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MUSIC

Inside Pacific Symphony’s Music Director Search

It’s been a golden period for top-shelf conductors seeking a new gig – and a more competitive time for orchestras looking to hire one. - Culture OC

Pittsburgh Symphony Provides $125 Million In Economic Impact To Its Region

"For every dollar the symphony spends, it generates about $4 in the local economy, leading to a total of $125 million in regional impact for (FY2023-24). Plus, the symphony, which operates with a budget of about $33 million, helps sustain about 1,900 jobs in the region annually." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

What The LiveNation/TicketMaster Lawsuit Might Mean

Live Nation is essentially a monopoly, the government argues. Its complaint notes the concert giant directly manages more than 400 musical artists, controls around 60 percent of concert promotions at major concert venues across the country, and owns or controls more than 265 concert venues in North America - Washington Post

Accessing Jaap van Zweden’s Tenure At The New York Philharmonic

The ensemble’s playing, across all instrumental choirs, sounds richer and more flexible than it did before his tenure. So what Mr. Dudamel stands to inherit largely bears Mr. van Zweden’s stamp. - The Wall Street Journal

How A Gifted Black Musician Lost Tenure At The Kansas City Symphony, And How He’s Fighting Back

Principal percussionist Josh Jones was told over and over that his audition was the best people had ever heard, and he regularly got high praise from the music director. Two years later, he was told his organizational skills were lacking and denied tenure. Was this really about race? - The Washington Post (MSN)

BBC To Release To Previously Unheard Louis Armstrong Performances

Unheard performances by Louis Armstrong at the BBC in 1968, regarded by Armstrong aficionados as some of the jazz legend’s greatest work, are to finally be released. - The Guardian

Calgary Philharmonic Removes Two Musicians For Their Comments

The exact comments that triggered the investigation have not been disclosed, nor has the reasoning for the musicians’ removal from the orchestra – including if that reasoning was directly related to the initial comments. - The Globe & Mail

Conductor François-Xavier Roth Accused Of Unsolicited Sexting

The accusations against the 52-year-old Frenchman — currently music director of the orchestra and opera in Cologne as well as founder/director of the widely-hailed period-instrument orchestra Les Siècles — were revealed by Le Canard enchaîné, a magazine famous for both satire and serious investigations. - Van

Boston Symphony Names New Concertmaster

Nathan Cole, 46, fills a seat that has been vacant since the 2019 retirement of Malcolm Lowe, who served as concertmaster for 35 years. - Boston Globe

Here’s The Guy Who’s Made His Career Orchestrating, Then Re-Orchestrating, Stephen Sondheim’s Musicals

Jonathan Tunick began his career in the 1960s, when Broadway pit bands were big, and orchestrated all of Sondheim's Broadway shows of the '70s. For the Sondheim revivals of the '90s, he reworked his arrangements for bands 50% to 80% smaller. Now he's building one of those back up again. - Playbill

Opera Australia Posts A $4.9 Million Deficit

Marking the milestone of 50 years of performing at the Sydney Opera House in 2023, OA presented 30 productions: 14 operas, 13 concerts and recitals, and three musicals. Total box office revenue was just over $65.7m, sharply down from the previous year’s $79.8m. - Limelight

Turkish President ErdoÄźan Says The Eurovision Song Contest Is A Danger To The Traditional Family

"In a speech following a Cabinet meeting, Recep Tayyip ErdoÄźan described participants at the contest as the 'Trojan horses of social corruption' and said his government was right to keep Turkey out of the pan-European pop competition since 2012." - AP

How Roulette Became New York’s Music Lab

Pursuing an aesthetic guided as much by John Coltrane as by John Cage, Roulette became a crucial laboratory for the downtown-music scene, providing artists like John Zorn, Shelley Hirsch, George Lewis, Ikue Mori and many more with space, resources and recorded documentation of their work. - The New York Times

How Copyright Has Killed Music (Except For Taylor Swift)

If giving people money encourages them to create, then surely giving them more money would encourage them to create more music, right? The answer is actually no. Throughout music history, copyright’s incentive has often been dialed up too high and, counterintuitively, has led to less creativity.  - The Hill

Harlem Crypts And Brooklyn Catacombs And Classical Music By Candlelight

Andrew Ousley decided to present his concert series Death of Classical in the crypt of Harlem's Church of the Intercession not only because the acoustics were remarkable, but because so many potential audience members seemed put off by traditional venues. Then he went on to Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery … - The Guardian

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