"The cause of death, in this coroner's verdict, is a prolonged failure to address reality. ... The decline and fall of England's national opera is a lesson to all working in the arts that you cannot kick problems down the road." - The Critic (UK)
John Storgårds, a Finnish violinist-turned conductor who is also artistic director of the Lapland Chamber Orchestra, was named the BBC Phil's Principal Guest Conductor in 2012 and Chief Guest Conductor in 2017. He now succeeds Omer Meir Wellber as the orchestra's Chief Conductor. - Gramophone
Aidan Lang: "There's been no explanation given other than a pleading that it's not an opera thing, it's about levelling up or spreading culture and creativity to the regions. But that's exactly what we do: within England, we perform in seven different cities. We just don't get it." - Bachtrack
Last week at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Julia Fischer and the Staatskapelle Dresden were about to start Beethoven's Violin Concerto when two activists from the German group Last Generation glued themselves to the rail on the conductor's podium. (Turns out the rail was removable. Oops.) - Deutsche Welle
“The main problem is that fees for artists have not gone up despite the growing costs of inflation, gas prices, increased flight prices, hotels, etc. So there’s even less money to go round now, when, let’s face it, there was not very much to begin with, but now the pie is even smaller.” - The Daily Beast
"Frustrated by the lack of airtime for reggae music in the UK, Lepke setup a mast in his back garden and began to broadcast to a small area of West London every Sunday afternoon. DBC soon expanded to cover all styles of black music." - BBC
No, say Arcade Fire fans, or former fans as frontman Win Butler faces at least five accusations. "The ticket retailers, tour promoters, and even Arcade Fire itself aren't offering refunds to the wider public." - CBC
"Thousands of visitors are expected in the city when it hosts the 2023 song contest in May after 2022 winner Ukraine was unable to host it due to the war." - BBC
While some with dementia can often feel trapped in the past, some researchers believe the act of creating music - as well as listening to it - can help to reconnect them to the here and now. A new BBC documentary follows the work of Manchester Camerata. - BBC
I do know that the word “accuracy” in the context of audio means reproducing the master recording faithfully, but this always seemed like an imaginary pursuit. Who, other than the artist, would know how a master recording was supposed to sound? - Harper's
"I’m not saying we shouldn’t address it; we are where we are, and we have to talk about it. But it’s difficult being the person in that role, because you’re constantly balancing being a symbol and just being the person you are, with all your abilities and foibles." - The Globe & Mail (Canada)
With the mass introduction of vaccines, the decline in infections, and the lifting of travel restrictions, orchestras have already taken to the road, with many others just waiting to take off. - San Francisco Classical Voice
Perhaps Sphinx’s most fundamental and meaningful achievement has been its simplest one, the part that crying mother caught onto: creating a community of people who had thought they were the only one of their kind, or close. Forming what those in the Sphinx network call “la familia.” - The New York Times
A Princeton University study involving singers and orchestral players from the Met found that "musical professionals have such fine control over their breath that they emit weaker airflows during singing and playing than they and others do while speaking and breathing" — so aerosol-borne pathogens don't travel as far. - Smithsonian Magazine
