In order to begin to reclaim orchestral music of the 20th century, John Mauceri poses the following question: “If we put aside the unquestioned priority given to the avant-garde, the next wave, and the constant re-experimentation that gets so much intellectual attention, what does the remainder look like?” - LA Review of Books
Two hours south of London, Glyndebourne is the oldest and most famous of the summer opera festivals at the historic country homes of the nobility, but it's not the only one. Among the newest (its current incarnation opened in 2017) and best is Grange Park Opera. - The New York Times
Boston is losing an essential purveyor of invigorating new music — after 51 years, 109 commissions, 20 recordings, and 243 world premieres. Until now, BMV has stood as the country’s oldest professional ensemble dedicated to contemporary music. - Boston Globe
For the artists and fans who experienced it, Lilith Fair felt revolutionary. It's success upended concert industry norms and created a new place where female artistry could evolve and flourish. - NPR
"Some groups decided to skip it, arguing that its bellicose themes would be offensive during wartime. Others, eager to show solidarity with Ukraine, added renditions of the Ukrainian national anthem to their programs to counter the overture's exaltation of czarist Russia. Still others are reworking it." - The New York Times
Administrators said the Conservatory had gone from 550 students in pre-pandemic years to 300 last year, to a projection of less than 100 students next year. This drop in enrollment was one of several factors that made the institution “no longer financially viable nor sustainable.” - La Scena Musicale
Faced with the challenges of simply surviving as a small independent company post-pandemic, PFO — noting that there's more grant money available for educational endeavors than for basic production and performance — will focus on its Young Artist Program. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"I’m sure the Met is thought of as a conservative institution in some quarters, I believe this is no time to be conservative. I don’t think we are thought of as conservative any longer. I think over the period of time that I’ve been here, things have changed dramatically." - Van
Boris's deputy, Dominic Raab, took a potshot at Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner (a longtime union rep proud of her working-class roots) for going to posh Glyndebourne while railway workers were striking. Rayner (who paid all of £62 for her ticket) had a couple of choice replies. - Classic FM (UK)
Large cast-metal bells like the ten at the Paris cathedral (they survived the 2019 fire) emit sounds all the time: when they're not actively ringing, they vibrate in sympathy with the various sounds around them. Bill Santana has recorded those vibrations and fashioned them into a sound installation. - Smithsonian Magazine
In this respect, the orchestral world is like a throwback to the postwar employment landscape, when it was not uncommon to spend your entire career in a single job, or at least working for a single company. - San Francisco Chronicle
Mark Swed: "New York, London, Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam happen to be historically vibrant centers of new music. ... But new music hasn't in those cities, as here, penetrated every pore of the classical music scene." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
Singers of Western opera (Anthony Roth Costanzo), Cantonese opera (Pui Yan Li), and Carnatic (South Indian classical) music (Ganavya Doraiswamy) demonstrate what they do to warm up and exercise their voices and how their particular exercise help them. - Smithsonian Magazine
But it's not directly because of COVID - it's more that "dozens of record-pressing factories have been built to try to meet demand in North America — and it's still not enough." - St. Louis Post-Dispatch (AP)
