Damn you, COVID-19! yet the good news is that 2020-21 season's shortfall, $6.3 million, is down by almost half from the previous season. And donations were up by 23%. Not too bad for an orchestra that played only 13 live-with-audience concerts. - The Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
“If you don’t have role models, it’s much harder to see yourself as a conductor – and there were male musicians who wouldn’t see themselves as conductors either.” - Irish Times
Calling out fellow songwriters for not writing their own material is bad form for musicians, particularly so given that the definition of songwriting has become ever more fluid over time, and depends greatly on the genre of music. - The Conversation
"I have spent the past two years immersed in writing a book about the man and his music. Beethoven’s most appealing feature is his progressive impetus, his need to flout precedent, to prick the pompous and kick the fools. The new AI confection is made by ticking digital boxes." - The Critic
"For decades, Barenboim and the Staatskapelle shared common interests. Now, 'til death do us part' has become a burden. Complicating the dynamics of this stagnant marriage is a third party: Berlin's Culture Department, … (seemingly) unable to intervene in the quagmire at the Staatsoper." - Van
The exodus of two-thirds of both administrative staff and board members — culminating in the resignation of music director Thomas Dausgaard — since the arrival of CEO Krishna Thiagarajan just over three years ago indicates a problem. What's happening now is not how a healthy organization would handle things. - Post Alley (Seattle)
The Orquesta Sinfónica Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho in Caracas is already the country's least conventional symphonic ensemble: they frequently perform in the barrios and regularly explore fusion with Afro-Caribbean music. Their most recent project, Sinfonía Desordenada (Disorderly Symphony), turned out to be, er, aptly named. - National Geographic
A majority (69%) of orchestras are planning a hybrid (digital and in-person) season for 2021-22. Once halls return to full capacity audiences, 45.9% of orchestras plan to continue some of the digital activity they’re doing... La Scena Musicale
Anna von Hausswolff can joke about it, but enraged demonstrators have actually shut down concerts of hers. All because a music blogger called her "the high priestess (of) satanic harmonies" and, in one track recorded 13 years ago, she sang "I made love with the devil." - The New York Times
Going online has forced music educators to adapt existing ideas, or adopt existing technology, to discover, invent and share ways to reach students to keep music education alive. - The Conversation
Uma Thurman and Renée Fleming are both Penelope; it's just that one speaks, and one sings. Thurman: "When you put language to music, it becomes very specific. ... It’s a challenge that makes me feel like I’m doing things for the first time." - The New York Times
The concerts for isolated people have ended up a lifeline for the musicians too. "Sometimes the concerts can be really unusual in that you start it in the middle of the street, and you don't know if anybody is listening, and then comes the surprise." - BBC
"The trope of the cloistered composer is a tried and true archetype — the solitary soul flanked by stacks of scores in the dark study of a secluded home, squinting at notation while sitting at a keyboard dusted with spent erasers." But things are a bit different now. - Washington Post
The letter alludes that the new publication is in response to “…the virulent spread of identity-based concert programming.” It goes on to state they are looking to “actively promote canonical masterworks of the Western Classical tradition from antiquity to the present day.” - Ludwig Van
