This Week in Classical Music-May 17, 2009

by: Randy Kinkel

May 17, 2009

Alison Balsom

This Week in Classical Music-May 17, 2009

( Phoenix, AZ )
•Classical Brit Awards
•Polar music prize
•Happy Music alters perception

It’s “This Week in Classical Music”, an update on what’s happening in the classical music world; I’m Randy Kinkel.

The Classical Brit Awards are out, and there are a couple of firsts to report—Trumpeter Alison Balsom is the first British woman to win the “Best Female” award; and the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards were the first soldiers to win the award for “Album of the Year”. It is the first time a non-professional group has won the award. The album of the year prize is voted for by Classic FM listeners and readers of Classic FM magazine, who choose from a list of the Top 10 selling classical albums of the past year. Nominated in two categories this year, conductor Sir Charles Mackerras was the recipient of the critics' award. Chosen by a panel of journalists from the national media, the award is for Mozart Symphonies nos. 38-41 performed by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

In other awards news, Venezuelan Conductor and composer Jose Antonio Abreu won the 2009 Polar Music Prize for his contributions to Music. The Jury praised Abreu, an economist and composer, for creating the music network El Sistema. Established in 1979, the network now includes 30 professional orchestras and over 300,000 attend its music schools and programs. In a citation, the jury noted, “"Driven by a vision that the world of classical music can help improve the lives of Venezuela's children, he created the music network El Sistema, which has given hundreds of thousands the tools to leave poverty." The Polar Music Prize was founded in 1989 by the late Stig Anderson, the publisher, lyricist and manager of iconic Swedish pop group ABBA.
Researchers at Goldsmith’s, University of London say cheerful music not only improves your mood but makes you perceive others in a more positive light. In the tests, volunteers listened to 15 second clips of pop, classical and jazz and their reactions to photographs of a variety of faces were recorded. Results showed that happy music "significantly enhanced the perceived happiness of a face." Further studies of the volunteers' brain waves revealed that the effect of the music was almost instantaneous. It took just 50 milliseconds for changes to take place – too fast to be under our conscious control. Similarly, more depressing music made faces appear more sad. Scientists called for more research to discover how environmental sounds, such as background music in supermarkets, affected our emotions. The findings were published in the journal Neuroscience Letters.

For more on these and other items and events, go to the website kbaq.org; be listening at this time each week for another update; and join me every weekday for the Mozart Buffet, an hour of music by Mozart and his contemporaries; I’m Randy Kinkel for “This Week in Classical Music” on 89.5 KBAQ Phoenix, a service of Rio Salado College and Arizona State University.