"Rainer Eudeikis, currently the principal cellist with the Atlanta Symphony, ... will succeed the late Michael Grebanier, who led the cello section from 1977 until his death in 2019." - San Francisco Chronicle
Hire engineer/producer Da-Hong Seetoo, whose dad "fostered a second career for his son by letting him tinker with a 1947 General Electric tube radio and a reel-to-reel Telefunken tape recorder, with which he could preserve the sounds of borrowed classical music LPs." - San Francisco Classical Voice
The American soprano was going to make her Arena di Verona debut as Violetta in La Traviata — until a furor arose over Netrebko's photos of herself in dark makeup and her Aïda costume and Arena di Verona management defended the makeup as part of a historical staging. - Classic FM (UK)
Scammers ruin everything, including violin skills: "At its most basic, it’s someone who is busking with a violin, apparently playing, while they’re actually faking it — the music comes from a hidden recording." - Ludwig Van
Jeffrey Arlo Brown writes about the tricky, nerve-wracking process that two young trumpeters went through. One passed his trial, the other failed hers — which turned out to be a very lucky thing. - Van
Is this a little like The New York Times buying Wordle? Yes, and the outrage is not dissimilar. For instance: "I lost my game history, and the link to get it back only exists for a microsecond. Also the skip function is now super glitchy, making the game unplayable." - BBC
In a heavily refugee and immigrant area of Glasgow, "Musicians in Exile a way of helping to give musician asylum seekers and refugees in the area a chance to gather every Tuesday evening to sing, play and share their talents, experiences, stories and songs." - Time Out
The school's leader, before the Taliban and now in exile: "We can show the world a different Afghanistan. ... We will show how we can raise the voices of our people. We will show where we stand." - The New York Times
Mary Harris interviews Katarina Tsymbalyuk, a mezzo and a member of the Odesa Opera's resident ensemble, about the love, and the fear, she and her colleagues have for the opera house and their city, as well as how they're continuing to perform. (podcast; includes transcript) - Slate
Composer Conor Mitchell: "How come these two men, so buttoned up and alien to empowered, liberated me, felt they could write passionate love letters to each other in a pre-Wolfenden world, knowing that each word could be used against them in court?" - The Guardian
She got the idea after losing a music director post, following a successful audition, because "we just didn't know how to market you" (meaning a Black woman). Says Johnson, "It's like, we have this piece of grit — how do you create something beautiful out of that awfulness?" - MSNBC
"In response to a precipitous slide in attendance during the 2021-22 season, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has canceled 10 concerts originally scheduled to be performed next season at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. ... By the end of last season, attendance at BSO performances was averaging about 40% of capacity." - The Baltimore Sun
Bill remembers the myriad performers who came from abroad and his trips overseas covering Canadian ensembles: in Prague in 1968, weeks before the Soviet tanks rolled in, and in China in 1978, when everyone still wore Mao hats. Plus his North American odyssey trying to interview Luciano Pavarotti. - Toronto Star
