The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music new clips: Father of piano group The 5 Browns is guilty of sexually abusing 3 daughters. Riccardo Muti heals and tours. Marin Alsop goes Brazilian. UW composer Laura Schwendinger gets a Carnegie Hall premiere. Flutes in space. And another Grammy post-mortem.

By Jacob Stockinger

It has been a busy week for news from the world of classical music, with the news running the gamut from the trivial to the sordid and the extra-terrestrial.

ITEM: Keith Brown (below top), 55, the father of the bestselling brothers and sisters piano group The 5 Browns (below bottom), has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing the three daughters when they were young:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/41647449/ns/today-entertainment/

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/02/17/133852233/father-of-musical-act-the-5-browns-pleads-guilty-to-sex-abuse

ITEM: After becoming ill last fall, then recently fainting and falling off the podium and breaking his jaw and then winning a Grammy, touring is another chapter in the ongoing drama of Riccardo Muti (below) and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra:

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/3821059-421/muti-to-take-cso-on-road-next-season.html

ITEM: Sir Colin Davis is maestro collapse No. 2:

http://www.classicalmusic.org.uk/2011/02/sir-colin-davis-collapses-before-royal-opera-performance.html

ITEM: UW composer Laura Schwendinger (below) will premiere and perform her own work at Carnegie Hall on March 4:

http://www.news.wisc.edu/18953

ITEM: Marin Alsop (below) takes on a conducting post in Sao Paulo Brazil as well as Baltimore:

http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/marin-alsop-takes-top-job-at-brazils-leading-orchestra

ITEM: Playing flute music in space – does that make it spacey?

http://www.npr.org/2011/02/15/133780067/flutes-in-space-astronaut-plays-aboard-space-station

ITEM: Indie classical labels at the Grammys? Read NPR’s Tom Huizenga (below) on the Grammy awards for classical music. (The Ear’s posted p both nominees and winners on Tuesday. You can scroll back or find it in the search engine):

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2011/02/16/133749135/dark-horses-and-indie-labels-an-eclectic-mix-at-the-classical-grammys