Last June, English National Opera and a branch of the NHS launched ENO Breathe, a program that offers what are basically online voice lessons adapted for patients suffering from ongoing shortness of breath weeks and months after (partially) recovering from COVID. The program's administrators report that more than 90% of participants have experienced both improvements in breathing and reduction...
And would a penny per stream be a little more fair? After all, "Spotify increasing royalties to a penny per stream would send a clear, graspable message to its subscribers that it values the artists who serve as the foundation of the company. It would also bring Spotify in line with competitors Apple, Amazon Music and Tidal." - Los...
Adams came up with the vision for Grand Pianola Music when he was tripping - literally - and audiences weren't sure what to do with it. "They didn’t know what to make of its puckish rebelliousness. The beginning, a Minimalist shimmer, was familiar territory — albeit scored idiosyncratically for winds, brasses, percussion, two pianos and a trio of siren-like...
For star conductors, of course, it's not unusual to have appointments both with an orchestra and an opera company. And Dudamel's contract with the LA Phil runs through the 2025-26 season. Classical France is interested: "Radio France, clearly anticipating the appointment, ran five 90-minute programs on Dudamel in the last week of January, ostensibly in celebration of the conductor’s...
“While I was doing the recording, it became really apparent that the cellphone was such a prominent actor in that transaction,” says Christopher Kirkley. When he sat down with an artist, children nearby would pull out their cellphones and do the same. Contrary to Western notions, music from the region has been digitised at a high rate because of...
The world's oldest opera company (founded in 1669 by Louis XIV) has signed one of the very few living conductors to become a celebrity in popular culture. The 40-year-old Venezuelan, the most famous product of El Sistema, begins a six-year term in his new job on August 1; he will also remain music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic...
It can be done, but it's hardly easy or common, even for people with astounding voices. You have to be hitting just the right note with just the right glass: not any old tumbler or champagne flute will do it, and you have to land — at around 100 decibels — on the precise frequency that will set that...
The Royal Opera House in London launched a TikTok channel last summer and has since picked up more than 400,000 followers, with some of its quickie videos picking up millions of hits and likes, especially Diana Damrau singing the Queen of the Night's second aria from The Magic Flute. - The Telegraph (UK)
Pushed by County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr., a Democrat, the New Opportunities for Tourism and Entertainment — or NOTE — Act would enable restaurants, bars and other businesses to hold live musical entertainment by amending zoning rules in areas where live music is currently prohibited. But residents and some council members are skeptical of how the county would enforce...
How completely has streaming transformed the music world? The platform rose from 7% of the U.S. market in 2010 to a whopping 83% by the end of 2020 — and recorded-music revenues saw their fifth consecutive year of growth, topping $12.2 billion, per the RIAA. It’s no understatement to say that streaming saved the record- ed-music business, and that...
The idea that the world’s two most powerful countries can simply “decouple” as their strategic competition grows fiercer — a concept promoted by China hawks — doesn’t match reality. In the case of classical music, as Beethoven in Beijing illustrates, the ties that bind our two countries are historically driven and deeply emotional. - Philadelphia Inquirer
In something of a miracle, the huge fire that ravaged the Paris landmark on April 15, 2019 did almost no serious damage to the 8,000-pipe Grand Organ; the major problem is that lead dust from the melted roof covered and coated every part of the instrument, and cleaning up a neurotoxin is no easy matter. But of the smaller...
Markus Buehler’s team used laser imaging to create a 3D map of webs made by tropical tent-web spiders (Cyrtophora citricola). They identified each thread’s vibrating frequency through its size and elasticity, then converted those frequencies into ones that can be heard by humans. - New Scientist
Soprano Carolyn Sampson summarizes the texts of the eight songs in the cycle thus: "1. I can't think of anything but him; 2. He's wonderful and I am not worthy; 3. OMG – he said he loved me; 4. I am his and have the ring to prove it; 5. Girlfriends: today I leave you for him; 6. I...
