Music writers of 2024 have achieved a remarkable synchrony with consumers, such that, for the first time in living memory, the most popular musicians in the world also happen to be making the best music. And this consensus is doing bad things to the psychology of the otherwise intensely normal people who love them. - Defector
Rushil Ranjan of Orchestral Qawwali Project: "I find it astounding how much (they) can draw from 90 minutes of repertoire with just a three-hour rehearsal. Further, Indian Classical musicians in this country play at the highest standard. The wonderful thing is these musicians have grown up in each other’s orbit." - Classical Music (UK)
I am a jealous opera singer. When I’m in the audience of any opera production, at least once I’ll think to myself, “It could be me up there.” This statement is true: the opera industry is unjust and random. - Van
While he's also angry that the concert started late, the arena was hot, and Madonna was lip-synching, his legal complaint says, "During the performance plaintiff was forced to watch topless women on stage simulating sex acts. Plaintiff felt like he was watching a pornographic film being made." - The Guardian
"When was the last time you passed a worksite and heard their radio playing music that had something to do with their work, or with the rhythm and tempo of their work? Music has become detached—or, to use a Marxist term, alienated—from work and from the worker." - Nautilus
"(The company) has developed trauma trainings, a symposium, and post-performance discussions to help guide people through the heavy subject matter" — a mass shooting at a high school and the unexpected effect the atrocity has on a wedding ten years later. Counselors are available for the cast as well. - San Francisco Classical Voice
Innocence, as the work is called, has been hugely impressing (and depressing) audiences and critics in Europe since its 2021 premiere at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Why will it be even more loaded in the States? Because it's about a school shooting — and its aftereffects 10 years later. - AP
He departs this month after only six seasons, three of those cut short by the COVID pandemic. And, while proud of his work there, he acknowledges his discomfort not only with unfavorable reviews, but with the high-wattage celebrity aura that prominent figures need in New York. - The New York Times
"(He) had admitted arranging sex acts with someone he thought was a teenager, but was in fact an undercover police officer. … On Tuesday, the 70-year-old was given a 14-month prison sentence, suspended for two years." - The Standard (London)
Their dispute stems from SPOT’s controversial decision to reclassify its Premium tiers as ‘bundles’ by combining music and audiobooks, which has resulted in Spotify paying a lower mechanical royalty rate in the US to publishers and songwriters than standalone music subscription services. - Music Business Worldwide
The Galloping Cure, with a story and libretto by Karen Russell (author of the novel Swamplandia!) and Royce Vavrek (possibly America's busiest librettist), will be directed by Tom Morris (who co-directed War Horse) and produced by former ENO chief John Berry, with four major opera houses on board. - The Observer (UK)
"For every dollar the symphony spends, it generates about $4 in the local economy, leading to a total of $125 million in regional impact for (FY2023-24). Plus, the symphony, which operates with a budget of about $33 million, helps sustain about 1,900 jobs in the region annually." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Live Nation is essentially a monopoly, the government argues. Its complaint notes the concert giant directly manages more than 400 musical artists, controls around 60 percent of concert promotions at major concert venues across the country, and owns or controls more than 265 concert venues in North America - Washington Post
