ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

MUSIC

Terry Loftis Named New CEO Of New Jersey Symphony

Loftis goes to the New Jersey Symphony from his position as Chief Advancement and Revenue Officer of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO), where he oversaw the fundraising, marketing, special events, and analytical research departments. - Symphony

Musicians Sign Letter Opposing Attacks On Internet Archive

“We, the undersigned musicians, wholeheartedly oppose major record labels’ unjust lawsuit targeting the Internet Archive,” the Musicians for Fairness and Preservation Open Letter reads. “We don’t believe that the Internet Archive should be destroyed in our name.” - Engadget

San Francisco Symphony Extends Musicians’ Contract — For About Six Weeks

The short-term extension comes amid long and contentious bargaining between SFS management, which insists that huge deficits must stop for the organization to survive, and the American Federation of Musicians, which argues that cuts demanded by management will severely diminish the orchestra. - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

Taylor Swift’s Finally-Completed Tour Took In An Astonishing $2 Billion

Through its 149th and final show, which took place in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Sunday, Swift’s tour sold a total of $2,077,618,725 in tickets. That’s two billion and change — double the gross ticket sales of any other concert tour in history and an extraordinary new benchmark for a white-hot international concert business. - The New York Times

What Ancient Greek Music Sounded Like

“Between 750 BC and 400 BC, the Ancient Greeks composed songs meant to be accompanied by the lyre, reed-pipes, and various percussion instruments.” Now there are some reconstructions of the sounds of millennia ago that may be fairly accurate. - Open Culture

A Human Rights Activist Says Music Is The Best Way To Bring About Change

Zambian human rights activist and rapper “Samuel Miyoba, known by his stage name Smack Jay, believes that a country's music reveals a lot about its character and culture.” - BBC

Benjamin Britten Acted In Cinderella, And Prokofiev Went Ice Skating

How was the Christmas season for Europe’s great composers? - Classical Music

You’ll Never Guess How Indie Rock’s Boom Went Disastrously Bust

There was a time when bands could make a living. Now we’re in “an indie business landscape that’s particularly inhospitable to emerging artists looking to establish careers off their work.” - Hearing Things

Angela Alvarez, Great-Grandmother Who Won A Grammy At 95, Has Died

Alvarez, 97 when she died, won a Latin Grammy for Best New Artist in 2022. As she accepted her award, she said, “Although life is difficult, there is always a way out, and with faith and love you can achieve it. … It’s never too late.” - The New York Times

How To Detach Your Musical Taste From Spotify’s Algorithm

“Even if you think you are making an active choice – I am playing this song, I’m listening to this genre – the algorithm is still quietly influencing you.” Is it possible to break free, aside from abandoning the data mining app that is Spotify? - Slate

Yuval Sharon Is Leaving The Industry, The Experimental L.A. Opera Company He Founded

"The company's executive director, Tim Griffin, who came on board in summer 2023, will ... become both executive and artistic director. Co-artistic directors, Ash Fure and Malik Gaines, who joined forces in an artistic director cooperative with Sharon in 2021, will form a new artistic advisory council." - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)

Bayreuth Festival Makes Deep Cuts To Its 150th Anniversary Season

Blaming its cash shortfall on the public-service sector employee contracts it has with staff and an inability to raise more revenue, Bayreuth management cut four productions from the summer 2026 schedule, leaving only Rienzi and the Ring cycle along with a concert performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony.. - AP

Report: Workers In The Music Sector Will Lose One Quarter Of Their Incomes To AI In The Next Five Years

The report concluded that while the AI boom will substantially enrich giant tech companies, creators’ rights and income streams will be drastically reduced unless policymakers step in. - The Guardian

How Taylor Swift’s Tour Has Changed The Concert Business

Music executives say Swift has raised the bar for the concert industry, not just with ticket and merchandise sales, but conceptual ambition, stage production, wardrobe and news-cycle penetration. - The Wall Street Journal

A New Kind Of Music Therapy? Music Could Help Change The Way You See Your Past

"People often think of these musical memories as fixed snapshots of the past. But recent research my team and I published suggests music may do more than just trigger memories – it might even change how you remember them." - The Conversation

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