ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

MUSIC

Philadelphia Orchestra To Consolidate With Kimmel Center Under New Organization

"Philadelphia Orchestra president and CEO Matías Tarnopolsky will become leader of the new parent company upon finalization of the deal, and Kimmel president and CEO Anne Ewers" — who initiated and championed the deal — "will retire. … While pressures brought on by the pandemic sparked talks toward the move, the benefits of the new structure are independent from...

Is Twitch The Future Of Music Streaming (That Pays)?

Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, attracts an average of 30 million visitors a day, and its users watched more than one trillion minutes of content last year, according to the company. - The New York Times

Has The Jazz Scene Survived The Pandemic?

The tentative return of gigs could not have come soon enough for jazz performers. A 2008 study on the economics of the genre found that 49% of jazz musicians’ income came from live performances. - The Guardian

Why NYC Was Such A Creative Time For Music In The 1980s

“It was still a gritty city, before gentrification really took over. Artists could afford to live in the city – they didn’t have to scramble to make rent, so they could concentrate on their work. You could afford to experiment.” - The Guardian

Fire Destroys One Of US’s Leading Organ Makers

Sparks from a malfunctioning fan appear to have ignited sawdust at the factory of Dobson Pipe Organ Builders in Lake City, Iowa on Tuesday afternoon, starting a fire that consumed almost everything but part of the exterior walls. Among the instruments Dobson is best known for are the organs at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, the Cathedral of Our...

Opera Australia Lost A Big Pile Of Money Last Year

"Opera Australia has posted a $7.1 million trading deficit for the year ended December 2020, or almost $6.5 million after bequests are included. … The company received $11.4 million in 'absolutely critical' JobKeeper subsidies in 2020. 'If we hadn't had that $11.4 million, we would have been potentially looking at a $20 million trading loss, and that would have...

Why This SF Symphony Cellist Is Eager To Perform In-Person Again

Whether you’re singing along with “Messiah” or rocking with Metallica, the common auditory input of the rhythm and melody, plus the visual input of musicians and conductor, causes our brains to “entrain” or synchronize to this shared sensory awareness. - San Francisco Chronicle

New Study: What Accounts For The Lack Of Women In Jazz?

Among audiences, the government survey data showed that more men than women report attending jazz concerts, and that the gap is larger for jazz than for rock. - The Conversation

‘Midcentury Modern’ Was A Thing In American Classical Music, Too

"Composers from that same time period, say, the '30s to the '60s — the likes of Walter Piston, Roy Harris, Elliott Carter, George Perle, Harold Shapero, Roger Sessions, and others neglected for decades by America's musical institutions — have been experiencing an uptick in interest of late, particularly at summer festivals and in recording projects." - San Francisco Classical...

Marin Alsop Is Proud Of Her Baltimore Symphony Tenure — And Frustrated, Too

"If I had it to do all over again, I would not have tried so hard to move the BSO out of the Ivory Tower. Sometimes you have to say, 'OK, this is not where people want to go. Try to enjoy the orchestra and community as much as you can.' … I didn't have problems with any one...

LA Chamber Orchestra’s Jaime Martín Named Chief Conductor Of Melbourne Symphony

It's taken Australia's oldest orchestra five years to find a successor to Andrew Davis, whose tenure ended in 2019, but they've now settled on this Spanish-born, London-based flutist-turned-conductor. Martín is also chief conductor of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin, and he recently extended his contract as the LACO's music director to 2027. - Limelight (Australia)

Josquin Desprez Was Europe’s First Superstar Composer — But We’re Still Not Sure Which Pieces Were Really His

The problem is that, as one wag put it a few years after the composer's demise, "Now that Josquin is dead, he is putting out more works than when he was still alive" — the height of his fame, in the decades after 1500, coincided with the birth of music printing and the utter lack of copyright law, and...

New Report: Music Industry Has A Diversity Problem

While the report’s tone and conclusions are unambiguous — in just one telling example, across 70 major and independent music companies, just 13.9% of top executives across were from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, 4.2% were Black, and 13.9% were women — its wording is polite. - Variety

Sony Writes Off Artists’ Debts

This means that groups and single artists who were still trying to pay back debt - and thus were not eligible for royalties - can now start earning money from streaming. - BBC

Juilliard Students Lead Music, Dance-Filled Protests Over Tuition Hikes

After a planned protest in one of the school's buildings, the students "were barred from the Diamond building, and the school told them that it was investigating an incident that included reported violations 'pertaining to community safety.' On Thursday, about 20 students continued their tuition protest on the sidewalk outside, waving placards and accusing the school of using heavy-handed...

Our Free Newsletter

Join our 30,000 subscribers

Latest

Don't Miss

function my_excerpt_length($length){ return 200; } add_filter('excerpt_length', 'my_excerpt_length');