MUSIC

BMG Makes Big Licensing Deal With AI-Music Company Suno

BMG is the first significant rightsholder to ink a licensing deal with Suno since Warner Music Group announced an alliance with the AI company nine months ago. - MusicBusinessWorldwide

What You Learn From A Composer’s Handwritten Manuscript

Scores are more available than ever: in multiple published editions, online in public domain collections, in libraries and elsewhere. But a manuscript, music written in a composer’s hand, has the almost magical power to make even the most distant giants feel near and alive. - The New York Times

Documenting The Harms To The National Symphony In The Past Year

They reveal that even as expenses ticked downward, donations fell 25 percent short of expectations last year, and that this year’s ticket revenue is on pace to earn about half of what the orchestra budgeted. - Washington Post

A Salzburg Festival Art Installation Featured 320 Little Mozart Statues. Two-Thirds Of Them Have Been Stolen.

“The Mozarteum Foundation on July 15 unveiled 320 statuettes, barely … 20 inches high, showing Mozart with his dog. They were designed by German conceptual artist Ottmar Hörl. Within two weeks, more than 80 of the polymer figures had disappeared. By Wednesday, a total of 210 were missing.” - AP

Beloved NorCal Folk Music Festival Cancelled By Co-Founder’s Heirs

The Strawberry Music Festival, held in the Sierra foothills near Nevada City in October, features American roots music of many types, including performances by major country stars. Co-founder Charlie Cran died suddenly in November, and his heirs, now the event’s owners, aren’t yet ready to present the festival properly. - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

Modern Classical Concert Dress Is Evolving

It’s a vital, creative and adaptive evolution, a way of preserving an important cultural heritage in a world of cheap noise where the piano recital might otherwise fade from view or become hopelessly marginalized. - 3 Quarks Daily

How To Fix The Boston Symphony

Increasingly, symphony orchestras define excellence very narrowly. The focus is on the musical quality of the playing. This is crucial, of course. But excellence must also be measured, in part, by community penetration and buy-in. - Nightingale Sonata

Kennedy Center Board Ponders Three Scenarios For The National Symphony

One scenario envisions the renowned 96-year-old orchestra — a fixture at the Kennedy Center — performing at "offsite alternate venues," according to a slide deck of the budget plans obtained by Axios. - Axios

What Gustavo Dudamel Pulled Off At The L.A. Phil

“L.A. became the place that let him try just about anything. … Here is where he's been able to experiment ..., not just with the support of the orchestra but also the community. He became a symbol for an L.A. in which, as with YOLA, anything is possible.” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)

Kennedy Center Ordered To Pay Quarter-Million To Musician It Sued For Canceling Christmas Eve Concert

“Chuck Redd hosted and performed at the Kennedy Center’s annual Christmas Eve concerts for years, but bowed out of last December’s planned gig, citing ‘the defiant and illegal name change happening to the Kennedy Center.’ (Management) subsequently sued Redd for breach of contract, only to have the suit thrown out in June.” - Variety

With Its Season In Doubt, Washington’s National Symphony Faces Existential Crisis

The orchestra’s audiences have diminished sharply since Trump took over the Kennedy Center. Those righteous liberals who think they are somehow striking back at Bad Orange Man by staying away are actually only hurting the musicians and other artists for whom the Center is a lifeline. - DC Citycast

The Mysterious Art Of Conducting

The very act of conducting—waving a wand to summon ravishing or ethereal or earsplitting sounds—can look like either inexplicable magic or embarrassing nonsense, a kind of tuxedoed air guitar. - The Atlantic

Looking Closely At The Original Manuscript Of A Mahler Symphony With Franz Welser-Möst

The composer’s handwritten score of his Symphony No. 2 (“Resurrection”) was donated to the Cleveland Orchestra a few years ago, a gift which brought Welser-Möst, the organization’s longtime music director, to tears. He leads a reporter (and readers) through three pages of the manuscript which he finds especially fascinating. - The New York Times

Spotify Will Begin Labeling AI “Personas”

Spotify will begin labeling AI-generated artists with “AI Persona” profile tags and ban their music from its editorial and algorithmic recommendations, the company announced on Tuesday. - TechCrunch

Matthias Pintscher Appointed Music Director Of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra

The German-born, New York-based composer-conductor, who is also music director of the Kansas City Symphony, succeeds Jamie Martín at the helm of the LACO as of the 2027-28 season. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)

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