[contextly_auto_sidebar id="YEJkw3attbuMW2eNDMPgWuIa2CwKifkG"] [The story so far: Julia Villagra, 30 years old, might be a reasonably typical New Yorker of her generation. As she said in her first post, "My Spotify playlists are a mishmash of Jay-Z, Ravel, Dirty Projectors, Lorde, Britten, M.I.A, Macklemore, Beethoven, Brahms, Daft Punk, and the Gotan Project." [But note the classical items. This is one way that Julia isn't so typical. She has a degree in classical vocal performance from Boston University. When she decided she wanted to draw … [Read more...]

From Greg:  Back in November, I spoke at a conference at Boston University on the future of classical music, an ambitious project of BU's music school, and its dean, Benjamin Juarez. I gave opening and closing keynote talks, a great honor.  But — without meaning to put myself or the conference down — I've given keynote talks before. What stood out for me, over this weekend, was (as is so often true at conferences) the people I met. When I gave a presentation last June at the League of American Orchestras annual conference, I met Virginia … [Read more...]