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MUSIC

The UK’s ‘Best Music Venue In The World’ Used To Be A Secret

Performing in a former cloth trading hall in West Yorkshire, one musician said, was "like performing in an Italian piazza." - BBC

Tod Machover On How AI Will Change Music

“I think the other time when things moved really quickly was 1984,” he says—the year when the personal computer came out. Yet he sees this moment as distinct. “What’s going on in A.I. is like a major, major difference, conceptually, in how we think about music and who can make it.” - Chamber Music America

We Live In A Visual World: So More Classical Concerts Are Going Multimedia

"Organizations have been presenting more concerts that integrate other disciplines, use multimedia elements and special lighting, feature music by living composers, touch on social issues and mix it up with other musical genres." - MSN (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Composer György Kurtág At 97

"The concentrated brevity of Kurtág's output means that his entire published works could be heard in approximately 10 hours. He has a reputation for being uncompromising and difficult, but musicians who follow him, disciple-like, rhapsodise about his versatility, as well as the challenges he sets them." - The Guardian

The Concert Archive Treasures Of Pasadena’s Ambassador Auditorium, Hidden In Plain Sight

“The challenge has been to transfer it all. I’d say we’ve preserved at least 100 performances. And we’re certainly not done. We are well aware that it is a remarkable collection and a historic documentation of that period. That’s why it’s one of our high priorities.” - San Francisco Classical Voice

Beautiful, Complex, Even Dangerous — The Recorder, Perhaps The Most Underrated Instrument

So many people cringe at the memory of the cheap little plastic instruments played by grade-schoolers. But a wooden recorder in the hands of a pro can be enchanting and even thrilling, and there's now music written for it in virtually every genre, including jazz, rock and pop. - The Guardian

Opera News Magazine To Cease Publication As Metropolitan Opera Guild Shuts Down

The Guild, founded in 1935 to support the Met, has been suffering with financial troubles similar to those faced by many arts nonprofits in recent years. Its education programs will be taken over by the Met itself, while Opera News will become a foldout section of Britain's Opera magazine. - AP

Opera Philadelphia Cuts Budget And Staff, And Its Director Will Step Down

The company has cut this year's budget by about 20% and eliminated six positions. One of this season's productions, Joseph Bologne's The Anonymous Lover, is postponed to 2024-25, the Opera Philadelphia Channel (paid streaming) will be shuttered, and President David Devan will depart next summer. - The Philadelphia Inquirer

Music Labels Sue Internet Archive Over Giving Access To Historic Recordings

The labels' lawsuit filed in a federal court in Manhattan said the Archive's "Great 78 Project" functions as an "illegal record store" for songs by musicians including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis and Billie Holiday. - Reuters

What’s Ailing University Music Programs: Study Of The Art Form

The progressive marginalisation of the study of music theory and analysis, relentlessly dismissed as “formalism”, deprives music departments of the one thing, other than practical work, that is not undertaken (often more rigorously) by other disciplines. - Times Higher Education Supplement

Nigel Kennedy: Today’s Musicians Are “Clones”

“Every kid wants to play because of the love of music. But quite often they’ve got that beaten out of them and they’re having to subscribe to a formulaic syllabus. It basically is a brain and heart turn-off.” - The Guardian

A Musician Describes Years Of Playing Through Pain

I developed tendinitis in my elbows and my knees and neither healed. The pain and muscle spasms from those injuries increased and migrated, eventually meeting up with the pain and muscle-spasms in my back and neck. I developed vertigo, brain fog, and tinnitus. - NewMusicUSA

Software That Allows Conductor To Change Music Musicians Play On The Fly

A DJ will be able to adjust what musicians are playing what melodies and licks to create a unique arrangement on the spot. This will allow the DJ to manipulate instrumentation and assign solos on the fly in response to the crowd’s energy. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Why Are Rappers Finding A Home With Right Wing Media And Politicians?

In discussions about money, gender identity, public health and a variety of social issues, rappers and rightwingers have a lot more in common than you’d immediately think. - The Guardian

Why Has The Symphony Orchestra Endured In Such A Compelling Way?

The reason the symphony has maintained such heft since then is because it supposedly represents timeless values. It has a tricksy ability to tread a line between repelling meaning – ie it’s pure music, not about anything except music – and attracting meaning like iron filings to a magnet. Not just any old meaning, though. - The Guardian

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