“How is universal music possible? Is not music, like language, born of culture and environment? Is not each musical style a unique expression of place and experience?”

“This program directly accesses the brain via electroencephalogram (EEG) technology, allowing four severely motor-impaired people to create the musical piece in real-time by choosing between four different musical phrases.”

“The decision to turn the Simón Bolívar orchestra pro, in a sense, may have been a miscalculation. For one thing, it raises expectations of excellence. When it was a student ensemble, it was easy to simply root for these inspired young musicians. But the music-making during these three recent programs, though exciting, was uneven, certainly not at the level the orchestra’s current status would call for.”

Researchers found that songs from the first half of this decade were “more likely to refer to a woman’s appearance, to women in tight or revealing clothing, to women as objects, and to women via slang than songs in one or both prior decades.”

“The fact that the Teatro Regio is thriving raises the question: if it can reverse its fortunes despite its somewhat lesser status, what’s to stop other Italian opera houses from doing the same? If nothing else, their name power would attract plenty of sponsors.”