"The company is liable for few of the major criticisms levied at the opera world, with varying degrees of justification, by politicians and their quangos. And yet … the company has been bullied into an acquiescent silence concerning its forced transformation into a shadow of its former self." - Classical Music (UK)
"Further, with the news of Sharon’s extended stay (as artistic director) in Detroit (through 2028), the company announced overarching themes for its next three programming seasons: America, faith and sustainability." - Detroit Free Press
This month, with the release of a new album of live recordings, fresh material has been added to the ongoing debates about Armstrong's contradictions. - BBC
Cara Kizer, the horn player who was denied tenure after reporting an alleged rape by associate principal trumpet Matthew Muckey, says now-former CEO Gary Ginstling was the only orchestra executive ever to reach out to her since the 2010 incident. And there's a chance she could return to the Philharmonic. - Vulture (MSN)
While the conductor issued a subsequent statement maintaining that he had resigned, the announcement by the board said it had "made the decision that Sir John Eliot Gardiner, founder of the Monteverdi Choir, the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, will not be returning to the organisation." - The Guardian
Salonen’s anticipated departure casts a long shadow over the Symphony amidst a furor of concerns about leadership, transparency and board decisions. - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
According to the Boston Symphony, the orchestra gave 146 world premieres during his tenure, as well as another 86 U.S. premieres and many, many more performances of recent pieces he thought deserving of an audience. He led more than 300 works written by Americans. To those in his favor, he was a hero. - The New York Times
"'The Taliban tried to silence us,' said Ahmad Sarmast, the director of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, in his new office in Braga," where he and his students were eventually settled after escaping the radical fundamentalist takeover of their homeland. "'But we’re much stronger and much louder than yesterday.'" - The Guardian
"Barely a decade has passed since (Rieko) Hirosawa started learning goze uta (blind women’s songs) – a genre of music spanning four centuries that most Japanese people have probably never heard. That she now plays with the composure of a veteran is remarkable …: not a single goze uta musical score exists." - The Guardian
I want to suggest some parallels between this 18th-century musical lingua franca and a familiar device from another medium: modern realist prose, which emerged through the 17th and 18th centuries – just when these musical conventions took shape. - Aeon
"Consider it the orchestral equivalent of someone who's ready to give up on romance suddenly finding the perfect partner. After claiming for several seasons that it is transitioning toward becoming a conductor-less orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra has named its newest artistic partner, and he's a conductor." - The Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
Publicly backing charity causes on both an intermittent and regular basis earned musicians more likes, shares and comments. These artists also increased music sales, whether they sent these messages occasionally or constantly. - The Conversation
“What is becoming clear now is that the coming war is not really one between human and machine creativity; the two will forever be incommensurable. Rather, it is a struggle over how art and human labor are valued—and who has the power to make that appraisal.” - The Atlantic (MSN)
“Serenading an audience fresh from four days of divisive rhetoric, immigrant bashing and attacks on LGBTQ people with music from a sonic icon of Europe’s post-World War II quest for peace and dignity was either brilliant in its perversity or perversely hypocritical.” - Washington Post
When the Russians might bomb you out at any second, what’s the point, really? “People need some joy in their lives, even through these hard times.” - BBC
