The Sonic Sphere, a realization of a modernist dream by the composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, aims for a new kind of listening experience: surrounding the audience with 124 meticulously arranged speakers and an array of lights that change color with the music. - The New York Times
"Spotify are the biggest criminals in the world. I think we had 25, 26 million plays last year, and I think personally I got about 20 pounds, which is less than an hourly work rate." - Yahoo!
If Abbado’s life had a theme, it was this question of power: of what power means in music, where it comes from, and to what ends. Few of his peers enjoyed such a vita. - The New York Times
Occramer Marycoo, abducted from the Gold Coast of West Africa to Newport, Rhode Island in 1764 and renamed by his enslaver as Newport Gardner, learned English, French, and the basics of Western music with surprising speed, acquired a reputation for writing tunes, and was eventually freed. - Early Music America
For Dolby, the audio company that developed Atmos, and Apple Music — which has invested heavily in it — the technology could lead to the most dramatic shift in audio in 65 years. - The New York Times
Christina Scheppelmann’s departure announcement comes amid leadership vacancies, or impending vacancies, at other high-profile Seattle arts organizations. - Seattle Times
"With an outstanding $1 million debt and a 'long history of contractual default and related broken promises and commitments,' the Philly Pops is trying to 'force its way back into Verizon Hall,' the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center Inc. alleged in a court filing Tuesday." - MSN (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
"If the current spending pace continues through the end of the tour, the Eras Tour will have generated an estimated $5 billion in economic impact, more than the gross domestic product of 50 countries." - CBC
That Riccardo Muti became music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at all is a miraculous anomaly due to a perfect storm of unexpected events. - New City
The idea, according to founding first violinist and Artistic Director David Harrington, was to commission 50 quartets from a variety of composers, and make those easily accessible, free of charge, to anyone who wanted to tackle them. - San Francisco Chronicle
The 39-year-old Texas native, a former associate conductor at the Detroit Symphony, succeeds Timothy Redmond, who resigned abruptly in the summer of 2021 after just over two years on the job. - Winston-Salem Journal
Anna-Maria Helsing, a Finn who became the BBC Concert Orchestra's principal guest conductor in 2020, will step up to succeed the late Bramwell Tovey as chief conductor as of October 1, with an initial contract term of three years. - The Independent (UK)
Kahchun Wong, a 36-year-old native of Singapore who won the Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in 2018 and has since worked as chief conductor of the Nuremburg Symphony and the Japan Philharmonic, will succeed Mark Elder as of September 2024. - The Straits Times (Singapore)
Sydney cemented the idea that grandiose political and architectural ambitions — some would say hubris — can merit the expenditure of much larger sums than bean counters would countenance. Some of these facilities ultimately proved transformative for their cities and nations. - Bloomberg
But the progress with Black musicians is incremental at best. Why is this so difficult? Titus Underwood, the principal oboist at the Nashville Symphony, says, "We must reflect American culture. And American culture is nothing without Black musicians being at the center." - The New York Times
