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
“Here’s the super easy, headline statement: AI, or music that contains AI-created elements is absolutely eligible for entry and for consideration for Grammy nomination. Period,” Mason told The Associated Press. - Toronto Star (AP)
The two-armed robot, designed by the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, made its debut at the National Theater of Korea, leading musicians in the country’s national orchestra. - CNN
Not that it's cheerful, mind you: Picture a Day Like This is about a mother whose child has died. Yet, after Benjamin's brilliant-but grim operas Into the Little Hill, Written on Skin, and Lessons in Love and Violence, this new piece is definitely a departure. - The New York Times
The Jeanne R. Johnson Education Center, opening next year in Dallas, is a joint project of the DSO and Tod Machover's Opera of the Future group at MIT's Media Lab. It will offer "STEAM-based learning activities that focus on dynamic music education" for grades 1-12. - MSN (The Dallas Morning News)
Collective action by fans can create a sense of "belonging" within their community and lets them "express their identity". "However, I think something is changing more recently and we're seeing more isolated, disruptive, individual physical acts such as throwing items." - BBC
The music of today has grown up on the internet rather than adapting to it. Instead of using the infinite archive to show superior, selective taste, it takes influence with ambivalent abandon. - The Smart Set
In the latest bout of singers being pelted by concert fans, the country star Kelsea Ballerini was hit in the face by a bracelet thrown by someone in the audience at her Wednesday night show in Boise, Idaho. - Los Angeles Times
The music industry is at a tipping point. There is still time for the creators and businesses within it to help shape what comes next, but that window of opportunity is both small, and closing. - Music Industry Blog
"When it's 150 people standing crammed into a small room and you're closer to the musicians than you would ever be at the Festival Hall ... it does feel like it's this tightrope, and it has a sense of jeopardy and danger in the performance." - BBC
