Derek Ash, whose great-grandparents, Sam and Rose Ash, opened the first Sam Ash store in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn in 1924, said the company’s 42 locations could not compete in the era of online shopping. - The New York Times
From the company's opening in 1883 to eight years ago, there were only Sarah Caldwell (1976), Simone Young (1996), Jane Glover (2013), and Susanna Mälkki (2016). From April 19-26, 2024, there were Oksana Lyniv (Turandot), Speranza Scappucci (La Rondine), Marin Alsop (El Niño), and Xian Zhang (Madama Butterfly). - AP
"The orchestral sector and the opera and ballet sectors are facing a funding crisis at the moment, which might mean that the focus is not really on changing the culture but just on survival. But that’s not an excuse." - The Stage
"The suggestion that the 45-year-old Abravanel Hall could be demolished or altered has been floated as Smith Entertainment Group — the company ... that owns the Utah Jazz and the state’s newly acquired National Hockey League franchise — begins planning for an 'entertainment district' adjacent to the teams’ home at Delta Center." - The Salt Lake Tribune
Kyu-Young Kim cited "recent organizational decisions and shifts in priorities" for his decision, though he will continue as concertmaster. Subsequently, the 28 members of the SPCO musicians' union voted unanimously against the orchestra's president/managing director, Jon Limbacher, who has reduced the number of both performances and venues. - Star Tribune (Minneapolis) (MSN)
Sorey takes honors this year after having been a finalist last year for his Monochromatic Light (Afterlife). Adagio, which "moves at a glacial pace, (yet) holds its subject in steady focus," is written for alto saxophone soloist and orchestra and was commissioned by the Lucerne Festival and the Atlanta Symphony. - NPR
At 78 minutes, Cowboy Carter is nearly as long as composer Dmitri Shostakovich’s epic Seventh Symphony (1941) and has structural similarities to symphonic music too. There are clear “movements” within the work in which certain lyrical and musical ideas are grouped together. - The Conversation
At a time when orchestras are eager to connect with a broader swath of their communities, Alsop’s struggle to score a position at the very top of the field attests to the persistent lack of both Americans and women on the country’s most prestigious podiums. - The New York Times
"Music on its own does not stand for anything except itself. The greatness of music, and the Ninth Symphony, lies in the richness of its contrasts. Music never just laughs or cries; it always laughs and cries at the same time. Creating unity out of contradictions — that is Beethoven for me." - The New York Times
The reason conductors have changed is that the musicians they lead have changed. And the reason the musicians they lead have changed is that the societies those musicians inhabit have changed. That doesn’t necessarily render the music-making we experience any less intense or meaningful. - Gramophone
"Matthew Muckey, associate principal trumpet, and Liang Wang, principal oboist of the New York Philharmonic, have filed federal lawsuits against both the orchestra and the musicians’ union Local 802.” Their first appeals worked in 2020, which made the New York Magazine story all the more difficult to read. - Broadway World
The Thekla "started life as a cargo ship transporting timber around the Baltic Sea,” but now it’s had four decades of hosting music - and even becoming a canvas for Banksy. - The Guardian (UK)
For instance, “construction staff at the venue warned others back in February that works were as much as 35 weeks behind schedule.” Thirty-five. Weeks. - BBC
