As the value of Lebanese money fell, the 100 or so musicians in the orchestra watched the value of their pay fall from $3,000 to around $200. Most foreign musicians left the orchestra and the country. It is not clear how long the orchestra can keep going. - Voice of America
Venues for punk shows were numerous, encompassing everything from pet grooming stores to nonprofit community centers. The small-venue approach lent itself to the formation of a self-regulating community. - Slate
"Spain's announcement means UK musicians and their crew will no longer need visas for engagements of less than 90 days, a change in policy that came after months of lobbying from trade groups on both sides." - The Guardian
Why are generation after generation of young people drawn to these places where they’re pushed, jostled, pummeled or worse? Why do they run into a seething crowd? - The New York Times
The bass-baritone has made programming an art in itself, building evenings around a sermon or a Langston Hughes poem, slipping from Bach to jazz to Julius Eastman to plantation chant to R&B to Caroline Shaw. And, writes Alex Ross, he makes all of it matter. - The New Yorker
At year’s end, Tony will step down as The Times’s chief classical music critic. It is a position he has held since 2000, giving him the longest tenure in the role since Olin Downes. - The New York Times
And the puppets; don't forget the puppets. Instead of a quiet recital hall, "Schubert’s songs grew from entertaining evenings of spontaneous, alcohol-fuelled interaction, with dressing up, games and stories." - The Guardian (UK)
Claddagh Records, founded in the '50s to preserve Irish musical heritage, fell on hard times in the 2000s. But now a deal with Universal Music Ireland has changed its trajectory. - Irish Times
"The musicians, all connected to the country’s network of youth orchestras, performed a roughly 10-minute Tchaikovsky piece outdoors under the watchful eyes of independent supervisors with the job of verifying that more than 8,097 instruments were playing simultaneously." - Washington Post (AP)
From Google Doodle. Hensel "composed more than 450 pieces of music, most of which show a deep reverence for Johann Sebastian Bach. But she struggled with the societal constraints on the roles of women at the time and was overshadowed by her more famous brother." - CNET
Musician Melanie Charles wants to revitalize knowledge of, for instance, Betty Carter - whose "improvisational approach to singing that influenced generations." She was one of the first jazz artists with her own label, founded a jazz program at BAM, and brought up countless musicians. - Washington Post
Deaths are rare, but they're hardly unknown; however, music promoters like Live Nation, for instance, say that the rarity "proves that most shows are perfectly safe." - The New York Times
Joshua Kosman: How long can an artistic culture survive and thrive on the work of the same circumscribed set of a dozen or so dead white European males? - San Francisco Chronicle
"After a two-year stalemate that sparked a feud with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra," — which cancelled several concerts this fall because of the standoff — "Strathmore has reached a tentative agreement with its unionized box office staff that extends their contract through June 2024." - MSN (The Washington Post)
David Finckel: "People have a hard time sitting still. Attention spans are getting shorter. The only thing this doesn’t change is the length of a Schubert trio. You can’t make it shorter, and you can’t play it faster. You can’t cut sections out of it." - The New York Times
