Nina Yoshida Nelsen took stock of her career after the Atlanta shootings. "She had performed in Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly more than 150 times, but had been cast in non-Asian roles just three times." Now she's working to change those numbers. - Time
In a real shocker that literally everyone predicted, rap/folk Kalush Orchestra won, with a song (originally written for the frontman's mother) that includes lyrics like "I’ll always find my way home, even if the roads are destroyed." - The New York Times
The world’s biggest music event, famed for bringing Europe together, is happening during the biggest threat to unity on the European continent since the Second World War: the war in Ukraine. - Toronto Star
Before Ukraine gained independence from Russia in 1991, it would have been as natural for a young Prokofiev to head off to Moscow as it might be for a young Angeleno composer to go to New York (a trip that happens to be five times larger than the distance between Kyiv and Moscow). - Los Angeles Times
With five companies (the Met, Detroit, Chicago, Omaha, and Seattle) sharing a revival of his X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X directed by Broadway eminence Robert O'Hara (Slave Play), attention is being paid to Davis's other operas and his work as a jazz pianist. - The New York Times
Some say it was overdue, some lament that it remains a missed opportunity, but the truth of the matter is, the iPod has left us, after years of neglect. - Tedium
Variant 6 does strange new music and even stranger old music in art galleries, ballets, and repurposed sawdust factories. And they know each other very well: says one tenor, "Jimmy and I have played a game where I'd offer his opinion and he would offer mine." - MSN (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
CRB’s recent listener data suggests that a growing share of younger listeners are responding to that sense of discovery. In February 2014 the median age of CRB listeners was 74; as of this past February, it was 54, with 24 percent of listeners under age 35. - Boston Globe
"(They are a) miracle that brings in throngs, as many as 3,000 or maybe more, of people out on a Saturday night" — in Miami Beach, no less — "to sit on aluminum chairs or picnic blankets and listen to music that is centuries old." - MSN (The Miami Herald)
Ukraine’s folk-rap band Kalush Orchestra has qualified for the final. But the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organises Eurovision, ruled that no Russian act would be able to participate this year, after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. - The Conversation
For a start, you have to cut more than three quarters of Shakespeare's four-hour text. And you have to find some way to make those all-too-famous lines — "the elephants in the room," composer Dean calls them — compelling and singable. (They had an ingenious idea for that problem.) - Playbill
The iPod debuted in 2001, and it changed everything. While other devices existed that let you carry around your MP3 collection, the iPod quickly became ubiquitous for the ease with which you could buy songs and add them to the device. - Protocol
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense granted special permission for the male musicians to leave the country, calculating that the world will be more motivated to protect Ukraine if it sees its culture as something precious and worth saving. - The World
The "da Vinci" Stradivarius violin, made in 1714, is also called the "ex-Seidel" after former owner Toscha Seidel, who gave Albert Einstein lessons and played (in addition to concerts and recordings) on many film soundtracks, possibly including The Wizard of Oz. - Smithsonian Magazine
"Chacon, 44, a member of the Navajo Nation who lives in Albuquerque, set out to use the sounds of the organ, accompanied by winds, strings and percussion, to explore themes of power and oppression." - The New York Times
