"Seventy-four years after it first formed," and 66 years after it closed, "the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra has been revived to support musicians in northern England hit by the pandemic. … The conductor of the re-formed ensemble, Ben Crick, said the lack was 'really strange' given the size of the cities of Leeds, York and Sheffield." - The Guardian
For the second year in a row, the company's critically praised September week of mostly new opera is called off; even as other groups expect to be in the concert hall by then, management feels that opera requires too many people collaborating in too-close quarters to be safe so soon. Meanwhile, says general director David Devan, the company will...
Throughout the pandemic Glyndebourne has been notably agile, putting on outdoor performances last summer and leading the brief UK return to theatres in the autumn. Now, for summer 2021, the only real casualty of the originally planned season is a revival of Barbe & Doucet’s staging of Mozart’s Magic Flute, which, with its huge drop sets and puppets, would...
"The process of making musical instrument is generally out of the public eye, and there's often a mystique about how those particular tools-of-the-trade are created. During some idle hours of the long lockdown, I went deep down the YouTube rabbit hole and discovered scores of fascinating videos capturing all manner of fine artisans — luthiers, brass wranglers, wood turners,...
With support from a wide cast of collaborators, Angry and Katherine McMahon are taking songs from the public domain — a class of creative works whose copyright protections have expired or been otherwise forfeited, making them freely available for public use — and reimagining them for the present moment. - The New York Times
The wildfire-like spread of the coronavirus over a couple of hours of choral singing inside a Washington church was enough to send shockwaves throughout the singing community in California. - KQED
"Black composers have been emerging over the past year at a dramatically accelerated pace that's particularly rare amid the normally glacial progression of the classical music world. Young figures such as Valerie Coleman – whose highly appealing Seven O'Clock Shout for the Philadelphia Orchestra was an instant hit – shouldn't be such a surprise, but what about figures from...
"Dialing for dollars may be a skill that some sellers of products and services profitably employ. But when it comes to deepening a level of patron loyalty that would get a major cultural institution out of a pandemically induced shutdown, it’s done more harm than good." - David Rohde
After wresting control of IMG Artists in an internal power struggle, Russian-born tycoon Alexander Shustorovich has kept the agency alive through the pandemic to become the world’s largest manager of classical music talent. - Billboard
Brexit regulations are not great for the LSO, which had 99 tour dates booked in Europe before the pandemic canceled them all. "It’s all so obviously ludicrous, even in the area of haulage regulations. Touring concerts have to be planned in a different way – the truck has to return to England after two venues – we cannot go...
You might this it's Nintendo - the soundtracks to Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong sure can linger in one's brain - but instead it's Roblox, and the music (which took off in popularity with the addition of, you guessed it, TikTok), created the genre robloxcore. "Mostly made by young teenagers, it’s a strain of chaotic, profanity-laden rap that’s...
The tale of Artur Rodzinski is not a charming one, and yet, "arguably no man had more of a hand in turning American orchestras into the technical marvels they became in the mid-20th century — whether through those he led himself, or through the example he set. He jolted up the standards of some of the great ensembles of...
Koester funded his recording company by selling jazz and blues records at his store. He "was a pivotal figure in Chicago and beyond, releasing early efforts by Sun Ra, Anthony Braxton, Jimmy Dawkins, Magic Sam and numerous other jazz and blues musicians. He captured the sound of Chicago’s vibrant blues scene of the 1960s," among many other achievements. -...
Basically, it owns both: Some shows use "a hybrid format, which Spotify calls 'shows with music' or 'music and talk, that allows creators to incorporate full songs from the service’s vast catalog into their podcasts free of charge. (Spotify takes a 30 percent cut of ads set up through the service.) The format gives podcasters easy access to music that would...
"If reopening the Bowl is like riding a bike," the L.A. Phil president and CEO says, "the organization has swapped out a Tour de France Cannondale for a unicycle." - Los Angeles Times
