Jonathon Heyward, now 29 and chief conductor of the Northwest German Philharmonic, will be (after the late James DePreist of the Oregon Symphony) the second African-American music director of a major US orchestra in history. He begins his initial five-year term in the fall of 2023. - Yahoo! (The Baltimore Sun)
Mahler and Beethoven left several tantalizing blueprints of their 10th Symphonies behind. Now, computer scientists are developing algorithms for artificial intelligence (AI) to lift the “curse of the ninth” and complete the unfinished works of these classical masters. - Mental Floss
An experienced stage director as well as a renowned administrator, Audi doesn’t just work on grand strategy and schmooze with donors. He also gets into the details of craft, closely overseeing rehearsals. - The New York Times
“They don't care if Kate Bush was big 30 years ago, they're just like, this is the first time we've heard this and it's dope. They don’t care if they’re listening to Debussy, or Max Richter, or John Williams, and they don't care what year it’s from. - ClassicFM
Popular new opera? Well, yes: the Met did four main-stage contemporary works just last season. (Also, we're talking the likes of Jake Heggie, not Harrison Birtwistle.) Here are readers' top choices, from Kaija Saariaho's L'Amour de loin (2000) to Tobias Picker's Awakenings (2022). - San Francisco Classical Voice
"The new role is slated to begin in the 2025/2026 season. Assuming (he) isn't renewing his contract with the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, he is scheduled to end his tenure (there) in 2025. The Spanish dynamo (recently) completed his second season as music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra." - Ludwig Van
Last week, when minister Nathi Mthethwa presented plans for the Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra, with an annual budget of 30 million rand (about $17.6 million), comparing the new band to a national sports team, he did not get the ovation he'd hoped for. - Sunday Times (South Africa)
Indeed, they were often required to keep watch at city gates and were sometimes required to show skill at swordsmanship. This isn't just because musicians could raise a loud alarm when necessary. In fact, European cities often made their paid musicians a point of civic pride and ceremony. - Ted Gioia
Every other summer since 2004, composer Delf Maria Hohmann has been visiting the vessels docked in the harbor at St. John's to learn about their horns' sounds — which he then mixes-and-matches into a composition called a "Harbour Symphony." - Yahoo! (Canadian Press)
"I think opera went through a sticky time, with all that Darmstadt stuff where people were deliberately writing music that people couldn’t understand, as a badge of honour, really, and I don’t think composers are trying to do that now. It doesn't mean they're always successful, but I do think a healthy contemporary element is pretty essential to any...
The Metropolitan Opera has been on a downward trajectory for fifty years. For the first thirty or so of those, the descent was gradual, uneven, and in most respects reflective of the encroaching decadence of the artform in general. For the last twenty, the rate of decline has accelerated, and in the last few has gone into a new,...
"In December 2012, “Gangnam Style” became the first music video to earn more than a billion views on the platform. That momentum continued to 2014, when the song exceeded YouTube’s 2,147,483,647-view limit." - Los Angeles Times
Outwardly and proudly sexist tradition, that is, as the Boys' Choir of St. John's College becomes simply "The Choir of St. John's College" — and as girls take their official places in the ranks. - The New York Times
"Francesca Zambello, the artistic and general director of the Glimmerglass Festival, came up with a novel idea. 'I just said, ‘Let’s do a Rossini comedy that doesn’t exist yet.’'" Hence Tenor Overboard. - The New York Times
