The ensemble’s playing, across all instrumental choirs, sounds richer and more flexible than it did before his tenure. So what Mr. Dudamel stands to inherit largely bears Mr. van Zweden’s stamp. - The Wall Street Journal
Principal percussionist Josh Jones was told over and over that his audition was the best people had ever heard, and he regularly got high praise from the music director. Two years later, he was told his organizational skills were lacking and denied tenure. Was this really about race? - The Washington Post (MSN)
Unheard performances by Louis Armstrong at the BBC in 1968, regarded by Armstrong aficionados as some of the jazz legend’s greatest work, are to finally be released. - The Guardian
The exact comments that triggered the investigation have not been disclosed, nor has the reasoning for the musicians’ removal from the orchestra – including if that reasoning was directly related to the initial comments. - The Globe & Mail
The accusations against the 52-year-old Frenchman — currently music director of the orchestra and opera in Cologne as well as founder/director of the widely-hailed period-instrument orchestra Les Siècles — were revealed by Le Canard enchaîné, a magazine famous for both satire and serious investigations. - Van
Jonathan Tunick began his career in the 1960s, when Broadway pit bands were big, and orchestrated all of Sondheim's Broadway shows of the '70s. For the Sondheim revivals of the '90s, he reworked his arrangements for bands 50% to 80% smaller. Now he's building one of those back up again. - Playbill
Marking the milestone of 50 years of performing at the Sydney Opera House in 2023, OA presented 30 productions: 14 operas, 13 concerts and recitals, and three musicals. Total box office revenue was just over $65.7m, sharply down from the previous year’s $79.8m. - Limelight
"In a speech following a Cabinet meeting, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan described participants at the contest as the 'Trojan horses of social corruption' and said his government was right to keep Turkey out of the pan-European pop competition since 2012." - AP
Pursuing an aesthetic guided as much by John Coltrane as by John Cage, Roulette became a crucial laboratory for the downtown-music scene, providing artists like John Zorn, Shelley Hirsch, George Lewis, Ikue Mori and many more with space, resources and recorded documentation of their work. - The New York Times
If giving people money encourages them to create, then surely giving them more money would encourage them to create more music, right? The answer is actually no. Throughout music history, copyright’s incentive has often been dialed up too high and, counterintuitively, has led to less creativity. - The Hill
Andrew Ousley decided to present his concert series Death of Classical in the crypt of Harlem's Church of the Intercession not only because the acoustics were remarkable, but because so many potential audience members seemed put off by traditional venues. Then he went on to Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery … - The Guardian
2024 will also be known as the true beginning of the end of mega-live music festival culture with the unexciting two weekends of Coachella in Indio, California, the probable finale of Delaware’s Frye Festival, and, after two straight years of cancellation, the Made in America festival in Philadelphia. - The Smart Set
As a composer, Menotti was consigned to the bittersweet status described by Somerset Maugham to characterize his own fiction—“in the first rank of the second rate.” Maugham’s self-deprecating remark is no insult. - Hudson Review
For one reason, “the voice is a powerful and mysterious thing, maybe the most primal creative instrument that human beings possess. We’re drawn to great singers because of the intricacies and capacities of that instrument and its connection to actual, singular people.” Actors can’t fake it. - Slate
