"After a years-long search process, the festival announced that Jos van Veldhoven, the longtime artistic director of the Netherlands Bach Society, and Conspirare artistic director Craig Hella Johnson will be the festival’s new 'artistic partners,'" along with not one, but four other "artistic partners." - Oregon ArtsWatch
"It is bleak on so many levels, first and foremost the job losses during a straitened time for media. Pitchfork was one of the last stable music outlets going – where else are the former staff, and the site’s hundreds of freelancers, meant to work now?" - The Guardian (UK)
"The list identifies what UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organization, calls 'fragile' nonphysical elements that play a crucial role in 'maintaining cultural diversity in the face of growing globalization.'" - The New York Times
Users create lyrics, and then TikTok "pairs the lyrics with the pre-saved music, based on three genres: pop, hip-hop, and EDM." (Results aren't great so far, but it's early days.) - The Verge
Bryan West, who was hired by Gannett as its Taylor Swift reporter, should beware. Sam Kriss spent four months in 2014-15 covering Swift for the now-defunct London music zine Kerfuffle; this bonkers essay covers what he can remember (nothing) and its effect on his mental health (profound). - Numb at the Lodge
Some reached the level where a career as either a professional musician or a doctor lay before them, before choosing the unquestionably sounder career path. But the existence of these orchestras is proof that the constraints of a medical life do not preclude creating music, and may well benefit it. - Van
Ron Davis Álvarez, a Caracas native, had settled in Gothenburg as director of El Sistema Sweden. When he saw crowds of teenagers from Syria and Afghanistan arriving in Stockholm with nothing and nobody, he decided he had to do something for them. And so the Dream Orchestra was born. - CNN
"'As referenced in a recent DCASE study,' the (board's) statement read in part, 'inflation and reduced grant funding, coupled with diminished ticket sales due to smaller audiences, have created a challenge for numerous arts organizations. TCB was not immune to these daunting challenges.'" - Chicago Tribune (MSN)
The impact of video game music has helped the music industry by creating a new audience for the classical orchestra. Popular concert cover albums of game music have generated dedicated fandoms and conventions. - The Conversation
"Members of the Musicians’ Union and Equity will walk out on February 1. … Members of both unions have voted in favour of strikes after they accused the ENO management of planning to make chorus, orchestra and music staff redundant and re-employ them for only six months a year." - The Independent (UK)
"After weeks of rumors, Universal Music Group has confirmed that it will be laying off an unspecified but significant number of employees in the coming weeks. The company’s recorded-music division is said to be receiving the brunt of the layoffs." - Variety
Building the world’s greatest stereo would mean transforming the very space that surrounded it — and the lives of the people who dwelt there. - Washington Post
In the fall, the Pittsburgh Symphony averaged about 1,000 listeners per concert, or less than half of the capacity of Heinz Hall. This is at odds with how well the orchestra is playing lately. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
