"The board now presents the San Francisco Symphony as a survivor forgoing experimental treatment and in need of a cautious caretaker. … What has changed over the years is that many boards have become increasingly corporate, increasingly powerful and increasingly clueless." - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
The 1987 Franco Zeffirelli production is one of the company's most lavish, and doing the opera without most of it really does diminish the experience. Still, only about 150 people left and requested refunds, leaving nearly 3,000 to watch the Puccini before a static set from Act II. - The New York Times
UMG played an instrumental role in bringing together a coalition of 150-plus organizations both in and outside the industry last year for the Human Artistry Campaign (HAC), which established a framework for the responsible use of AI for creative endeavors while respecting copyrights and artists’ likenesses. - Fast Company
"Key organizations are striking out on new paths to energize audiences and solidify their cultural relevancy. (Veteran) arts leaders ... are now ceding control to fresh faces. And young upstarts are shaking up the scene by challenging and redefining preconceived notions of classical music and how it can be presented." - Toronto Star
Not only have they released an open letter calling on the orchestra's Board of Governors to reverse the cuts that motivated Salonen not to renew his contract, the musicians leafleted Saturday's audience, urging listeners to contact Board chair Priscilla Geeslin and CEO Matthew Spivey. - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
The site, which has described itself as the “#1 platform for making high quality AI covers in seconds,” has become big enough to warrant being the only voice-cloning tech to be called out by name by the Recording Industry Association of America. - Music Business Worldwide
George Collier takes snippets of videos from live performances by well-known artists like Wynton Marsalis and Celine Dion, or bedroom musicians who’ve posted clips online, and adds detailed directions for what’s being played. He turns sounds into wildly detailed notations and shares the results. - The New York Times
"In 2026, it will be 150 years since Wagner premiered the full Ring at his festival in Bayreuth, Germany. Each year until then, (Kent) Nagano and Concerto Köln … are touring installments of their historically informed Ring operas," based in large part on Wagner's own writings about performance. - The New York Times
Private equity — the industry responsible for bankrupting companies, slashing jobs and raising the mortality rates at the nursing homes it acquires — is making money by gobbling up the rights for old hits and pumping them back into our present. The result is a markedly blander music scene. - The New York Times
A German nonprofit, Rave the Planet, hoped for years to add techno to the intangible cultural heritage list. Five other new German entries "include fruit wine and mountaineering a parade in Bavaria known as the Kirchseeoner Perchtenlauf, where attenders dress as furry monsters." - The Guardian (UK)
“There’s considerable static between heaven and earth, and innocence is an oddity. We are all dancing as best we can, to the music we can hear, and we step on each other’s toes and end up with scrambled eggs dripping down our chins." - The Smart Set
AI isn’t going to cut it, say the songwriters for the show Girls5Eva. "Though the tunes are ostensibly satirical versions of pop songs, there is no questioning that they are true bops in and of themselves” - and they’re written fast, because TV writing and filming is speedy. - Time
"Shot in just over a week in September 2022, Opus is a spare and intimate film. In stark black and white, the concert is just a man performing behind a grand piano. Off camera, though, there was a crew of over thirty people." - The Verge
It’s not easy for contemporary composers, and Adès’s The Exterminating Angel is an expensive opera in a world that isn’t even supportive of classic, already successful operas. But a new production in Paris shows that its composer may now be firmly fixed in the canon. - The New York Times
Some music tech entrepreneurs argue the speed at which AI tools are growing globally is also putting pressure on Stockholm's well-oiled music tech ecosystem. - BBC
