"In June the opera company announced plans to slash its budget by about two-thirds and no longer put on full productions. After a transition year in 2024 with only a couple of scaled-down productions, the company would serve as an 'incubator' that hosts workshops of new operas in development." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Hailed by critics for its high standards and wide-ranging repertoire, which has included all eras but emphasized the 20th and 21st centuries, the organization has struggled financially for years. Its financial problems have been exacerbated by a drop-off in both ticket sales and donations following the pandemic." - San Francisco Classical Voice
As the Philly Pops' legal and financial difficulties drag on, the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center Inc. will produce a holiday pops concert with the group of now-unemployed Philly Pops musicians who call themselves the No Name Pops. ("No excuses. No nonsense. No Name Pops.") - MSN (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
At 57, though her singing career is not yet over, she's becoming a top administrator: having been artistic director of Salzburg's Whitsun Festival for more than a decade, she took over this year as head of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo in Monaco. - AP
Concerts have always been spaces where like-minded fans can gather to discover connection, but now this brand of togetherness has transformed concertgoing into an urgent pilgrimage, drawing the faithful in record numbers and providing near-ecstatic experiences. - The New York Times
Production music, aka commercial music, will likely be AI’s victim number one. Production music is rarely the music you’d choose to listen to all by itself (excluding great film scores). - Shelly Palmer
Musk yanked @music away without warning. Jeremy Vaught: "It’s been emotional. ... The idea that they’ll just take your account because they want it—I’ve always known that it’s possible. I know that on Twitter there’s nothing I own, they own it, I get it. It still sucks." - Slate
"Harry Styles was hit in the eye with a sweet in Vienna, Bebe Rexha received stitches after she was hit in the face with a mobile phone in New York, and Pink was left stunned when someone threw their mother’s ashes on stage in London." What is going on? - The Guardian (UK)
Netrebko, fired by the opera house for her support of Vladimir Putin, "accuses the Met of discriminating against her because she is Russian; of issuing 'defamatory' statements about her in the press; and of breaching contracts." - The New York Times
In a genre that has always valued volume as much as it loves liberation, the elders still compete over the story’s beats, much as they once battled over musical ones. It is a very hip-hop thing: a history written by the loudest. And loudness is one Herc contribution that no one disputes. - The Wall Street Journal
Several locks confirmed as far more likely to be from the composer's head demonstrate his death was probably the result of a hepatitis B infection, exacerbated by his drinking and numerous risk factors for liver disease. - Science Alert
“Most of us enjoy that; that’s why we come back. We want to be in that very demanding, high-achieving environment, where most of us, 90 percent of the time, feel like we’re impostors. You’re surrounded by brilliant players, and then you talk to the other players, and they feel exactly the same.” - The New York Times
A 2018 Government Accountability Office study shared by the White House earlier this year found service fees to hover around 27 percent of the face value of a ticket, on average. But the soaring price of concert tickets isn’t just going away with a corporate vow of transparency and some senators sniffing around. - Pitchfork
"Specific contract details were not made available. But the announcement stated, 'The new contract restores traditional annual wage growth going forward and includes a 'catch-up' increase for the musicians following a three-year pandemic pause in their wages under the existing contract approved in 2020." - The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, MA)
