Since the elimination of mandatory retirement in symphony orchestras and with union protections making it difficult to fire older players, many orchestras include members who look as though they just arrived from a retirement home. - Nightingale Sonata
“It’s not really enjoyable to make music now. It takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of practice, you need to get really good at an instrument or really good at a piece of production software. And I think the majority of people don’t enjoy the majority of the time they spend making music." - Music Radar
Classical music has long been wandering in the desert of its own identity crisis, and 2016 was an unexpected checkpoint. Overnight, it seemed that artists had sprung into creative overdrive, making works to comment on the moment - Van
No, this is not The Onion: “A group of Bradford City fans will go from singing on the terraces to performing as a choir for a BBC programme called ‘Bantam of the Opera.’”- BBC
Her neuroscientist friend Daniel Levitin believes "that music is a golden thread in the fabric of identity” - and that music therapy could help many other stroke survivors. - The Guardian (UK)
The group was formed out of the ashes of the San Antonio Symphony in 2022, and things looked rosy. But “bitter disputes have erupted among board members and donors. And financial strains have forced the orchestra to make last-minute trims to its season.” - The New York Times
The global music industry hit 4.8 trillion streams in 2024, a new single-year record, Luminate’s 2024 Year-End Report found. That’s up 14% from 2023, which held the previous record. - APNews
"Daniels, 58, was hired as a voice professor in 2015 and granted tenure three years later in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance. He was fired in 2020 after an investigation found he had solicited at least three students and shared a sexually explicit video with one." - AP
"Left open are questions of access to and care of the instrument, as well as how often it would be played after the expected mid-March departure of Macy’s from the Wanamaker Building’s retail spaces. Macy’s has contributed toward upkeep of the enormous instrument." - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
What a lot of these criticisms seem to miss is the crucial element: that we can still choose what we listen to. No one is making you stream the lowest common denominator playlists and you’re not forced to let the algorithm direct what you listen to. - Spectator
European Union Youth Orchestra director Marshall Marcus, who's seen a lot of El Sistema's educational work up close, argues that those who denounce the program, its flagship orchestra and its most famous alumnus for providing window-dressing to the Maduro regime are missing the point — and overlooking the good El Sistema does. - The Guardian
The composer’s son, now 83 years old, stored over 100,000 of his father’s scores at Belmont, in addition to photographs, letters, books, posters and more. The scores were held in a digital back-up, but this was also destroyed in the fire. - ClassicFM
In the days after, Los Angeles-area musicians and industry pros began to circulate a spreadsheet noting who had lost a home or workplace. The list stretched over 200 entries. - Los Angeles Times
The 57-year-old Finn, currently music director of the Gulbenkian Orchestra and Choir in Lisbon and of the Finnish National Opera & Ballet, begins his term with the 2026-27 season. He succeeds former Houston Symphony and Calgary Philharmonic music director Hans Graf, who departs Singapore at the end of next season. - The Straits Times (Singapore)
The instrument's landmark status only means that it can't be destroyed or moved without approval: a new owner or occupier of the soon-to-be-former Macy's in central Philadelphia could simply mothball it. Peter Dobrin has a suggestion for the space that could keep the public coming in to listen. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
