"More than 40% of musicians polled about their work in the European Union said they would consider relocating to Europe to continue accessing jobs, with a fifth contemplating changing career entirely. Musicians warned that the red tape and additional costs of touring and working in Europe after Brexit would have substantial impacts on their careers." - The Stage
Alsop satisfies exactly none of these stubborn criteria for conducting an orchestra, which is perhaps why her career has been an exercise in exhausting the potential of the word “pioneer.” Owing to her severe allergy to “can’t” and “don’t,” Alsop’s achievements are many and, more often than not, warrant some celebratory disclaimer to the tune of “first woman to...
The girls went absolutely viral for a video of their performance at the Los Angeles Public Library, especially a clip with their song "Racist Sexist Boy." Now the punk band comprised of 10-16-year-olds has a contract. (Though one hopes they don't tone things down for the record company.) - Variety
Composer Keiko Fujiie, who moved to Burkina Faso and built a house where the musicians can practice without annoying their neighbors, hopes to tour the country and debunk the idea of opera as an elite art form: ""I didn't come to introduce European opera here - to the contrary - I needed to study their music, and little by...
Congrats to Italy's Måneskin. But yikes to the UK (which, technically, is no longer in Europe anyway?). "The UK's James Newman came last, getting zero points from both the jury and the public. - BBC
Let the Long Beach Opera show you. "Guests have the choice of watching this production “tailgate-style” or from inside their automobiles. The action occurs throughout a parking structure with multiple screens projected live on big screens." Safe, and very Southern California as well. - Los Angeles Times
"A violin found in an attic in Italy has been confirmed as a priceless instrument made by Giuseppe Guarneri 'filius Andreae' in c.1705. The age of the wood was confirmed using dendrochronology, and the researchers were even able to prove it came from the same tree as the wood in an already-identified violin by the same maker." - The...
"Seventy-four years after it first formed," and 66 years after it closed, "the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra has been revived to support musicians in northern England hit by the pandemic. … The conductor of the re-formed ensemble, Ben Crick, said the lack was 'really strange' given the size of the cities of Leeds, York and Sheffield." - The Guardian
For the second year in a row, the company's critically praised September week of mostly new opera is called off; even as other groups expect to be in the concert hall by then, management feels that opera requires too many people collaborating in too-close quarters to be safe so soon. Meanwhile, says general director David Devan, the company will...
Throughout the pandemic Glyndebourne has been notably agile, putting on outdoor performances last summer and leading the brief UK return to theatres in the autumn. Now, for summer 2021, the only real casualty of the originally planned season is a revival of Barbe & Doucet’s staging of Mozart’s Magic Flute, which, with its huge drop sets and puppets, would...
"The process of making musical instrument is generally out of the public eye, and there's often a mystique about how those particular tools-of-the-trade are created. During some idle hours of the long lockdown, I went deep down the YouTube rabbit hole and discovered scores of fascinating videos capturing all manner of fine artisans — luthiers, brass wranglers, wood turners,...
With support from a wide cast of collaborators, Angry and Katherine McMahon are taking songs from the public domain — a class of creative works whose copyright protections have expired or been otherwise forfeited, making them freely available for public use — and reimagining them for the present moment. - The New York Times
The wildfire-like spread of the coronavirus over a couple of hours of choral singing inside a Washington church was enough to send shockwaves throughout the singing community in California. - KQED
"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
