After recently announcing major cuts to its youth orchestra, the L.A. Phil has secured additional donor funding to ensure the East L.A. branch of the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) program will continue at full capacity until the end of the school year. - Los Angeles Times
It’s no secret, too, that the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra is the orchestras’ orchestra; the ensemble that makes hardened pros go wobbly at the knees, and sends critics spiralling towards Pseud’s Corner. - The Spectator
A group of more than 130 musicians played in unison at Sherwood Phoenix piano shop in Mansfield on Saturday. Organisers believe the performance surpassed a previous UK record for the most pianos played at once, but said there was no "official" attempt made to verify their musical effort. - BBC
Artists and songwriters, according to the companies, “will have full control over whether and how their names, images, likenesses, voices, and compositions are used in new AI-generated music”. - Music Business Worldwide
“That has become our key bit of outreach,” says Ruben Valenzuela, director of the Bach Collegium San Diego. And with no complete Spanish version available, Valenzuela and Tijuana-based choral conductor Mario Montenegro translated the libretto themselves. - Early Music America
“San Antonio’s Scottish Rite fraternal order has given the Philharmonic until Friday to vacate the group’s historic downtown building. … While the letter states the Philharmonic can no longer ‘use or occupy’ the building after this Friday, it does allow the orchestra to rent the auditorium for scheduled concerts.” - San Antonio Current
“For John Holiday, being true to himself means weaving together the loose strands of opera, gospel, R&B, jazz and pop that make up his musical life and inheritance.” - The New York Times
“This decision comes as we assess how to best serve the Los Angeles community with recent economic challenges and shifts in funding for the organization,” the LA Phil said in a statement to Boyle Heights Beat on Thursday. - Boyle Heights Beat
“In addition to a $2.3 million surplus on its (fiscal year 2025) operating budget of $34.6 million, the PSO saw its highest annual ticket sales since the COVID-19 pandemic. Total ticket sales reached $9.48 million, a 17% increase over last fiscal year.” - Pittsburgh Business Times (WPXI)
“‘I’ve always tried to put a big moment in a song, but nothing, of course, worked as good as that one,' David Foster, who produced and arranged the song for Ms. Houston, said.” - The New York Times
Dick Gaughan had a deep influence on Rufus Wainwright, Billy Bragg, and Richard Hawley. But the label Celtic Music has kept his work under wraps for years - decades, really. And he’s not alone; Celtic Music has a stranglehold over many folk musicians’ oeuvres. - The Guardian (UK)
A security guard (now suspended from his job) was not at his post. “That allowed the two protesters to walk on a narrow ledge along the wall of the left side of the orchestra pit and make their way on to the stage.” - The New York Times
“A generation of gen Z and millennial artists are reckoning with what it meant to come of age through recession, austerity and the tail end of the Troubles. The music pulsates with the sense of promises made and withdrawn.” - The Guardian (UK)
Peter Wollny, now director of the Bach Archive in Leipzig, discovered manuscripts of the two works in Brussels back in 1992. He was intrigued by the music and had a hunch it was Bach's, but it took Wollny 33 years to gather the evidence he needed to be sure. - The New York Times
