Boston music lovers are curious because "the Boston Symphony Orchestra has been quietly searching for its next concertmaster. Whomever they appoint to this coveted chair will hold a tenured position occupied by only three violinists over the course of the last century." - Boston Globe
That's right: Fleetwood Mac's Rumours has been selling well for longer than any Millennial has been alive, and now it's selling more copies on vinyl than Ed Sheeran and just slightly fewer than Adele. What gives? - The Guardian (UK)
Soprano Marlis Peterson: "In the beginning of my career, the singing was most important. ... Then the music became as important as the text, and then came playing the role. And I wouldn’t say it’s 33-33-33. It’s three times 100." - The New York Times
"Ingoma Nshya, … founded by Odile Gakire Katese in 2004, … arose to heal divisions after the 1994 genocide, which left around 800,000 people dead. … Members of Ingoma Nshya also had to overcome cultural stereotypes: Traditionally, drums have been the exclusive preserve of men." - The Christian Science Monitor
Her tenure as the Ravinia Festival's chief conductor began (in theory) in 2020 and will now run at least through 2025. This summer, she'll lead the Chicago Symphony in the first edition of a weekend event called the Breaking Barriers Festival, which "will celebrate diverse artists and leaders." - WFMT (Chicago)
Every time I have an audition, I get sick. I spend hours steaming my vocal cords over a bowl at the kitchen table, gargling mountains of salt, scanning my body for early signs of voicelessness – the tickle in the throat, the pain when I swallow. - Granta
The rocker has sold "Every Breath You Take", "Roxanne", and the rest of his songs to Universal Music for a price believed to be up to $300 million. - The Guardian
He has two more projects to finish for Steven Spielberg, and he says those will be his last movie scores. Not that he's retiring: he'll be doing more conducting in Europe and composing more concert works for the stars who love to perform them. - The New York Times
The bad news is that digital isn’t covering the costs associated with it — not yet, at any rate. The larger problem is that audiences aren’t returning to live concerts in pre-pandemic numbers either, leaving orchestras in a tenuous position. - Ludwig Van
Both works were written in 1970, and both gained acclaim well beyond the tiny circles of new classical music at the time. One of them led to the birth of the Kronos Quartet, perhaps the first group to start making contemporary art music cool again. - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
At its best, Spotify is an elegant tool—a conduit between artist and art and listener. But at its worst, it’s a bad actor in a worse industry that historically treats artists miserably. - The Atlantic
Today, of course, technical perfection is an overriding concern. But there are other aspects of performance practice today, some of which are wonderful but others I find distracting after comparing them to recordings of certain of my favorite musicians of the past. - Nightingale Sonata
"For years now, opera has been in a sort of cocoon-like transition period as it explores new works and ways to move beyond its exclusionary history. Companies large and small around the country are emphasizing newer works and new ways of performing old works." - San Francisco Classical Voice
The recently-departed music director of the Seattle Symphony hasn't been to Glasgow to conduct his other orchestra for nearly two years, and his contract there ends this August. So the BBC Scottish Symphony has gone ahead and announced Dausgaard's successor as chief conductor: Ryan Wigglesworth. - The Scotsman
“Even with the inflated prices, I’m still going to go to gigs because music is what I live for. But working-class people are getting priced out of seeing the musicians they love.” - The Guardian
