"With all the bravura of the 1960s, David Munrow erupted into the world of early music and transformed what had been a minority interest into popular listening. His … impact lives on in the music he rediscovered and popularised, and the innovative ways in which he presented and performed it.” - The Guardian
According to the latest Live Performance Australia data, the most popular classical music performances in 2024 included Star Wars, How to Train Your Dragon, Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Man from Snowy River in Concert. - ABC (Australia)
British conductor Harry Bicket, who was appointed the summer festival’s principal conductor in 2013 and music director in 2018, has extended his contract through the 2028 summer season. Meanwhile, Mexican maestro Iván López Reynoso, currently principal conductor at Atlanta Opera, will take the same position at Santa Fe in 2027. - OperaWire
Fruitful change in classical concert-going isn’t going to happen via a revolution. Change can only happen in a piecemeal, gradual way, building on what already exists. So, rather than throwing out the overture-concerto-symphony as a tired old relic, why not repurpose it? - The Telegraph (MSN)
Music revenues were up 6.4% last year, marking its eleventh consecutive year of growth. The industry has doubled since 2014 and there are now 837 million people paying for streaming subscriptions around the world. - The Artist Economy
The British Australian musician is suing the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for discrimination based on political belief, after it cancelled one of his scheduled performances. His recital was cancelled after he dedicated a new piece by Australian composer Connor D'Netto to journalists killed in Gaza. - ABC (Australia)
Back in 2016, Missy Mazzoli and Ellen Reid ralked about the fact that neither of them had had any female composers as mentors, and they decided to remedy that situation for their younger colleagues. So they created Luna Composition Lab, now observing its 10th anniversary. - The New York Times
Lithuanian conductor Giedrė Šlekytė, 37, becomes Music Director Designate immediately and fully assumes the job in the fall of 2027. Current music director Thomas Søndergård, who is also music director of the Minnesota Orchestra, will take an emeritus title. - Bachtrack
This previously undisclosed diplomatic push to keep Israel in Eurovision was just one aspect of a drama that unfolded over the past year around the world’s most watched cultural event. - The New York Times
The Minack Theatre at Porthcurno pulled a planned production of Léo Delibes’s Lakmé after a US-based Hindu campaigner described the opera as “shallow exoticism based on prejudice”. - The Telegraph (MSN)
“The approximately 60 instrumentalists had a four-year contract with the orchestra that was due to end on Aug. 31, and they do not know if they will be re-hired. Beyond taking a financial hit, some in the group say they are concerned about the direction of the orchestra.” - WBEZ (Chicago)
As part of the lead-in to his formal assumption of the music director title, the Dude got the Phil together with the Spanish Harlem Orchestra to play both salsa-influenced classical compositions and genuine salsa. The program was a hit, both at Lincoln Center and 100 blocks uptown in Washington Heights. - The New York Times
By mid-October, I finally had something close to a single aphorism about Jarrett, an inversion of a half-remembered Wordsworth definition of the vocation of a poet. - The Walrus
WMG saw its quarterly global company-wide revenues reach USD $1.732 billion (across recorded music, music publishing, and other activities). Total revenue was up 12.1% YoY at constant currency. - Music Business Worldwide
Julie Andrews has reinvented herself almost completely, but after she lost her voice, she "fell into a deep depression. She said that she felt like she had lost her identity. Other vocalists have compared this feeling to the experience of an athlete who loses a limb.” - El Pais English
