. Segment Highlights: What's driving the recent outcry over the opera "It's a lot of hearsay. The people who have only reacted very superficially to the opera have been very loud. There has been a lot of misinformation. It's very easy to drum up outrage these days. You have opinions that are being promoted through social media and all the ways that you can now make a lot of noise without knowing anything and without having any ability to create a context."  On whether concerns of anti-Semitism are justified "Not at all. The problem with the opera of course is that there are anti-Semitic lines that are said by the terrorists. But that's what terrorists say. It would be highly unrealistic if they didn't have anti-Semitic attitudes and were hijacking the Achille Lauro. It would be like making a movie about Hitler in which he only said nice things about the Jews... "It's easy to hate your enemy. But to understand your enemy, to understand where your enemy is coming from, and to even have some feeling for that, and then be horrified by that person – that is so much stronger than a simple good guy, bad guy movie."  On the production itself "I actually didn't think this Klinghoffer production would be a problem. It treats the opera almost like a thriller. It's the least controversial of any production I've seen. And in fact, once people see it, I don’t think that there's going to be a problem." Listen to the full segment above and tell us what you think about the opera and its reception below: .chart_div { width: 600px; height: 300px; } loadSurvey( "what-do-you-think-mets-decision-cancel-klinghoffer", "survey_what-do-you-think-mets-decision-cancel-klinghoffer");  

As the Los Angeles Philharmonic arrives in New York to give a pair of concerts on March 16 and 17 at Lincoln Center, its music director, Gustavo Dudamel, faces an increasingly difficult political situation back in his native Venezuela. It’s been a month since violent clashes between opposition demonstrators and government forces in Venezuela first grabbed global headlines. Protests rage on with no sign of ending. Dudamel himself has been pressured to speak out on the situation, notably by a fellow Venezuelan musician, pianist Gabriela Montero. Montero and others have said that Dudamel should use his global stature – and exercise his ethical responsibility as an artist – to take a stronger stand against what they see as a repressive government. But others argue that Dudamel can’t afford to get involved in partisan politics because of his close ties to El Sistema, Venezuela’s vast, state-funded national music education system. Tricia Tunstall, author of Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and the Transformative Power of Music, says that El Sistema’s mission has always been “to stay out of partisan politics and to continue in the work that is their highest priority, which is to work with hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan children, giving them safe haven, musical training and an environment where they can learn to be productive citizens.” El Sistema was founded in 1975 by Jose Antonio Abreu, a musician and economist, and it has flourished under eight different governments while aiming to keep many impoverished kids on the straight and narrow. “Yes, they are funded by the government but [Abreu] does not identify the Sistema with any political program and that is why the Sistema has been able to flourish, survive and grow from eleven kids in 1975 to almost 600,000 kids in 2014,” Tunstall added. Mark Swed, the classical music critic of the Los Angeles Times, interviewed Dudamel after the conductor led a controversial concert in Venezuela on February 12, the same day that three people died in anti-government protests there. Dudamel told him that he was unaware of the nearby protests, and insists that he’s firmly opposed to any violence from either side of the conflict. “Ultimately, we have no idea how Dudamel, maestro Abreu and others are functioning in El Sistema,” Swed said. “Abreu’s way of working has always been to try and influence the politics subtly from the inside. The second he takes a public stand, he can’t do that anymore.” Meanwhile, other musicians are taking a firm political position, albeit from a distance. Venezuelan conductor Carlos Izcaray is organizing a “Concert for Peace and Liberty” in Berlin this Sunday, which will feature a number of fellow expats including Gabriela Montero. Izcaray says that the goal of the concert is to raise awareness for victims of political violence, including several musicians who he says have been “detained, beaten, tortured and threatened by the national police.” Izcaray says he doesn’t hold any bad feelings towards Dudamel or other Venezuelan musicians who aren’t speaking out, noting that being a musician in Venezuela means usually relying on the government for support. “I’m pretty confident a lot of this has to do with fear of losing support for the institution, maybe they’ll cut their funding or be fired.” He adds: “As far as artists go, we do have to defend each other.” Listen to the full podcast above and tell us what you think below: what is the responsibility of artists in times of political unrest? Should art and politics remain separate or do creative people have a duty to speak out? Photos: 1) People shout slogans as they protest against the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in front of riot policemen outside the Cuban embassy in Caracas on February 25, 2014 (Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images) 2) Gustavo Dudamel, Jose Antonio Abreu and Venezuelan president Nicholas Madura.