Finnders & Youngberg, Colorado’s premier Americana quintet, will add yet another honor to their impressive resume: they’ve been chosen as an official showcase act for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s World of Bluegrass conference in Nashville, Tenn., this fall. They are one of just 13 acts invited to perform during the bluegrass industry’s biggest and most important week.
Festival Mozaic has announced its 2012 summer season, which will take place July 12-22 in the most charismatic spaces across California's Central Coast including Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, Chapel Hill in wine country, Hearst Castle overlooking the sparkling Pacific Ocean, and Mission San Miguel . The theme, "In The Footsteps of Giants," will showcase a lineage of masterworks which inspired – and were inspired by – phenomenal composers over the ages.
The San Francisco Mandolin Orchestra with singers Susan Gundunas and Twila Ehmcke will be performing one of the gems of the Baroque music era, Stabat Mater, written in 1736 by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi.
The Newport Festivals Foundation has announced the lineup for the 2012 Newport Folk Festival set to take place July 28-29 at Fort Adams State Park.
A neurological disorder called dystonia is estimated to have ended the careers of at least one member of every major American metropolitan orchestra. Dystonia has claimed the livelihoods of musicians across genres including the acclaimed pianist Leon Fleisher of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, former first oboist of the Chicago Symphony Alex Klein, acoustic guitarist Billy McLaughlin, classical guitarist Liona Boyd, keyboard player Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, and others.
Old News
NAMM Joins Lacey Act Defense National Consensus Committee
The National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) announced today that it has joined the Lacey Act Defense National Consensus Committee, a newly-formed group made up of companies, associations and organizations impacted by the Lacey Act, and leading environmental groups, with the purpose of creating a new standard designed to provide a defense to Lacey liability.
Press release from PRNewswire
The following organizations will participate in the new committee's activities: Forest Stewardship Council, Anderson Berkshire Hathaway, National Wood Flooring Association, Rainforest Alliance, Knoll, Williams Sonoma, Sustainable Furnishings Council, National Wildlife Federation, Floor Covering Institute, Wood Flooring International, Gibson Guitar Corporation, Staples, Home Depot, Kimberly-Clark, Columbia Forest Products, C.F. Martin & Company, Danzer Group, and the Capital Markets Partnership.
"Along with other activities, this effort represents a yearning for clarity in Lacey Act regulatory guidelines, enforcement rules and the desire of business and industry to implement adequate and appropriate 'due care' in assuring that material and product imports meet the requirements of the Lacey Act," said Mary Luehrsen, NAMM's director of public affairs and government relations. "Due care standards have been negotiated for other regulations such as Superfund environmental cleanup; NAMM will work with other industry groups to achieve a fair and reasonable standard by which business can operate successfully within the guidelines and intent of the Lacey Act."
Richard Donovan, Sr. Vice President of Rainforest Alliance said: "Importantly, the standard has the potential to fill an important gap in terms of understanding the concept of due care as it applies to the amended Lacey Act and in doing so positively affect the conservation of forests around the world"
A draft of the proposed standard will be announced at a public meeting to be held in the next 90-120 days. An approved National Consensus Standard is expected in mid 2012. For updates on this activity along with information about the Lacey Act and its impact on the music products industry.