"Black composers have been emerging over the past year at a dramatically accelerated pace that's particularly rare amid the normally glacial progression of the classical music world. Young figures such as Valerie Coleman – whose highly appealing Seven O'Clock Shout for the Philadelphia Orchestra was an instant hit – shouldn't be such a surprise, but what about figures from...
"Dialing for dollars may be a skill that some sellers of products and services profitably employ. But when it comes to deepening a level of patron loyalty that would get a major cultural institution out of a pandemically induced shutdown, it’s done more harm than good." - David Rohde
After wresting control of IMG Artists in an internal power struggle, Russian-born tycoon Alexander Shustorovich has kept the agency alive through the pandemic to become the world’s largest manager of classical music talent. - Billboard
Brexit regulations are not great for the LSO, which had 99 tour dates booked in Europe before the pandemic canceled them all. "It’s all so obviously ludicrous, even in the area of haulage regulations. Touring concerts have to be planned in a different way – the truck has to return to England after two venues – we cannot go...
You might this it's Nintendo - the soundtracks to Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong sure can linger in one's brain - but instead it's Roblox, and the music (which took off in popularity with the addition of, you guessed it, TikTok), created the genre robloxcore. "Mostly made by young teenagers, it’s a strain of chaotic, profanity-laden rap that’s...
The tale of Artur Rodzinski is not a charming one, and yet, "arguably no man had more of a hand in turning American orchestras into the technical marvels they became in the mid-20th century — whether through those he led himself, or through the example he set. He jolted up the standards of some of the great ensembles of...
Koester funded his recording company by selling jazz and blues records at his store. He "was a pivotal figure in Chicago and beyond, releasing early efforts by Sun Ra, Anthony Braxton, Jimmy Dawkins, Magic Sam and numerous other jazz and blues musicians. He captured the sound of Chicago’s vibrant blues scene of the 1960s," among many other achievements. -...
Basically, it owns both: Some shows use "a hybrid format, which Spotify calls 'shows with music' or 'music and talk, that allows creators to incorporate full songs from the service’s vast catalog into their podcasts free of charge. (Spotify takes a 30 percent cut of ads set up through the service.) The format gives podcasters easy access to music that would...
 "If reopening the Bowl is like riding a bike," the L.A. Phil president and CEO says, "the organization has swapped out a Tour de France Cannondale for a unicycle." - Los Angeles Times
"Only the males can vibrate a section of their abdomen called the tymbals to make either phaaaaaroah drone sounds or chchchchhwhhhs noise waves, depending on the species. For any mating to happen, though, the females must respond with a quiet but audible flick of their wings, leading the males on to successive sounds only if this flick happens at...
At the beginning of this week it was announced that the conductor (who was, when he was younger, hailed as a new Herbert von Karajan) was not offered a contract renewal at the orchestra and opera house in Dresden. It turns out that his term as music director at Wagner's own opera house in Bayreuth expired on Jan. 1,...
The book’s subtitle, New Adventures in the Western Classical Tradition, makes its soft boundaries clear. As managing director of London’s Barbican Centre, and former director of the Proms, controller of Radio 3 and music critic of the Observer – and therefore a colleague and friend to those of us in the business of classical – Kenyon has heard and...
"Let's set the scene. It's February 28, 1903, and 12 musicians from the Imperial Household Orchestra are seated in front of a gramophone horn in a Tokyo hotel room. The needle slowly lowers onto a spinning blank disc and the session begins. What follows is a recording of the sound of gagaku, the oldest continuously performed orchestral music in...
