LATEST ADDITIONS

Denver’s Rocky Mountain Audio Fest (RMAF) has canceled its 2020 show.

At the 2019 AXPONA, I took part in one of my first official meetings, as editor of Stereophile, with members of the manufacturing community: the German company T+A. They were presenting in the room of Texas dealer Lone Star Audio, which was owned by the late Jim Hench. They had a corner hallway to themselves: two rooms and, at the time when I arrived, a hallway table brimming with coffee and pastries. Fortuitous timing.

The Home Entertainment Show—aka T.H.E. Show—which was originally scheduled for June 12–14 in the Long Beach Hilton, has canceled for 2020. According to a May 13 announcement, T.H.E. Show team of President Maurice Jung and Director of Marketing Emiko Carlin had hoped to postpone the event until December 2020. Not happening.

Eriks Ešenvalds: Translations
Portland State Chamber Choir, Ethan Sperry, cond.
Naxos 8.574124 (CD, auditioned as 24/96 WAV). 2020. Erick Lichte, prod.; John Atkinson, Doug Tourtelot, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics ****½

I'll admit to a conflict of interest in choosing as Recording of the Month a work co-engineered by our very own John Atkinson. We—I, who nominated the piece, and Editor Jim Austin, who ultimately chose the winner—have both worked with John for years. And I'd never deny it was moving to sit next to him during his recent visit to Port Townsend following the release party for this new album, Translations, watching him shed tears as we listened together to the heavenly voices of the Portland State Chamber Choir singing "In paradisum" (2012), which Latvian composer Eriks Ešenvalds dedicated to his grandmother, who died the morning of the premiere.

On Sunday, March 22, at 8pm, the state of New York shut down, governor's orders. Here in the Big City, most stores are closed—even Starbucks, or at least the ones near me. In my neighborhood, up on Broadway, a grocery store is open, and a drugstore, a hardware store, and a couple of bodegas. Some bars and restaurants are open for takeout only, some advertising COCKTAILS TO GO in big black letters painted on bedsheets—New Orleans comes to NYC. (Meanwhile, New Orleans itself, also a coronavirus hotspot, apparently is desolate, the bars closed, a hard thing to picture.)

On May 5, Joel Davis, founder and CEO of JD Events (JDE), the company that mounts the annual AXPONA—Audio Expo North America—proposed a “rollover plan” settlement for companies that had committed funds to the canceled 2020 show, which had been scheduled for April, postponed until August, and then, finally, canceled. The plan attempts to “right the ship in the midst of this pandemic storm” and to demonstrate the company's “long-term commitment” to continuing to serve the audio industry. Many exhibitors were unhappy that, in canceling the show, did not offer refunds of funds already committed to the show by exhibitors and sponsors.

In a 2014 profile in the New Yorker, Paul Elie, author of the book Reinventing Bach, wrote, "There it was again: the stinging treble, the spooky overtones, the strings snapping and booming under his hands—the sound of a Tele being played as skillfully and exuberantly as it can be played."

The musician in question was Jim Campilongo . . .