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
Rubén Miranda hosts a five-hour radio show that "specializes in the Mexican version of oldies-but-goodies: corridos, boleros, norteñas, trios and duets but especially rancheras — ballads of love and the rural life that old and young Mexicans still sing and listen to on both sides of the border." - Los Angeles Times
Perhaps her fame feels obvious now, but "Franklin's rise to superstardom wasn't easy. When she left the world of gospel music to try to become a mainstream pop star, it meant a move into a segment of the industry that was dominated by men who had very specific assumptions about how a woman should sing – and what she...
Mitchener is "a vocalist (arguably the UK’s boldest operatic voice), movement artist ('dancer' isn’t quite right) and composer whose work cuts across music, theatre, dance, art and research. Her power is in her ability to generate intense collective empathy in a room." - The Guardian (UK)
"The music school's young students, teachers and faculty are staying home — they have reason to fear." The Taliban have banned music, and killed musicians, in the past - and the ANIM featured boys and girls learning music together. - NPR
"In 1966, 1968 – this was a time of liberation. We were all involved in anti-apartheid marches, CND marches, embracing different cultures. It all fed into the music and brought a freedom to it." - The Guardian
San Francisco Opera chief Matthew Shilvock: "The seats have historically been patrons' No. 1 concern for the building. Letters to me. Letters to the box office. Letters to the city. And with some justification. We had springs coming through some of the seats." - The New York Times
