The Tiny Desk series became a prime venue for artists seeking an authenticity baptism. The series built its audience organically, getting bigger bookings and finding frequent viral successes. But for pop artists, it has become a tool with a very specific utility: demonstrating in-the-room chops. - The New York Times
Streaming has thrown together two old business models (retail and radio) and thrown them into one pot, pretending lean-back and lean-forward consumption are the same. They are not. This move will go a long way to disincentivising the commodification of consumption by rewarding active listening. - Music Industry Blog
"The stories of repression, resistance, and activism that follow are those of three young Afghan musicians who now live abroad and who continue to perform and study music for those who no longer have that right." - Van
The Monterey Jazz Festival was founded in 1958 by Jimmy Lyons and has been run for 32 years by Tim Jackson. Next year he passes the reins to Darin Atwater, founder of Baltimore's Soulful Symphony, who will be the first Black musician to lead the organization. - San Francisco Chronicle
“At the end of the day, whether you’re working in an orchestra or a hospital or a government institution, people are people. The various dynamics you see in the world also exist in those places. We’re not immune from that because we’re classical musicians.” - San Francisco Classical Voice
Of 15 PhD-granting departments in Brandeis Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the music department ranked as one of the best. It had the lowest rate of attrition and the best record of placing PhDs in academic jobs. In all other major performance measures, it placed among the top three or four. - Boston Globe
"The suit," brought on religious discrimination grounds, "says all musicians ... were told in the summer of 2021 that they must get vaccinated against COVID-19 to continue performing. Violinist Dovid Friedlander is Jewish, and horn players Chris Caudill and Rachel Niketopoulos, a married couple, are Buddhists." - The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC)
"The fee, initially 5 euros ($5.50) per day-tripper, is 'not a tool for making cash,' (but) to improve the quality of life for Venice's dwindling number of full-time residents as well as overnight visitors, who already pay a lodging tax. The (fee begins) in 2024 on spring holiday and summer weekends." - AP
The company is on the hunt for anything it can do to get users to pay up. After pouring billions into podcasts and audiobooks to little effect, it seems to have largely given up on the idea that exclusive content is the path to riches. - The Verge
Founder Robert von Bahr says the label's staff will join the team working on Apple Classical, the streaming app launched earlier this year. BIS is known for, among many other projects, Osmo Vänskä's recordings with the Minnesota Orchestra and the Bach Collegium Japan's widely-admired set of complete Bach cantatas. - TechCrunch
Roberto Treviño: "We finished the first season in the black. We did that without any city support and with a lot of things lined up against us. And that says a lot. ... So many people want this to happen, not just the musicians, but the community." - San Antonio Report
Runnicles was appointed Music Director in 2007 and began his tenure in 2009. He extended his contract in 2016 and in 2020 extended it until 2027. - OperaWire
Bradley Cooper’s long-awaited second film as director — screened at the Venice Film Festival to rapturous applause. The drama about the life of legendary stage composer Leonard Bernstein landed a seven-minute standing ovation at its world premiere at the Sala Grande Theatre on Saturday night. - Variety
"In the last couple of weeks, we've done everything from synthy backing vocals to full-blooded Poulenc; we have opera choruses coming in the Last Night of the Proms, we've got an entirely a cappella (concert) after that. So within the course of two weeks, we've got four wildly different programmes." - Bachtrack
“Politics has to cool off, but I don’t know if that changes anytime soon. It’s a bummer. Now we feel like any other genre, with a bunch of knuckleheads. You lose that innocence and it’s hard to get it back.” - Rolling Stone
