As he finishes up his terms as music director of the New York and Hong Kong Philharmonics and begins a new tenure at the Seoul Philharmonic, the Dutch conductor announced that, starting in 2026, he will succeed Mikko Franck as music director of the Paris-based radio orchestra. - AP
"All of these comments, which range from simply ignorant to downright misogynoir, presuppose that commercial country music is a legacy that belongs only to white, rural southerners. And that supposition is just plain wrong." - The Guardian
TikTok says up to 30% of what it calls "popular songs" could be lost. But some industry estimates say up to 80% of all music on TikTok could be muted. - BBC
Prosecutors say the 70-year-old was chatting, first on an dating app and then directly on WhatApp, with someone he believed to be a 15-year-old but was in fact an undercover officer. He was arrested last month at the coffee shop where he had arranged for them to meet. - BBC
She began her initial term in 2022, and it was set to expire at the end of this year. With her contract ending in 2026 (at the earliest), she will get to see through the SSO's four-year project performing Wagner's Ring cycle in concert. - Limelight (Australia)
Before she took on roles in Italian operas at the Met, Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen "soft-launched the Italian side of her voice” in recitals and with the Norwegian Opera. - The New York Times
The musicians’ union calls it “a major win” and “a watershed moment.” Next up: The “below the line” workers - that is to say, the Hollywood crew members in IATSE and the Teamsters - start to bargain. - MSN (Los Angeles Times)
"The RSNO (has been) told it will lose all of its local authority support over the next three years. It is expected to cut back its performances at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, (its) permanent base, as well as events in schools and communities across the city." - The Scotsman (MSN)
"Prometheus: The Poem of Fire … has an element of synesthesia in its score, which calls for a color organ along with a full orchestra, a piano soloist and a choir. But in October at Davies Symphony Hall, … the piece was being prepared with an additional sense in mind." - The New York Times
Implementing a paywall would have given Pitchfork’s readers an opportunity to support it while liberating its staff from having to conjure money out of thin air. Instead, Condé Nast bought it, failed to set it up for success, then cut it up as soon as it became a burden. - The Walrus
"(The company) will present 18 productions in 2024-25, matching the current season and pandemic-curtailed 2019-20 for the fewest since 14 in strike-shortened 1980-81." There's only one completely new production (Michael Mayer directing Aïda), plus five which are new-to-the-Met, four of those being contemporary works. - AP
What if I showed up as a human experimenting with classical music? Would that make classical music more human? This was a long time ago, but now everybody does it, so I guess it works. - San Francisco Classical Voice
"A Danish man has gone on trial in the city of Aarhus over accusations that he fraudulently made 4.38m kroner (more than $635,000) in royalties on music-streaming sites. ... Prosecutors allege … the huge numbers of streams required to generate that amount of money could not have (come from) genuine users." - The Guardian
"(It's) a finely tuned and precisely orchestrated operation, requiring months of advance planning and permitting, a crew of nearly a dozen workers and an all-hands effort by the musicians themselves." Michael Andor Brodeur watches as DC's National Symphony prepares and sets off. - The Washington Post (MSN)
