MUSIC

Music Distribution Site Distrokid Removes Tracks After UMG Claims Copyright Violations

Independent artists, Sahunta tells Rolling Stone, “are unfortunately the most powerless group in the music industry. And the irony is we comprise the majority of music on streaming, yet we’re so easily taken advantage of and screwed over by these companies that claim they are for independent artists… - Rolling Stone

Steve Reich, At 90, Says He’s Just Written One Of His Best Pieces In Years

“(It’s) the kind of thing that you do when you’re younger and you’re figuring out how exactly it is that you’re going to work,” the composer said of In All Your Ways. “It’s invigorating to be 89 and say, ‘Well, this is new!’” - The New York Times

Musicians Of Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra Vote Unanimously To Approve Strike

“Since COVID, the orchestra feels that it has fallen behind some of the other Canadian orchestras and they’re not happy about it,” said a union official. “There are other odds and ends, like work schedules, but primarily it is money.” - Ottawa Citizen

Why Are National Anthems Always Orchestral?

More to the point, why are some of them so dire? There’s no comparison between God Save the King and La Marseillaise; one’s a dirge, the other makes me want to march to the barricades. - The Guardian

Previewing The Met’s Lincoln In The Bardo

"'Wild scene,' the writer George Saunders said, a little wide-eyed, after witnessing a portion of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lincoln in the Bardo unfold." - The New York Times

Choral Evensong, A Long Tradition In Britain, Is Threatened By Many Different Pressures

"There is something profoundly human about sitting quietly in a great building, hearing young and old voices combine in astonishingly beautiful music." - The Guardian (UK)

Why Do Opera Singers Quit?

Andrew Potter says it's the money. "We just have to start telling the truth, and that is that unless you're in the top 1- or 2% of singers in the world, this is not something that you'll be able to sustain a family with." - NPR

Recording Music In Analog

“So this machine that we have here is the only machine currently in service for two-inch, 24-track — it's a Studer 827 from, I believe, the late ‘90s,” Healey said as he guided the media across magnetic heads.  - WBUR

Frank Gehry’s Final Concert Hall Is Taking Shape In Los Angeles

Just two blocks from Gehry’s most famous performance venue, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Kohl Hall at the Colburn School will be a 1,000-seat auditorium with an in-the-round layout, a full-size stage and an orchestra pit so that it can host both concerts and operas. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)

Montpellier’s Main Concert Hall Closed Following Storm Damage

The Corum, a conference center-cum-arts complex with three performance spaces, suffered major water damage from heavy rains last week and has been shuttered out of safety concerns. There’s not yet any target date for reopening, and events are being moved to other venues in the city. - Pizzicato

Music Fraudster Jailed For Using Thousands Of Bots To Fake Stream Music Tracks

He had created “hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs,” then dispersed billions of automated streams among them so that the bots could avoid raising any red flags by all targeting the same song at once. All together, the fake songs generated substantially more streams than some of the most popular artists today. - Ars Technica

Trump Administration Says Kennedy Center Is Too Dangerous For Public But Safe Enough For National Symphony To Rehearse There

“So far, none of the musicians have encountered collapsing concrete garage decks, falling 2,500-pound roof sections or ‘electrical explosions’ — risks the center’s management says lurk everywhere.” - The New York Times

Gramophone’s Record Of The Year Is A 10-Disc Set Of 17th-Century Chamber Music

An Erato release, headed up by harpsichordist Jean Rondeau, of the complete works of Louis Couperin has won the top prize at the 2026 Gramophone Awards. Among other honorees were Imogen Cooper (Lifetime Achievement), the Bamberg Symphony (Orchestra of the Year), and violinist Isabelle Faust (Artist of the Year). - Gramophone

Marin Alsop Takes Another Conducting Job

She is now artistic director of the Webern Kammerphilharmonie, the training orchestra of Vienna’s University of Music and Performing Arts. Currently, she is also artistic director of the Polish National Radio Symphony, chief conductor of the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia, and principal guest conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra and London’s Philharmonia Orchestra. - Gramophone

Who Owns An Orchestra When It Goes Away?

Harmonium, founded by pianist and conductor Jeffrey Kahane after he stepped down as the Philharmonic’s music director earlier this year, begins its orchestral life Friday at the Lila Cockrell Theatre. Its emergence poses an unusual question: when an orchestra disappears, who — if anyone — inherits it? - San Antonio Current

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