A COVID stabilization reserve fund set up by the orchestra's board has covered that budget hole, but with government pandemic aid over and attendance not all the way back, difficult times do lie ahead. Said the executive director, "We've known this was coming." - CBC
Epic Games (maker of Fortnite) purchased the streaming site for independent musicians 18 months ago. In late September, Epic announced the sale of Bandcamp to audio licensing company Songtradr. That day, most Bandcamp employees lost access to the site; that includes engineers who keep it running. - Wired
The orchestra, with conductor Daniel Harding filling in for Franz Welser-Möst, was to have performed in Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem during the last week of October; the engagements have been canceled due to the ongoing attacks by Hamas. Scheduled performances in Austria the previous week will proceed. - Cleveland.com
Discogs is a fairly clunky, definitely old-fashioned website devoted to even older technology: a vestige of an earlier, more idyllic internet that has spent the last decade walking the record-needle-thin line between 2020s algorithmically driven tech monolith and niche unprofitable obscurity. - The Verge
“It’s not that there is no money. There’s a lot of money. It’s just that there must be a reason to spend it. To say, ‘We’re going to have another symphony concert’ is excellent. But what else are you offering?” - Waterloo Record
Heyward, 31, is Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s first music director of color and the youngest current music director of any major U.S. orchestra. To that, he says, “Challenge accepted.” - Time
“It was a very hard decision,” Emily Moss, the music director of WCPE, a nonprofit station based in Wake Forest, said in an interview. “It’s been a hard day and a hard week.” - The New York Times
Musicologist Dr Shara Rambarran says virtual influencers-turned-popstars entering the arena may unsettle IRL (in real life) musicians "who want to put their music out there and not have to have that competition". - BBC
Various measurements became more synchronised during the concerts, such as the participants’ heart rates, breathing speeds and their skin conductance, which measures how much someone is sweating based on their skin’s varying electrical properties. - New Scientist
"But the opera, with music by Jake Heggie and a libretto by Terrence McNally, had never been performed in a prison until last week at Sing Sing, which is home to more than 1,400 inmates." - The New York Times
The DG recording of Nielsen's 4th and 5th with the Danish National Symphony also took the Orchestral award; among other winners are the London Philharmonic in Tippett's Midsummer Marriage (Opera), Krystian Zimerman playing Szymanowski piano works, and mezzo Helen Charlston's ‘Battle Cry: She Speaks’ (Concept Album). - Gramophone
Black country singers and journalists are being called racial slurs by fans and openly LGBTQ+ performers are having to back out of performances. - The Guardian
"In general, Noseda is a servant of the ‘big idea’ – overarching themes that unify a series of concerts, galvanise audiences, empower musicians and attract donors." - Gramophone
For decades hip-hop artists have used their power as popular culture stars to influence the political sphere. As academics have begun to take notice of the power of hip-hop to inspire youth and impact social change, more and more research on the history and power of hip-hop has developed. - The Conversation
