"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
When Teresita Gómez was 3, a piano teacher let her watch "from a distance — while was teaching the little white girls who were her students. ... At night, when her father walked around doing his rounds, she went along with him, playing on all the classroom pianos." - NPR
Harry’s House is simply just fun pop music at the perfect time. We are coming out of a pandemic and are in a cost of living crisis – we need some easy and joyful listening. - The Conversation
Unlike its future-oriented counterpart on the West Coast, the New York Philharmonic is always looking back to its glory days under Mahler, Toscanini, Bernstein, and Boulez. It’s worth noting that many conductors have left the post frustrated, exhausted, or embittered. - The New Yorker
This technology “is generating infinite music that isn’t actually composed by anybody, and that’s a terrible, scary, awful way of thinking about where music could go,” says composer Tod Machover. “I mean, really, it’s the worst kind of elevator music.” - Washington Post
In what seems to be a cross between an Anna Deavere Smith interview-based theater piece and Gavin Bryars's Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet, composer Eugene Birman has layered original music with candid quotes given by Russians in darkened booths. The title is Russia: Today. - The New York Times
The Carnegie performance was added last spring. The hall’s leaders heard about the tour and thought that hosting the orchestra would help show solidarity with Ukraine. - The New York Times
