The Orquesta Sinfónica Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho in Caracas is already the country's least conventional symphonic ensemble: they frequently perform in the barrios and regularly explore fusion with Afro-Caribbean music. Their most recent project, Sinfonía Desordenada (Disorderly Symphony), turned out to be, er, aptly named. - National Geographic
Let’s call them “bizart-house movies,” for lack of a better term — unapologetically odd and original creations, led by a gifted group of rebel auteurs who don’t kowtow to popular expectations. - Variety
A majority (69%) of orchestras are planning a hybrid (digital and in-person) season for 2021-22. Once halls return to full capacity audiences, 45.9% of orchestras plan to continue some of the digital activity they’re doing... La Scena Musicale
A digital drug for anyone with a phone, and especially young people, the TikTok app uses random reinforcement — similar to a slot machine on the Las Vegas strip — to keep users scrolling. It has changed the way Americans tell and view stories. - Salon
In her own telephone conversation with The Daily Beast, Nina Totenberg—a towering presence at NPR who has been there since 1975—responded to NPR's public editor Kelly McBride, the justices, and general criticism of her story. - The Daily Beast
Reviewers are faced with essays that are additions to their already heavy workloads that could have used more time. And the inclination to take one’s frustrations out on the author is just too great. - 3 Quarks Daily
Many have begun fleeing Instagram... They expressed skepticism that Meta, a social-media behemoth, could develop, launch and manage a marketplace where they weren’t looking over their shoulders. - Forbes
Anna von Hausswolff can joke about it, but enraged demonstrators have actually shut down concerts of hers. All because a music blogger called her "the high priestess (of) satanic harmonies" and, in one track recorded 13 years ago, she sang "I made love with the devil." - The New York Times
“Things like disease, disability, death, the processes of scientific experimentation and discovery, they don’t happen in a vacuum. They take place in the context of human experience — so these things are always in discourse with each other." - Hyperallergic
"You can't handle the truth!" or "We tell ourselves stories in order to live." "Celebrity sentences," Nicola Sayers dubs them. "There are countless brilliant sentences that never make it to celebrity status. So what's the formula? What elevates certain sentences above the others?" - 3 Quarks Daily
Following an investigation lasting more than three years, the final report concluded that the cause of the second blaze remained "undetermined". It said this was due to extensive damage and the destruction of evidence. - BBC
Says dancer/choreographer JaQuel Knight, who founded Knight Choreography and Music Publishing Inc. to address the issue, "Over the past year and a half, so many of the biggest records were directly tied to TikTok dances. Those songs made millions. And the creators of the dances received zero." - Dance Magazine
“Touring, when we can perform, is going great — the audiences are showing up, and the audiences are enthusiastic. Touring is not going great when Covid sweeps through our company, which has happened to every one of our tours.” - The New York Times
Now that the movies being showcased at festivals might end up spending their opening weekend screening on your iPhone anyway, does it matter if the festivals that launched them happened on a bunch of laptops? - Wired
