The Chieftains became bigger stars than the Rolling Stones in 1975, when Stanley Kubrick used their music in the movie Barry Lyndon - and that's when they quit their day jobs to perform Irish folk music full-time. - BBC
In 1999, when musician Dame Hinewehi Mohi sang the national anthem in Maori at the men's Rugby World Cup, she got quite a backlash. Now, "awareness and celebration of Maori music is mirroring a shift in attitudes toward the language across New Zealand." - The New York Times
The delays have hampered many industries, but they are particularly upending classical music, which relies on stars from all over the world to make a circuit of leading concert halls and opera houses. - The New York Times
Theater impresarios quickly recognized them as their ideal audience: the true-blue fans who reliably subscribed to the whole opera season; bought programs, autographed photos; and drummed up the anticipation and conversation that kept theaters in business. - LitHub
Dead musicians will start by giving tours in concert halls, but as the cost of the technology goes down, they will begin performing everywhere. - Ted Gioia
Esperanza Spalding: "You may know who you're writing for, the instrumentation, the length. … But once you actually start populating the spaces with notes and phrases, it changes. You can't know what the shape of something you've never done before is going to be." - San Francisco Chronicle
Here's what to know about Nicholas Britell, Julia Bullock, Claire Chase, Bryce Dessner, Pekka Kuusisto, Nico Muhly, Carol Reiley, and Esperanza Spalding. - San Francisco Chronicle
The stereotype of country music lovers being only Southern and Midwestern conservatives isn't really true — yet. As some industry stars take controversial stands on some issues (e.g., vaccines) and keep silent on others (George Floyd and BLM), some fans are turning away. - MSN (The Washington Post)
Stutzmann, a former contralto from France who's currently principal guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, will start an initial four-year term at the ASO's helm next fall. She'll be the only woman currently serving as music director of a year-round orchestra in the US. - The New York Times
"Renovation is a weak term for this undertaking. … Acousticians scrutinized every block and beam in the auditorium and the architects bent their design to the properties of sound." Justin Davidson looks into what made David Geffen Hall's sound problematic and how it's being fixed. - New York Magazine
That's what they're hoping for in Munich, where the Gasteig has closed for a multiyear renovation. Both the city's orchestras will be performing at the Isarphilharmonie, assembled for only $46 million but custom-designed with (very successful) acoustics by Yasuhisa Toyota. - The New York Times
Oksana Lyniv, the 43-year-old Ukrainian who this summer became the first female conductor at Bayreuth and who last year finished a term leading the orchestra and opera of Graz (Austria's second city), takes over at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna in January. - OperaWire
The campaigns can buy licensing packages from music rights organisations like BMI and ASCAP, that give them legal access to millions of songs. Some, including The Rolling Stones, have opted out of those deals - but many artists are taken by surprise when their music becomes a politician's theme song. - BBC
The researchers found that the most popular songs had a high level of harmonic surprise, including the use of relatively rare chords in verses, for example, instead of just sticking with, say, a standard C major chord progression (C, G, F). The best songs follow up that harmonic surprise with a catchy common chorus. - Ars Technica
Rock musician Dave Grohl speaks for pretty much every performer: "You wake up every day, cross your fingers that they’ll open a door, turn on the lights and we’ll have a ... show. It’s not guaranteed." - Washington Post
