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Berklee gets its Irish on

Having just survived the annual March onslaught from hometown faves the Dropkick Murphys, our annual holiday visit from the Pogues and numerous other Celtic occasions - not to mention Bono and the boys at the Somerville - it's hard to imagine that anyone in Boston's music community feels under-Irished. But Ireland is "underrepresented" among the 70 countries of the Berklee College of Music student body, and the school is taking steps to remedy that. Start with Berklee in Dublin April 13-17, which features Berklee faculty conducting a series of improvisation workshops for Irish student musicians. Then on April 18-19, Berklee reps will drop in for an admissions jam session, auditioning and interviewing students for summer and full-time Berklee scholarships. All of this is happening at Dublin Institute of Technology and Newpark Music Centre.

Reduce, reuse, recycle...art

Just about every other press release I get these days has either an economic theme or an environmental theme. Discount tickets for troubled times is a common recessionary theme to press releases, although they usually neglect to mention that the troubled times affect the people selling the tickets as much as those buying them. "24" sent out a press release a couple of weeks back claiming to be the first carbon-neutral TV show or something like that. It's not hard to tell where our minds are at these days. But it's better when the thriftiness or ecological conscience is embedded in the work - feels less like a press release gimmick then.

Thus we come to "The Green Show: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle," the April exhibit at King Hooper Mansion in Marblehead. The show is a collaboration between the Salem and Marblehead Arts Associations, and features member artwork in three areas:

• NATURE AT ITS BEST conveyed in landscapes and seascapes, pristine vistas of nature
• That which is DETRIMENTAL to nature and the environment
• Artwork using RECYCLED MATERIALS and FOUND OBJECTS

The exhibit will run from Saturday, April 4 through Sunday, April 26 with an Opening Reception on Sunday, April 5 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The mansion is at 8 Hooper Street in Marblehead. Directions here. More information  here.

Giant Barbie up a tree?

It must be art: http://tinyurl.com/dyh3kg. (via Universal Hub)

Replacement conductors, replacement windows at Symphony Hall

Two bits of news out of the Boston Symphony Orchestra today:

1) Conductors Mark Wigglesworth and Susanna Mälkki (left) will step in for Yuri Temirkanov, who cancelled all of his upcoming United States engagements earlier this year, including performances with the BSO. Mr. Wigglesworth will take the baton on April 16, 17, and 18, and Ms. Mälkki will conduct the concerts on April 23, 24, and 25. Both conductors will be making their BSO debuts. Wigglesworth regularly conducts the Minnesota Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony; Mälkki is currently music director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain. The programs will remain the same except that Stravinsky’s Symphony in C will replace Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9 on the 23-25.

2) The restoration and opening of Symphony Hall’s clerestory windows has won an Associated General Contractors (AGC) of America’s 2009 Build America Award. The project last year brought natural light back to the hall for the first time since the 1940s, following the original plans by McKim, Mead & White in 1900. Walsh Brothers Incorporated completed the project in only 76 days. No one's 100 percent sure, but it seems the windows were covered for blackout purposes during World War II.

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Full Tanglewood announcement

We know a lot of this already - including the fact that most of the James Taylor events are sold out - but here's the full summer Tanglewood announcement released this morning, including the BSO, Pops and other events:

2009 TANGLEWOOD SEASON

JAMES LEVINE CONDUCTS EIGHT PROGRAMS, INCLUDING AN ALL-TCHAIKOVSKY BSO SEASON-OPENER ON JULY 3 AND TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER PERFORMANCES OF MOZART’S DON GIOVANNI AND WAGNER’S DIE MEISTERSINGER (ACT III)

HIGHLIGHTS ALSO INCLUDE MUCH-ANTICIPATED RETURN OF
MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS, CHRISTIAN TETZLAFF PERFORMING THE COMPLETE CYCLE OF BEETHOVEN VIOLIN SONATAS,
JORDI SAVALL AND HIS PERIOD ENSEMBLE,
BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS FOR SIR JAMES GALWAY,
RAFAEL FRÜHBECK DE BURGOS, AND ANDRÉ PREVIN, AND
TWO WORLD PREMIERES BY THE MARK MORRIS DANCE COMPANY

KEITH LOCKHART AND THE BOSTON POPS WELCOME TRUMPET PHENOM CHRIS BOTTI, JOHN WILLIAMS LEADS POPULAR FILM NIGHT,
JULY 4TH CELEBRATION FEATURES DIANA KRALL, AND
ANNUAL JAZZ FESTIVAL WRAPS UP SEASON

A FIRST AT TANGLEWOOD—A WEEKEND OF CONCERTS AND WORKSHOPS BY THE INCOMPARABLE JAMES TAYLOR

TANGLEWOOD EXPANDS FREE LAWN TICKET PROGRAM TO YOUNG PEOPLE AGE 17 AND UNDER

The 2009 Tanglewood season, June 22-September 6, offers weekly concerts by the Boston Symphony Orchestra led by James Levine and favorite guest conductors, a Boston Pops concert led by Keith Lockhart, Film Night led by John Williams, a special July 4 concert featuring Diana Krall, appearances by popular artists Tony Bennett and James Taylor, recital and chamber music recitals by some of the most preeminent artists of our time, and the annual Labor Day Jazz Festival, featuring Paquito d’Rivera, Regina Carter, and John Pizzarelli. Now in its 73rd season, Tanglewood is the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, located in the Berkshire Hills in Lenox, Massachusetts.

The Stradivarius Secret, nothing to do with the DaVinci Code

Violinist Rose Mary Harbison and physicist William F. "Jack" Fry will be "Solving the Stradivarius Secret" on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Museum of Science.

Cambridge's Harbison is a founding member of Emmanuel Music and is married to composer John Harbison. Fry, emeritus professor of Physics, University of Wisconsin, has been working with Harbison since the 1980s as part of his half-century-long passion to understand the sound of these instruments through science. While there won't be a Stradivarius on hand, Harbison will play her own 18th-century Seraphin violin.

Seating is limited. Free passes are available to the general public in the Museum lobby beginning at 5:45 p.m. on the evening of the program. First come, first served. Museum members may reserve a limited number of free seating passes in advance. The free program is part of the museum's When Science Meets Art series. For more information, visit www.mos.org/events.

Taking stock of North Shore theater

In Globe North today: "The shutdown at the North Shore Music Theatre in January was a dramatic twist, but local stage companies are still playing the first act of the economic downturn. 'We're going into this stage of, how are we going to be able to learn from this and how are we going to adapt to be able to survive?' said Sue Griffin, a member of the board of directors at Marblehead Little Theatre." By me.

Unique sounds at Trinity Church

Fujitsu Ten is a big Japanese audio-equipment company and no doubt marketing is behind their Eclipse Masterclass series of events. But this sounds cool, even though you'll no doubt hear about the "unique 10-speaker ECLIPSE TD 712z system" being used. The next Masterclass event, co-sponsored with Berklee College of Music, will be at Trinity Church in Copley Square on March 26 and features British contemporary cellist Peter Gregson playing multiple tracks from his debut album, "Spem," on an electric cello. But wait, there's more! Gregson will "play interactively" with computer music manipulation specialist Milton Mermikides, a professor at Royal Academy of Music in England. I think what that means is that Mermikides will be more or less remixing Gregson live. And of course whatever they come up with will come pulsing out of that "unique 10-speaker ECLIPSE TD 712z system" into the rareified air of the church. All and all, worth hearing. The fun starts at 6:30 p.m. and it's free to the public. For more information as well as to secure the best seating, go here. And go here if you want to watch (via the web) Gregson playing a "microconcert" at Twitter HQ on Thursday.

New York may make it illegal to do what Brandeis wants to do to the Rose Museum

I just got around to the Times and came across this story: "Selling parts of a collection to cover museum operating costs would be illegal under a bill introduced in the New York State Legislature late Tuesday afternoon." "These collections were not created as reservoirs of capital to be used for the benefits of the institution," said the legislator who drew up the bill. In fact, the decision by Brandeis to close the Rose Museum and consider selling the collection was one of the motivating factors in creation of the bill. Wonder if there are any fans of the Rose on Beacon Hill?