Special Year-End Musical Awards

Today Daniel J. Wakin of the New York Times offered his own list of awards modeled upon the plethora of other prizes presented at year's end.  While mentioning the many musical organizations in serious financial hardship (I did not know that the Utica Symphony had gone under), he did also make note of some of the year's highlights, including:

• Deborah Voigt's appearance in the lead role of Annie, Get Your Gun, possibly the opera world's coolest act since Beverly Sills' episode with the Muppets, and

• "the happiest final chord" presented to my beloved Detroit Symphony, as it concluded a gut-wrenching six-month strike with a concert in which the audience embraced their orchestra with "an outpouring of warmth and enthusiasm from the audience, showing, if only for an evening, what music can mean to a city."

The entire awards list can be found here.