Manfred Gurlitt was reluctant to leave Germany when the Nazis came to power, but he ultimately had to flee and ended up in Tokyo. By 1941 he was music director of the Tokyo Philharmonic; a decade later, he had founded his own opera company and taught most of Japan’s opera singers. - Bachtrack
The NSO doesn’t even know if it has a home, given the previously announced two-year closure of the Kennedy Center. This is a very bad sign. Further, the tools for survival are entangled in the Kennedy Center’s legal and financial troubles. - Variety
"We started programming SHIFT because there is a bit of a crisis in the performing arts with regards to machine learning. There's absolute panic. And in fact last year, when we announced it, some leading people in the arts were describing AI as evil and as the devil." - The Independent
“Music recorded in 432 hertz (cycles per second) is taking off on social media platforms and music streaming services. … Scientists say there’s no robust evidence that music tuned to 432 hertz has any special benefits or healing properties. Some musicians and listeners say it helps them connect with nature, relax or concentrate.” - AP
The orchestra’s keyboardist had suddenly fallen ill. Was there by any chance a pianist in the house? And one with exceptional sight-reading skills? - The Guardian
AI music has gone viral before and charted before, but song generators are now good and fast enough that they can flood the zone, creating tracks that slip past the safeguards of major streaming platforms and distributors. Spam-filtering systems can do only so much to stem the flow. - The Atlantic
OK: “The music giant said Pershing Square's $64.3bn (£48bn) takeover offer was ‘not in the best interests’ of the company, shareholders, artists, fans and other stakeholders.” - BBC
He’s also said he wants to headline it himself. But “a senior administration official described the rollout of the concerts as ‘a mess’ and suggested that someone would most likely be fired over how the invitations to the event had been handled.” - The New York Times
Kim Petras was not happy with her experience of “what can happen when the general corporate powers that be force you to sideline your artistry for the company line.” So, she left. - The Fader
Slowly, in front of star-studded crowds that included the rockers Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt and Boz Scaggs, Toussaint reinvented himself. - The New York Times
Probably it’s Tokyo - Australian record shops go on record-buying trips there to prop up their own inventory - but there is the new statistic that says "Melbourne has the most vinyl record stores per capita in the world (5.9 stores per 100,000 residents).” - The Guardian (UK)
Unlike his immediate predecessor, Esa-Pekka Salonen, who also served as the Philharmonic’s music director for 17 seasons, Mr. Dudamel seems not to have matured on the podium. - The Wall Street Journal
Their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), suggest that the subtle motions of a pianist's fingers and hands influence how listeners perceive qualities such as brightness, heaviness, and clarity in musical notes. - Science Daily
“A day after the President Donald Trump -affiliated Freedom 250 announced the ‘first wave’ of performers for ‘The Great American State Fair’ shows on Washington’s National Mall in June and July, the lineup has been hit with a wave of cancellations.” - AP
