"The orchestra is still receiving local support, along with national and international acclaim, but not all is well. More musicians (have been) leaving than arriving, and there is an unprecedented seven-month-long collective bargaining deadlock over a new contract." - San Francisco Classical Voice
With the Philly Pops in collapse — evicted by the Kimmel Center for nonpayment of rent, suing the Kimmel Center, being sued by its musicians — many of its players have formed the No Name Pops, which has already performed small-ensemble gigs and has two full-orchestra programs scheduled. - MSN (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
"Songs have been written in over 20 languages across the U.S. and around the world. … The musical styles range from classic lullaby to rock, Latin, spoken word, and everything in between. Mothers have written their lullabies from homeless shelters, prisons, hospitals, as well as their homes." - MSN (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
"Budding luthiers and young musicians can now get a step closer to the master by honing their skills in his original house and workshop, which have been transformed into a centre of learning and a musical pilgrimage site in (Cremona,) northern Italy." - Yahoo! (AFP)
"More than three decades after Chapman’s 'Fast Car' dropped, ... drove to the top of Billboard’s Country Airplay chart" as a Luke Combs cover, making Chapman the first Black woman with a sole songwriting credit on a number one country hit. - Los Angeles Times
"Composing for movies, often mischaracterized as auxiliary to the primary work of filmmaking, is an art form in its own right. At its best, it stands equally with not just the feats of directing and cinematography but also the greatest classical compositions." - The New York Times
All right, recent events are alarming for actual musicians. But "even a more radical artists-rights activist like Kevin Erickson, director of the Future of Music Coalition, is skeptical that AI could outright replace artists, or will inevitably learn on the backs of protected work." - Los Angeles Times
Cher "ran into Dylan in a New York recording studio as her version was climbing the charts. He told her that he dug what she’d done with it, which, Cher writes, 'made me feel like floating away.'" - The New York Times
The people are doing it for themselves: "Indigenous musicians are building their own foundation within Canada's music industry after years of feeling excluded from or limited by the system's unspoken glass ceiling." - CBC
It really was just a marketing niche. This pressure to program for the broadest, least attentive listenership possible could lead to absurdity. - The New Yorker
The man responsible for the sound at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, and the Philharmonie de Paris talks about vineyard-versus-shoebox shape, multi-purpose auditoriums (not a fan), cathedral-like acoustics (ditto), and the most stressful day for an acoustician. - Bachtrack
Celebrity has a tendency to reduce talent, even of the most prodigious kind, to a series of narrow gestures, a sort of mimeograph of itself. The Dude sure seemed to embrace the L.A. lifestyle, to take quickly to Soho House and Osteria Mozza, and having a hot dog at Pink’s named in his honor. - Los Angeles Magazine
For years he managed the tricky business of remaining a committed Catholic at Elizabeth's Protestant court before settling in a rural haven. He wrote an extraordinary body of sacred music — large-scale and small-, in English and Latin — along with keyboard and chamber works, madrigals and solo songs. - The New York Times
Comments from Caroline Shaw, James MacMillan ("Classical music audiences tend to forget about the pre-Baroque, and it's a pity because William Byrd is one of music history's great figures"), Roxana Panufnik, and Nico Muhly (There's always a Byrd for something"). - The New York Times
"What we see is children who learn how to play the drums aren't afraid of making mistakes. When they stop and make a mistake in their drumming they simply pause, reset, and off they go, and it's no big deal." - BBC
