"Some groups decided to skip it, arguing that its bellicose themes would be offensive during wartime. Others, eager to show solidarity with Ukraine, added renditions of the Ukrainian national anthem to their programs to counter the overture's exaltation of czarist Russia. Still others are reworking it." - The New York Times
Administrators said the Conservatory had gone from 550 students in pre-pandemic years to 300 last year, to a projection of less than 100 students next year. This drop in enrollment was one of several factors that made the institution “no longer financially viable nor sustainable.” - La Scena Musicale
Faced with the challenges of simply surviving as a small independent company post-pandemic, PFO — noting that there's more grant money available for educational endeavors than for basic production and performance — will focus on its Young Artist Program. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"I’m sure the Met is thought of as a conservative institution in some quarters, I believe this is no time to be conservative. I don’t think we are thought of as conservative any longer. I think over the period of time that I’ve been here, things have changed dramatically." - Van
Boris's deputy, Dominic Raab, took a potshot at Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner (a longtime union rep proud of her working-class roots) for going to posh Glyndebourne while railway workers were striking. Rayner (who paid all of £62 for her ticket) had a couple of choice replies. - Classic FM (UK)
Large cast-metal bells like the ten at the Paris cathedral (they survived the 2019 fire) emit sounds all the time: when they're not actively ringing, they vibrate in sympathy with the various sounds around them. Bill Santana has recorded those vibrations and fashioned them into a sound installation. - Smithsonian Magazine
In this respect, the orchestral world is like a throwback to the postwar employment landscape, when it was not uncommon to spend your entire career in a single job, or at least working for a single company. - San Francisco Chronicle
Mark Swed: "New York, London, Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam happen to be historically vibrant centers of new music. ... But new music hasn't in those cities, as here, penetrated every pore of the classical music scene." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
Singers of Western opera (Anthony Roth Costanzo), Cantonese opera (Pui Yan Li), and Carnatic (South Indian classical) music (Ganavya Doraiswamy) demonstrate what they do to warm up and exercise their voices and how their particular exercise help them. - Smithsonian Magazine
But it's not directly because of COVID - it's more that "dozens of record-pressing factories have been built to try to meet demand in North America — and it's still not enough." - St. Louis Post-Dispatch (AP)
If arriving onsite is a slightly discombobulating experience at first – even for a seasoned Glastonbury-goer, the sheer volume of people feels weirdly overwhelming after spending a significant proportion of the past two years locked in your home. - The Guardian
Conductor John Mauceri has released a study of the forgetting of so much classical music, especially music composed in America by refugees from Nazi-dominated Europe. - The Critic
The most dynamic music in the US in the first decade of the 20th century was ragtime, which Stanley claims “set the template for every successive pop boom”. - New Statesman
Muti, whose Chicago contract runs through the 2022-23 season, considers himself the descendant of strong Italian conductors reaching back to Arturo Toscanini and Tullio Serafin. He’s not a fan of most contemporary directors. - AP
