As for the rest of Spotify’s Q2 2021, the company reported 365 million monthly active users—a growth of 22% YOY. Total revenue was €2.33 billion, or about $2.75 billion. That’s an increase of 23% YOY. - Fast Company
Yorùbá speech, that is. The West African language is tonal, using three different pitches, and dùndún drummers can adjust the tension on their drum heads to change pitch, stroke by stroke, to match Yorùbá syllables and words. - Smithsonian Magazine
The pipes and carillon bells of the instrument were discovered a century ago at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Scholar-performer David Catalunya says the pipes are near-perfectly intact and that, over the next five years, he'll make them playable again. - Aleteia
“Many of the first-choice people said, ‘Look I’m sorry, I’m not doing this any more. I have a family. I had to take another profession. Six months ago, I’d have welcomed it’,” he said. - The Guardian
"I felt so small. A half Navajo and half Apache girl writing 'fancy' music for a quartet — something I had never dreamed of or even crossed my mind." - Blavity
The Opera Festival of Chicago focuses on Italian works which may be somewhat familiar from recordings and broadcasts but rarely get professional productions in the US. They're starting small (two one-acts and a concert), but plan to work up to four operas per year. - Chicago Tribune
“When we made the decision that we couldn’t perform indoors in Music Hall, the hunt was on. Of course, the first obvious choice would be the Zoo,” said artistic director Evans Mirageas. - Cincinnati Business Journal
Timbre morphing, pitch morphing, stretch morphing and squeeze morphing: "Mockingbirds compose their songs much like human composers do, drawing phrases from other birds' melodies that follow these four basic morphing modes." - Wired
It's not easy for the Salzburg Festival, but performers and audience alike feel the reality that "peace doesn’t exist without its antithesis." - The New York Times
Giddens, a singer, taught herself banjo after graduating from Oberlin. She says, "To suck at something is actually painful and we don’t really like that sensation. ... if you just throw yourself into it and are not afraid to fail, then that’s when you can learn things." - Washington Post
Asian and Asian America composers explain the ways they've had an impact on - and been affected by - the sometimes exoticizing world of classical music. - The New York Times
Joshua Kosman: "My reviews over the years have not always reflected the splendor of the Opera Chorus's artistry. … In my defense, most of the time my task is simply to find new words for an old truth... - San Francisco Chronicle
Dozens of musicians in the Pittsburgh area and around the country are either adjusting their careers to include more stable side hustles in the aftermath of the pandemic or hanging up their instruments for good. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
