At the PSO Disrupt series, ... the concerts will last only about an hour and a half or less. A host will guide listeners through the music with remarks throughout the concert. Even more radical might be the themed cocktails that attendees will be allowed to bring into the hall." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Patients with Alzheimer’s still can experience the music 'time travel' episodic memory phenomenon even after the disease has attacked their hippocampus, as long as those episodic memories are more than two years old." - Washington Post
"Watching the crowds cry, or clap, or tap their feet, it’s impossible not to wonder how many of those train travellers – or the audience at home – are seeing something that looks like fun, something that they could have a go at." - The Guardian (UK)
Not a real surprise, and yet, "Cast your mind’s eye behind Spotify’s X voice and you will find only the void—a vast jumble of machine-learning metrics and carefully calculated curation that tells you what it thinks you want to hear." - Wired
"Among Indian audiences, there is a deep divide between those who applaud that the rest of the world is waking up to his brilliance and those who are horrified that a 'dubba' — or hollow film — is being lauded." - Variety
"I just feel like what’s going on right now in this moment, of course you should be open to whatever’s going on, the zeitgeist, but I would just look at all of music that you’ve heard, that meant something to you from the very beginning, and feel like it’s okay to incorporate all of that." - NewMusicBox
"Artists' wishes can be ambiguous or ambivalent. And some observers believe that the value to posterity of certain material can in some cases supersede even clear wishes. As far as the criteria, though, most admit that it's more or less 'I know it when I hear it.'" - The New York Times
The Finnish National Opera and VR company Varjo developed a "digital twin" of the theater, with sets, lighting, costumes, etc, so that elements could be seen and fine-tuned before workers and material were committed. - Fast Company
The native New Yorker's term as chief conductor will now run through the 2028-29 season. A former music director of the New York Philharmonic (2009-2017) and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Gilbert is also music director at the Royal Swedish Opera and principal guest conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony. - AP
Salonen’s ambitious plans for San Francisco, conversely, have gotten off to a rocky start because of COVID-19. There’s still plenty of time to get things moving on their anticipated course, but there might also be something attractive about relocating to a more familiar environment. - San Francisco Chronicle
Music is a sphere where young performers and composers tend to look to their teachers and bosses as mentors. This can give rise to all sorts of power abuses, especially in the cut-throat entertainment world where everybody is hustling for the next job. - The Guardian
"If opera in the form that its creators imagine it becomes for toffs, that is nothing to do with opera itself. It is absolutely extrinsic to the art form, and precisely the result of neglect, and underfunding, and starving of resources, and shame, and embarrassment, and lack of care." - The Guardian
Lord Lloyd-Webber said he wanted his new coronation anthem to reflect a "joyful occasion". A gospel choir will sing and there will be Greek Orthodox music in memory of the King's father, Prince Philip. The music will have a traditional tone with pieces from classical composers. - BBC
As my generation grew up, new age seemed a bit like a lost world—a faerie realm we were promised but never got to go to. Although it’s based on familiar pop structures, the songwriting has an origami quality of folding and unfolding back on itself, creating pockets and planes. - The Atlantic
