"The students are very fearful about their future - not just of their education and their programme, but also about their life. They do not feel safe in Afghanistan." - BBC
From the first Nocturne ever published (by John Field in 1814), to Chopin and Debussy and Britten, on to Max Richter's "eight-hour lullaby" Sleep, Anna Meredith's Four Tributes To 4am, and Craig Armstrong's new Nocturnes for two pianos, here are suggested soporifics for the stressed-out. - BBC
From William Grant Still, William Dawson, and Florence Price to expatriates working there today, African-American composers whose music has been quickly forgotten here have looked to audiences across the Atlantic, where "they listen to my music instead of looking at me." - The New York Times
With Australia reeling from the Delta strain, major festivals including Splendour and Bluesfest have been cancelled for the second year running, with an estimated 7,000 gigs and live events cancelled each week. - The Guardian
The group, which for decades has been one of the world's most admired of its kind, said in a statement that it will close up shop in 2023, after what will have been 47 years. - Vulture
The company's return to live performance, Verdi's Il trovatore, was to use sets from the Opéra de Monte-Carlo — but they're on a container ship stuck in the giant traffic jam at the Port of Los Angeles. But that won't stop L.A. Opera. - Los Angeles Times
The 68-year-old chief conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra, formerly music director of the Vancouver and Winnipeg Symphonies and Calgary Opera, begins a five-year contract term on next week and fully assumes the music director title in Sept. 2022. - Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Watts’s drumming was unique. He differed from his peers in the rock drumming pantheon, partly due to being a jazz aficionado, a sensibility that he took to the music of the Stones, and also through his self-contained manner. - The Conversation
Aficionados may love Suite for Toy Piano or Sonatas and Interludes, but mostly folks know only the conceptual piece 4'33" or raucous chance-based works like the one for electronics and household appliances (Variations VII) or Roaratorio (don’t even ask). Those folks should hear the Number Pieces. - The Guardian
"The agreement concludes several months of tension over how significant future pay cuts would be for musicians, who went for nearly a year without pay during the pandemic." - The New York Times
The Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition is in crisis after its artistic directors — pianist Bertrand Chamayou, violinist Renaud Capuçon, and La Scala CEO Dominique Meyer — and a large part of its staff have quit, reportedly fed up with mismanagement and money troubles. (in French) - France Musique
Crudely put, it occurs when you don’t have the right conceptual tools for the job. The result is an inability to make sense of what is happening and a resulting tendency to force phenomena into crude, distorting pigeonholes.” - Nightingale Sonata
While a melody can tether you to a song, however, it’s the lyrics that make you want to excavate it. The best songs pull you in beyond their hooky topline. - The Guardian
"The Homecoming Concert felt like a stolen glimpse of that alternate reality : live music again, finally; exuberant crowds with few masks in sight. Fitting, then, that its abrupt, weird ending pulled the audience back into a chaotic, uncertain and disappointing world." - Washington Post
He didn't want to comply with the vaccine mandates of the symphony or the City of San Francisco. Singers say they're sad to see him go, but one added, "Just because one has a differing point of view does not mean it’s equally valid." - San Francisco Chronicle
