TikTok has dramatically changed how songs, pop in particular, get made. "In some cases, performers are trying out ideas on the platform to see if they catch on. In other cases, major labels are signing new artists with suddenly viral hits and adding superstars to remixes in hopes of boosting their profile." - The New York Times
So do most awards - and that excludes nonbinary, extraordinarily popular singer Sam Smith. The official line: "The Brits are committed to evolving the show and the gendered categories are very much under review. But any changes made to be more inclusive need to be just that - if a change unintentionally leads to less inclusion then it risks...
Representation is a problem across the board in the Grammys, including - weirdly, wildly - the writing of liner notes (which is an actual Grammy), a category women have won three times since the inception of the award in 1964. But women are still writing liner notes: "The ability to take an intricate snapshot of a particular recording and...
The head of the Recording Academy, perhaps even downplaying the disastrous pandemic for most musicians: "This has been an extraordinarily challenging year for everyone and the music world in particular." - Los Angeles Times
The Real Music Wages Database is an anonymous, crowd-sourced list of real wage transactions reported by musicians. We track how much someone has been paid, who paid them, and how many hours of work it involved. The more entries are added to the spreadsheet, the more discernable a true economic snapshot of the new music industry is visible. -...
Verdi’s 1871 tragedy, a love story set in a time of war between ancient Egypt and Ethiopia, is often given the treatment of a “Cleopatra”-like costume drama. But de Beer, who will become the director of the Vienna Volksoper next year, has offered a version so unusual that its Aida, the soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, pleaded on Instagram before opening...
"Clearly, the 'every track play pays the same' model (known in the jargon as 'platform-centric') has the potential to seriously damage classical music and any other minority genre or one not thought appropriate for background listening. An alternative payment model has been proposed and has been trialled by French platform Deezer: the 'user-centric' model." - Bachtrack
With donated land, instruments and crowd-sourced funding, Mahani Teave, along with her partner Enrique Icka, a construction engineer, broke ground on their Toki School of Music in 2014. From the start, they envisioned a sustainable, yet stylish building – "an earth ship in the shape of an eight-petaled flower." - NPR
Esther Nelson added a fourth live performance to the BLO’s season, using the extra production to highlight contemporary works by both up-and-coming as well as established composers. Through the "Opera Annex" initiative, the BLO brought opera out of the traditional theater space and into the world, holding productions inside a temple in Brookline, the JFK Library and Museum in...
"Today, in London’s seven top orchestras, women only account for 3% of all the timpani and percussion positions. In fact, there are more men called David with jobs in percussion than there are women." - The Guardian
The opera's wardrobe team crafted the mask from materials used in making its corsets -- with a billowy shape aimed at allowing ample room for singers to belt out song, while tightly sealing in aerosols that could potentially spread the virus. - NBC
"It seems like a good time, as the pandemic continues to block live performances in all but a few socially distanced, outdoor shows, to revisit the topic of performing for the camera. … Their responses range from poetic to practical to pensive to feeling trapped-in-a-digital-prison and beyond, … the musicians all say their professional careers now and forever...
"A great maestro, through the sheer force of his or her spiritual presence, can inspire musicians to play not with our hands but with our hearts." Barbara Bogatin, longtime cellist at the San Francisco Symphony and former principal in the Milwaukee and New Jersey Symphonies, explains how one little explanation from the likes of Kurt Masur or Esa-Pekka Salonen...
To cope with the huge income shortfall caused by the pandemic, South Carolina's largest performing arts organization will let go of conductor Ken Lam after next season; concertmaster and principal pops conductor Yuriy Bekker will become the orchestra's artistic director, with guest conductors being engaged for core classical concerts. - The Post and Courier (Charleston)
