ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

MUSIC

Magnificent Obsession: The Man Who Spent Decades Building The World’s Greatest Stereo In His House

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

The Pittsburgh Symphony Is Playing Well. But The Audience Is Missing. What To Do?

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

Scammers Are Stealing Artists’ Music And Posting To Streaming Platforms

The streaming ecosystem, say critics, is easily gamed. For $20, artists can buy an annual subscription to a music distributor, a company that can instantly post songs to dozens of streaming platforms. Unfortunately, bad actors have the same opportunity. - The New York Times

SoundCloud May Be For Sale

But whatever happens to it, the way it transformed musical access, its musical underground vibe, will never die. - Wired

The San Francisco Conservatory Of Music Violated Title IX, The Office Of Civil Rights Rules

The conservatory's "response to a student’s report of sexual assault and stalking 'violated Title IX at every stage' and was 'deliberately indifferent,'" the investigation found. - Inside Higher Ed

A Window Into A New Opera Festival

What the Prototype festival brings to audiences: Anything from Biblical translations to "a kind of nostalgic reminder of the loud, messy, nudity-filled, often self-serious, generally baffling shows that were once fixtures of downtown New York." - The New York Times

The Portland Opera Is Selling Its Building To Relieve Debt

The company "will be vacating the entire bundle: administrative offices, costume shop, rehearsal space, parking lot and all." Where will it go? That's not yet clear. - Oregon ArtsWatch

Young Musicians Are Starting To Follow The Taylor Swift Career Playbook

This recalibration of the rules of engagement between artists and labels is also a result of the democratisation of information about the byzantine world of music contract law. - The Guardian

Violinist Hilary Hahn Awarded $100,000 Avery Fisher Prize

Previous recipients of the prize, now in its 50th year, have included Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, André Watts, Midori, Joshua Bell, the Emerson and Kronos string quartets, flutist Claire Chase, and, most recently, clarinetist Anthony McGill. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

Conductor Jan Latham-Koenig Arrested In London For Sexual Communication With A Minor

The 70-year-old has been charged with "arranging/facilitating a child sexual offence and sexual communication with a child." He has had a major guest-conducting career and held chief conductor positions in Moscow, Mexico City, Porto, Bruges, and elsewhere: he's currently music director of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. - The Standard (London)

Franz Welser-Möst Announces Retirement Date From Cleveland Orchestra

The Austrian conductor, now 63, announced that he will not renew his current contract when it expires at the end of the 2026-27 season. By that point he will be, at 25 years, the longest-serving music director in the orchestra's history. - Cleveland.com

Can A Female Composer’s Music Be “Virile”?

The words "virile" or "virility" were constantly used in reviews of the music of the late 19th-century Irish-French composer Augusta Holmès. What's more, "Holmès's virile lifestyle, as much as her works, put Ernest Hemingway’s to shame," writes Julia Conrad, who ranks the composer's works in order of virility. - Van

New Tax On UK Orchestras Touring In Europe Is The Latest Brexit Blow

A new Brexit tax hike set to hit U.K. orchestras later this year could make trips to Europe “unviable” and undermine their activities back in Britain, the trade body representing the musical ensembles is warning. - Politico

Study: How Music Puts Us In “Sync”

“I am interested in how being ‘in sync’ with other people through the experience of music-making and other forms of artistic expression supports a general feeling of connectedness to others, which in turn may support people’s well-being.”  - Ludwig Van

Jonathon Heyward On The Future Of The Baltimore Symphony

I don’t want it to be an art form where people feel like it’s only for certain types of people. Because it’s not. I mean, my story is sort of a testament to that. - Washingtonian

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