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La Scala’s Acclaimed Daniel Barenboim the Latest to Lash Out at Concertgoers

Acclaimed conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim has become the latest in a string of musicians to berate the audience from the stage. Angry at the audience for taking pictures, Barenboim slammed flash-happy fans at La Scala, Milan's prestigious opera house, as "badly educated.”The outburst came during a performance of Franz Schubert’s "D845 Sonata" where Barenboim, who was in his final week at La Scala, warned audiences — and one woman in particular — that he had asked several times for people not to take photographs during his performance and was beginning to lose his temper."Madam, I am trying to give you my best, but you have no respect for it! Those who take photographs during concerts are badly educated,” he said. "I have asked at every concert. The first time nicely, but now it's serious.”After a round of applause, the 72-year-old Argentinian conductor and pianist returned to the sonata.Music fans are all too familiar with this behavior with a string of controversial lash-outs coming from musicians.
By Jaime Prisco

  • Legendary Sax Players Bootsie Barnes, Larry McKenna and Jimmy Heath Play with the Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia, Led by Terell Stafford

    Legendary trumpeter Terell Stafford led the Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia in a stunning holiday performance of "The Harlem Nutcracker" Dec. 3. Philadelphia saxophone tenor legends Bootsie Barnes, Larry McKenna and Jimmy Heath headlined the show.JOP performed in the Perelman Theatre at the Kimmel Center. The first set of the show was the full Duke Ellington-Billy Strayhorn's "The Harlem Nutcracker," a jazz classic of a theme and variation from Pyotr llyich Tchaikovsky's ballet score "Nutcracker Suite,” first recorded in 1960. "The Harlem Nutcracker" hails from New York, where the full version was first performed in 1996.“It’s not done too often because it is such a challenging piece. The group that mainly does it is Lincoln Center, and they do it all the way in New York,” says Stafford."The Huffington Post" says JOP “completely cracks this nut completely open. 'Sugar Rum Cherry,' for instance, was more soused via a scorching, muted trumpets line and Sean Bailey's punch-drunk clarinet on 'Arabesque Cookie,' got us all intoxicated.”
    By Jaime Prisco

  • Phillip Martin-Nelson, Autistic Principal of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, on How Dancing Saved His Life

    Phillip Martin-Nelson is living proof that the arts really can change lives. Martin-Nelson, who was diagnosed with the most severe form of autism, now stars in a premiere ballet company and he credits ballet with saving his life.
    By Jaime Prisco