It’s not pretty. Yet organizers persist. Why? "When you’re in the same room as the artist, when you feel the music move through your body, when you see the emotion on their face and hear their story — that creates a bond. … It counters propaganda. It softens xenophobia.” - Seattle Times
“I’ll always have my guitar, my inseparable companion,” said the 83-year-old. “But my relationship with it will be more open, freer. It’s simpler when you don’t have as many commitments. I’ll have much more time to, eventually, get back to composing and maybe recording albums.” - The New York Times
Phil Spector had famously created a figurative wall of sound by layering instruments and orchestral sweeps. But the Dead’s wall was essentially a behemoth sound system, a hulking electrical mess of amps, speakers, wires—like the menacing heavy-metal rig in Mad Max: Fury Road, but far larger, louder, and, perhaps, more ludicrous. - The Atlantic
Des Moines Metro Opera performs in a house with only 476 seats, yet it has a track record of successfully staging such large-scale works as Wagner’s Flying Dutchman, Strauss’s Elektra and Britten’s Peter Grimes. Audiences are thrilled with the results. - The New York Times
The 62-year-old Briton — currently music director of the Tokyo Symphony and Geneva’s Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and formerly at the helm of the Bamberg Symphony, the orchestra and opera company in Lucerne, and Paris’s Ensemble Intercontemporain — succeeds Josep Pons at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in 2026. - Moto Perpetuo
After something of a boom year in 2023, revenue growth slowed to 4.3% in 2024. In fact, 2024 continued an oscillating growth pattern we have seen all decade, with strong growth years followed by weaker ones. - Music Industry Blog
The UMG executive emphasized that “tech collaboration with the creative community, respecting the value of artists’ work and harnessing their innovation has produced enormous cultural and economic benefit.” - Music Business Worldwide
Known informally as the Art Alliance building, the mansion on Rittenhouse Square was one of the University of the Arts properties auctioned off last year following the school’s bankruptcy; Curtis finalized its purchase in January. A pre-dawn fire blazed throughout the three-story building, the extent of damage is still unclear. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
The founder, director, and low bass of the much-admired vocal sextet is already principal guest conductor of the BBC Singers, Britain’s only full-time professional choir. He succeeds current chief conductor Sofi Jeannin, whose term ends next summer. - BBC Music Magazine
Wagner expected his works to be translated into French when they were performed in France. Yet for purists, the idea of singing a famous Italian aria in what many considered the ugly (for singing) English language was an anathema. - Nightingale Sonata
“Operagoers have been warned they will be banned from entering Milan’s prestigious La Scala theatre if they turn up wearing shorts, tank tops or flip-flops. Kimonos, however, are acceptable.” - The Guardian
For the first time since Putin ordered Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the famously pro-Putin conductor is performing in Western Europe, on July 27 at a festival near Naples. This festival is supported by regional taxpayers and the EU, so loud objections to Gergiev’s engagement are being raised. - Moto Perpetuo
If the industrial, mechanical-reproduction era was a historical anomaly for musicians—as the “recording artist” emerged as a new way of making a living—perhaps so, too, were the aggressive, confrontational labor unions of the same period a temporary departure from the preindustrial guilds and associations focused on mutual aid and credentialing. - The Baffler
They “issued Stravinsky a warning, claiming there was a law against tampering with the national anthem. (They were misreading the statute.) Grudgingly, Stravinsky pulled it from the bill.” - Open Culture
