And also, make it so that the contestants don't know they're on a reality TV show - "This isn’t a documentary – it’s a competition. They are secretly being judged by two globally renowned maestros: classical virtuoso Lang Lang and pop star Mika." - The Guardian (UK)
First of all, Beyoncé "needs three wins to tie, and four to beat the conductor Georg Solti, who holds the record for most overall wins." - The New York Times
Like his hero Duke Ellington, he had a gift for reconciling musical experiment with the immediacy of pop, finding freedom in the constraints of a verse-chorus-bridge grammar that might otherwise default to clichés. - The Baffler
Tim Jackson co-presented the ’92 season with Jimmy Lyons, who launched the festival with San Francisco Chronicle columnist Ralph J. Gleason in 1958. By 1993, Jackson took over and quickly re-established the reputation of the longest continuously running jazz festival as one of the genre’s pre-eminent events. - San Francisco Chronicle
Composer Emma O'Halloran had had her Uncle Mark adapt two of his scripts, Mary Motorhead and Trade, into librettos to which she's written one-act operas --- and she plans to make it a trilogy. She talks to David Patrick Stearns about the collaboration and about the ways she works. - Musical America
The Southern California Annenberg Inclusion Initiative report reveals that while the amount of women represented in Billboard’s year-end Hot 100 chart jumped 28.7% last year, to a total of 30%, only 14% of songwriters represented on the chart were women, a slight decrease from the 2021 statistic of 14.3%. - The Guardian
For the orchestra's February program, at least, the venue will be the Met Philadelphia, a former opera house on Broad Street north of Center City and a familiar hall for the Pops. There's no word yet on whether they'll return there for the season's four remaining programs. - The Philadelphia Inquirer
For artists who are thinking about retirement, it’s a way to enjoy the fruits of their labour and create a pension for themselves. It could be that, because of the pandemic, artists have sold their catalogue to compensate for loss of revenue while venues and other income streams were lost. - The Conversation
“We, the musicians of the San Francisco Symphony, have been playing without a contract for months and are the only major American orchestra who have not had their salaries restored to the contractually agreed rates, prior to the contract expiring." - San Francisco Classical Voice
Even the most curmudgeonly of musicians and symphony-goers are coming to accept the value of these sorts of shows. And, most importantly, the music is often excellent. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"The November event — called the California Festival: A Celebration of New Music — is a collaborative project organized by three maestros: Gustavo Dudamel from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Esa-Pekka Salonen from the San Francisco Symphony and Rafael Payare from the San Diego Symphony." - The New York Times
"(David Lockington), who is a member of Church of Christ, Scientist, is suing the association, alleging he was wrongfully stripped of his job in 2021 for seeking a religious and medical exemption to its mandatory coronavirus vaccination policy." - Pasadena Now
An open letter from the board says several parties have offered possible solutions for funding and support since it announced the plan to end the festival last week. - Toronto Star
Hildegard’s fame has crossed over into zones of New Age spirituality, environmental discourse, and feminist thought. In the gift shop at the Hildegard Abbey, you can find self-help texts along the lines of “Strengthen the Immune System with Hildegard of Bingen.” - The New Yorker
The reasons stem from energy costs - and cuts in subsidies. "Strasbourg hosts the choir, the design workshops for sets and costumes and the administration of the establishment; Colmar, the opera studio, its training structure; while the ballet ... is based in Mulhouse." - Le Monde
