London Sinfonietta at 50

Kudos to the NYTimes for this article celebrating the London Sinfonietta’s 50th anniversary.

I felt a bit sad to see no American groups included in their list of ‘the competition’ – though it is a fair point. Is it true in London, as Mr. Snowman stated, “These days, almost everybody plays contemporary music to some extent…”? It isn’t really true here in Texas.

New music needs visionaries – people like Mr. Snowman, and William Glock (and even the Beatles) who are willing to support it. Cheers to a group who started with no business plan, but only a vision: “Our sole criterion in programming,” Mr. Burke said, β€œis whether we believe a piece is good.”