Music

The majority of music students in the US don’t listen to classical or “Western art” music at all, except in classes. For those who teach music theory, questions emerge: “How can we justify our near-exclusive reliance on traditional pedagogy, especially in situations where it isn’t necessary to do so? What biases do we create in our students when we declare Western art music to be mandatory knowledge for anyone pursuing formal studies in music? What biases does this reveal in us?” – New Music Box

Breaking down his award-winning “A Thousand Mountains, a Million Streams” – and hearing from the composer himself: “It’s a challenge to see myself as a vessel, as an imaginative and creative force that has a place in history — so that you create while you preserve at the same time. Today, in a different world, that encompasses the environmental, cultural and spiritual responsibilities an artist has.” – The New York Times

Yannick Nézet-Séguin says that after many years of wanting to conduct the Mass, he decided one day when he was 10 to play-act at conducting Mozart’s Symphony No. 40. That day, everything changed: “At that moment, my fascination with reli​g​ion was transferred to music and the liturgical aspect of the church became the ritual of the concert.” – The New York Times

Can the Recording Academy’s new plan change that? – Los Angeles Times

LA Opera continues to stage traditional and spectacular productions, Long Beach Opera forges ahead in its scrappy and innovative way, San Diego Opera provides yet another outlet for listeners. The market for opera in Southern California may already be saturated, and it may be a settled question: asking for a fully-staffed, active and sustaining professional company in Orange County that consistently delivers top-quality, fully-staged productions before packed and enthusiastic houses? It may be too much. – Voice of Orange County

As the study noted, music is already played in operating theatres as a matter of course by most doctors and nurses — about two-thirds, as it turns out. Participants said that listening to music reduced stress and made them feel more relaxed. Patients also reported that music played before their surgeries reduced stress levels. Almost all the respondents preferred classical music of some kind, with a slight preference for Mozart piano sonatas. Classical music was used in six of the studies, and music of choice in the others. – Ludwig Van

Tenor Zach Finkelstein: “Below I’ll show you four case studies demonstrating that the inability to continue in a performing career and support yourself financially has very little to do with the expenses of running an opera business, although they are onerous. Or your abilities as a performer, although it is a necessary condition to be best-in-class. Success has to do with two major decisions you make when you are most vulnerable and know the least about the business: the amount you pay for your undergraduate and graduate school education, and the cost of living in the city where you build your career.” – The Middle-Class Artist

Since the 2016 Brexit referendum, the UK has suffered a collective breakdown over national identity and our relationship to Europe, and it should perhaps be no surprise to see the 48/52 divide reflected in our musical tastes. – The Guardian

Just a few years ago, he was getting intrigued, often admiring press for his rocker persona, uninhibited commentary, and astonishing technical skills. (Video of his manically flying feet at the pedalboard made him something of a YouTube star.) And he’d spent hundreds of thousands of dollars (and gone into debt) developing his Virtual Touring Organ, the electronic instrument to end all electronic instruments. Then, in 2014, Sony Masterworks released a documentary about him that became, frankly, a disaster. – Van

Kim’s appointment doesn’t just bring a musician of obvious artistry and interpersonal gifts to the company. The hiring of an Asian woman is also a historic advance for diversity, a badly needed development in a field where white men still hold the vast majority of leadership positions. – San Francisco Chronicle

The chamber orchestra is known for its low ticket prices; half go for $15 or less. That’s partly thanks to two programs: With a Netflix-style membership, people can pay just $9 a month to attend unlimited concerts. And, since 2016, children and college students get in for free. About 19.8% of the nonprofit’s income in 2019 was “earned,” a category that includes ticket sales, down from 22.4% last year. About 62.8% of its income came from contributions from people, companies and foundations, up slightly. The other piece of the pie — $1.9 million this year — comes from the SPCO’s endowment. – The Star-Tribune (Mpls)

More Irish singers are being heard in more varied roles than at any other stage in my professional lifetime. Irish works are being taken abroad. The company has been rewarded with international awards and award nominations. – Irish Times

“Even now, 70+ years since John Cage’s seminal Suite for Toy Piano from 1948, the toy piano still feels like Duchamp’s upside-down urinal (Fountain): out of place on stage, it elicits giggles and scoffs, is the star of the show, and at least promises a memorable experience, musical and otherwise.” Yet now there’s an entire concert repertory for the little contraption. – NewMusicBox

Services like Spotify and Apple Music can’t just upload whatever music they’d like. Legal disputes, sample clearance issues — when permission can’t be obtained for the use of part of a song in a new song — and rights-holders withholding music can all get in the way of music being available on your streaming platform of choice. And that can make the music even more difficult and more expensive to get your hands on physically. – The Conversation

Ten years ago the Seattle Symphony was badly broken. Miraculously, a new leadership team emerged, the orchestra chased reinvention and its fortunes soared. Now that leadership has departed and there are big questions about what’s next. – Post Alley

Giuseppe Verdi’s last two operas, the Shakespearean diptych of Otello and Falstaff, together constitute my favorite case study in what happens when a play is made to stand up and sing. Both the source material and the musical adaptations are works of singular beauty and power. To study these operas alongside their sources is to see what is gained and what is lost, what remains intact and what is transformed, when a complex human drama is adapted from speech into song. – New York Review of Books

For the second year, the performance opened with long applause for Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, sitting in the royal box with four government ministers. As last year, the Italian government is struggling, and the long applause was seen as a show of support for Italian institutions, which Mattarella represents in a non-partisan role. – Washington Post (AP)

Orlando, a new opera based on Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, a time-traveling, gender-bending love letter to her aristocratic lover Vita Sackville-West, “is the first opera commissioned from a female composer by the Vienna Opera in its 150 years of existence.” They wanted to get the costumes right, so they commissioned designer Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons, who is a bit busy. She says, “There were 36 main costumes for the principals, plus 106 others for the choruses and other groups. I accepted to do the costumes on condition that … I could use the theme of “Orlando” for the two Paris collections proceeding it.” – The New York Times

“Eun Sun Kim, the South Korean conductor who made a powerful San Francisco Opera debut in June leading Dvořák’s Rusalka, has been named the company’s next music director. She will be just the fourth person to occupy the position in the company’s nearly 100-year history, and the only Asian woman to hold an artistic leadership role with a major North American opera company.” – San Francisco Chronicle

“[The 42-year-old] was dismissed Thursday by two of the world’s most prestigious houses: the Royal Opera in London and New York’s Metropolitan Opera. His firing comes after an investigation by the Royal Opera, which determined that he had demonstrated ‘inappropriate and aggressive behavior‘ during an RO tour of Japan in September.” – NPR

“[Porgy and Bess], which opened the season in September, was scheduled to return on Jan. 8 for seven performances, through Feb. 1. On Thursday, the Met announced it would add three more, on Feb. 4, 12 and 15. Big repertory companies, which plan their crowded schedules years in advance, rarely have the flexibility to add performances to even their most successful shows. But the Met had an unexpected hole in its schedule.” – The New York Times

For some, buying records is no longer about owning the same piece of music as everyone else but owning a version of it that few others have. It reflects a change in contemporary relationships to owning music, says Sevier. “Owning a limited or special edition is doubling down on the closeness you feel to an album or artist. You can’t display your streaming history like a trophy.” – The Guardian

Some of Los Angeles’ selling points need to be reset. The idea of endless summers has shifted in the age of climate change. “It Never Rains in Southern California” has morphed into Bad Religion’s “Los Angeles Is Burning.” The carefree allure of rolling down the Ventura Highway used to be a cool thing to sing about. Now the drive is mostly a bumper-to-bumper slog. – Los Angeles Times

“Lyrics site Genius on Tuesday sued Google and LyricFind for $50 million, alleging they have been misappropriating its transcriptions for years. … [Genius] used a digital watermark to see if other sites were copying its product — and it spelled ‘redhanded’ in Morse code.” – The Hollywood Reporter