An arbitrator "in a decision issued last month that has not been previously reported, ruled that the Met should compensate Netrebko for 13 canceled performances," which means the opera company owes the Russian soprano more than $200,000. - The New York Times
It's not their first meet-up. Before the pandemic, when he was merely the crown prince, Charles summoned Webber to fix the problem "that there wasn’t enough access for young people to go and learn how to play the church organ." - Washington Post
Samara Joy "possesses an innate ability to take an old standard and make it seem like the lyrics were torn from her diary. It's an approach that causes confusion for fans who aren't well versed in the jazz repertoire." - BBC
Half of the composers commissioned by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra for its flagship new music program, 50 Fanfares, are women. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra will premiere 17 new Australian works in its 2023 season. More than half have been composed by women. - The Guardian
It made international headlines when Pensacola Christian College cancelled a performance by the famed vocal sextet two hours before curtain time because of some members' "lifestyle." The group's two countertenors recount how they got the news, what they did next, and what they heard from students afterward. - Classic FM (UK)
“It gave people a different way into what I was talking about, other than just showing slides. The sound conveyed what it was like to be there.” - The New York Times
The frustration of conductors and orchestra musicians was at times quite palpable. One of the instrumentalists, a principal player from a major orchestra, recounted a recent music director search in his orchestra that revealed some of the very tensions occurring at the meeting. - Nightingale Sonata
The Montserrat monastery in the mountains of Catalonia, home to the famous Escolania de Montserrat boys' choir, is forming a new ensemble of 25 singers -- a mix of boys, girls, and young women -- which will fill in for the main choir for one weekend each month. - The Guardian
In 1798, King Stanisław II, exiled to St. Petersburg and knowing he was dying, commissioned Józef Kozłowski, who'd come to the Russian capital a decade earlier, to compose a funeral Mass. The little-known score had survived only in a later recomposition for Tsar Alexander I -- until Graf started researching. - Bachtrack
For nearly two decades, Tina Chancey and her ensemble, Hesperus, have been assembling and performing live music — songs and instrumental works from the Middle Ages, along with period-style improvisation — to accompany such classic silent films as The Mark of Zorro, Robin Hood, and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. - Early Music America
"The 43-year-old label — which is home to artists like Marc-André Hamelin, Angela Hewitt and Stephen Osborne and represents a catalog of 2,500 recordings, some (of music) dating back to the 12th century — will operate as a standalone label within Universal Music U.K.," with Simon Perry remaining as managing director. - Billboard
Among the damning claims levelled by BBC Singers Acting Co-Directors Jonathan Manners and Rob Johnston is that a “recurring narrative of toxic culture now exists at the BBC, reflected in the working environment from the Director General downwards.” - Deadline
Paul Hughes, former director of the BBCSO and the BBC Singers: "The BBC's timing is as calculated as its strategy is callous: ensembles struggling to recover from the pandemic, exhausted from keeping the show on the road throughout, three of the ensembles without a director and all contractually gagged." - The Guardian
Worries about music today ignore every development in the transmission of music in the past. “I mean, when recorded music first came out, people were like, nobody’s ever going to learn how to play anything ever again. Then came radio and nobody’s ever gonna go and see live music.” - The Guardian
Vinyl revenue grew 17% and topped $1.2 billion last year, making up nearly three-quarters of the revenue brought in by physical music. At the same time, CD revenue fell 18% to $483 million, the RIAA said. - NPR
