The 63-year-old Austrian conductor has extended his contract as the orchestra's music director through the 2027-28 season, which will be his 20th at the PSO's helm. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"When a disease breaks into a population you tend to see a sharp increase in infection cases and eventually it will peak at some point when it sort of makes its way through the susceptible population and starts to decline. We see that same pattern with song downloads in our data." - CBC
Consider the music of Final Fantasy at Royal Albert Hall: "The two worlds of gaming and classical music merged, and while some concertgoers wore suits and bow ties, others dressed in cosplay as their favorite characters from the game." - The New York Times
The podcast Aria Code, now in its third season, is a collaboration between the Met and WQXR, and it's hosted by musician Rhiannon Giddens. "Producers aim for a mix of well-known operas and ... more obscure gems," and downloads are booming. - The New York Times
The BSO relocated one concert and canceled two at Strathmore Hall, and not for the first time - this decision was "once again to allow Strathmore and the ticket sellers union an opportunity to resolve their dispute." - Baltimore Sun
Who are the supposed punks of the classical music world? It seems that, for many commentators, any composer who went against the grain in some way was a punk. - The Conversation
"People who are normally hired by organisations abroad are being told, 'I'm sorry, we just don't have the capacity to bring somebody from the United Kingdom, it is too complicated and too expensive." - London Evening Standard
His term as music director was set to expire next summer, but with the pandemic having shut down CSO concerts for the period when guest conductors would have auditioned to succeed him, Muti will stay on until August of 2023. - AP
Only the fifth person to serve in this capacity, Debra Lew Harder follows in the footsteps of former legendary voices of the Met, Milton Cross (1931-1975), Peter Allen (1975-2004), Margaret Juntwait (2004-2015), and, most recently, Mary Jo Heath (2016-2021). - Broadway World
The company's certainly had opportunities before: William Grant Still submitted scores in 1919 and 1935; both were casually dismissed. So Terence Blanchard was astounded to get a call from Peter Gelb asking to stage Fire Shut Up in My Bones after its 2019 premiere. - The New York Times
The album represents a moment in time when everything about Seattle culture changed. The very words “Seattle music” meant something different afterward, both in the Northwest and in the world. - Seattle Times
Who gets last-name-only treatment and who requires a full identification is a weightier, more politically fraught question than it might initially seem. - San Francisco Chronicle
"The pattern of music downloads after their release appears to closely resemble epidemic curves for infectious disease – and electronica appears to be the most infectious genre of all." - The Guardian
It's the end of Tristan und Isolde at the Capitole de Toulouse. Isolde is singing the Liebestod and Tristan is playing dead upstage when he senses something very large very close: a 467-pound stage boulder that was supposed to stop 30 inches away … - The New York Times
When you pre-save a song, it may look like the service you use, like Spotify, is the one requesting information about your account. But it’s not. It will tell you which service, label, or company is making the request, and who’ll get your data when you accept. - Wired
