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MUSIC

Gary Graffman And Jennifer Higdon Leave Curtis Institute Faculty

Graffman, now 92 and formerly the music school's director and president, had been its leading piano teacher, with Yuja Wang and Lang Lang among his students. Higdon, a Pulitzer- and Grammy-winning composer, cited musical and family commitments for her departure. - The Philadelphia Inquirer

Is There Too Much Music?

he source of discovery is the last 70 years of music. It's all brand new, right now. So you're competing with every song that has ever come out." -BBC

How To Nurture A Classical Music Community During A Pandemic

For violinist Jennifer Koh, the answer crystallized early in 2020: Hire composers, and get on Instagram. - NPR

The Outdoor Concerts In Ireland Where Musicians Arrive By Canal And Barge

Sounds gloriously picturesque: "There’s a tall lamp standing on the stone quayside at a lock in rural Co Carlow on a warm and clear evening. Beside it, a cream and green barge is moored, with a mixing desk on the bow and a few cables trailing on to the bank up towards the lamp." - Irish Times

The Opera Tenor Who Likes To Take His Audience To The Edge

Australian tenor Stuart Skelton on Wagner: "Singers are like athletes doing long-distance competitions. You get to the point where you’ve reached your physical limits. You hit the wall. Then it’s a mental game of trying to dig deep into your technical resources to keep going." - The Observer (UK)

How Safe Are Music Concerts?

Ask Sweden. But also, ask Delta. And keep up the safe behavior: "From an infection prevention standpoint, it is still the safest to gather outside, masked and physically distanced. The other important aspect is vaccination. When vaccinated, and wearing a mask, it is safer to gather at outdoor events." - Seattle Times

Famed Music School Falls Silent As Taliban Take Afghanistan

"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

Nocturnes — The Best Music To Help With Your Pandemic-Induced Insomnia

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

For Over A Century, Black American Composers Have Gotten Attention In Europe That They Couldn’t Get At Home

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

In Australia: Thousands Of Newly Canceled Gigs And Musicians Calling It Quits

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

Emerson String Quartet Announces Retirement

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

L.A. Opera Builds All Scenery For New Production In Ten Days

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

Bramwell Tovey Named Music Director Of Sarasota Orchestra

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

Why Charlie Watts Was The Engine Behind The Stones

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

Many People Don’t Realize That John Cage Wrote Some Quiet, Very Beautiful Music

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

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