What explains our love of throwback sounds right now? Are we comfort-listening through hard times? Or is the industry just finally able to see (and monetize) a type of listening we’ve always done? - The Atlantic
George E. Lewis, a professor of music at Columbia University known for his groundbreaking work in electronics, will take the helm as artistic director later this month. Lewis, 69, a trombonist and frequent collaborator with the ensemble, will be the first Black leader in its 21-year history. - The New York Times
In a video on social media, he said there was now a culture "where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement will be cheaper than taking it to court, even if there's no basis for the claim". - BBC
On top of COVID troubles, whoever runs ENO faces the perennial problems of precarious state funding and being the underdog company in London. Annilese Miskimmon is greeting these issues, and hoping to pull in new viewers, with Poul Ruders's adaptation of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. - The New York Times
"The thing that always struck me about the symphony is that you have the sense that the listeners are enduring the first three movements in order to get to the choir." - Baltimore Magazine
One can be forgiven for failing to see any common threads between these two seemingly divergent entities. However, a closer look reveals evidence to the contrary. - WQXR
"There are fears Wales could lose its brass band tradition after player numbers plummeted during the pandemic. Bands from across the country said they had lost members, with fewer younger players joining." - BBC
Those scrappy days of shoestring budgets and ad hoc responsibilities — with everyone, including the members of the quartet, pitching in as needed — are now long past. Kronos has become a new-music juggernaut, with a catalog of more than 1,000 commission works and a discography including more than 60 items. - San Francisco Chronicle
These modern bastardizations have eighteenth- and nineteenth-century precedent. Singers notoriously inserted their preferred arias into opera scores, however unrelated to the opera at hand. - City Journal
"Hanson, 48, who already has led two orchestras larger than the BSO" — the San Francisco and Houston Symphonies — "will begin his new job April 21. He succeeds Peter Kjome, who announced his resignation as the BSO's president and CEO in the spring of 2021." - The Baltimore Sun
The Philadelphia Orchestra's release of Price's First and Third Symphonies took Best Orchestral Performance, while Dudamel's Mahler Eighth from Los Angeles won Best Choral Performance and Philip Glass's Akhnaten Best Opera Performance. Among other winners: Jennifer Koh, Emanuel Ax & Yo-Yo Ma, Caroline Shaw's Narrow Sea. - San Francisco Classical Voice
In a long-expected move, Woolfe, who became the Times's classical music editor in 2015, succeeds Anthony Tommasini, who retired as chief classical critic last year. (That Woolfe's title does not include "chief" would seem to indicate that the Times doesn't plan to hire another staff critic.) - The New York Times
The earliest, putty-colored cylinders deteriorate after only a few dozen listens if played on the Edison machines; they crack if you hold them too long in your hand. And because the wax tubes themselves were unlabeled, many of them remain mysteries. - NPR
So he is a traditionalist choice to win—but a traditionalist choice for an institution that has been changing. Following years of accusations about gender and racial bias—including from the Recording Academy’s own ousted leader—the Grammys have lately been on a reform mission. - The Atlantic
