Orchestras still face the possibility of disruption by future waves of the virus, making planning difficult. In some bustling international markets, including China, quarantine rules are so strict that tours are nearly impossible. - The New York Times
The streaming age has been hard on independent musicians. In 2020, analytics company Alpha Data examined data based on 1.6 million artists who released music to streaming services and found 90 per cent of plays were generated by one per cent of artists. - The Conversation
"Letters of complaint have been sent to the organisers, the Recording Academy, arguing that the tracks in question – by two separate artists, Jon Batiste and Curtis Stewart – have been 'mis-categorised'. Their objections have absolutely nothing to do with quality, but genre, say the musicians." - The Observer (UK)
"Now we're working on a new record, and someone recently asked me what the endgame is, like, 'Oh, you're making a record, what's the endgame?' And it's not really how it works. The endgame is I die. Making music is a practice." - The New York Times
In this production, via recordings, "singers from six prison musical groups — a mix of over 100 men and women who are incarcerated as well as about 70 community volunteers — are the ones singing the 'Prisoners' Chorus.'" - NPR
I’d never encountered the 432 Hz phenomenon. Its lore has all the hallmarks of your archetypal conspiracy theories. No one version dominates, but most accounts include a selection of the following tropes. - Van
The joint program of the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music is now working with its first class of fellows, who get commissions for new scores as well as mentorship from Esa-Pekka Salonen, Edwin Outwater, and Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser. - KQED (San Francisco)
This year, RSD offers 411 new releases, a fact that should leave those in the physical music business seething. Thanks to Brexit and the pandemic, we simply can’t make enough records. There is an international shortage of the various components required. - The Guardian
The research, involving well over 350,000 people in more than 50 countries, tested subjects for the "Big Five" personality traits (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism) and classified the (Western) music that respondents liked in five descriptive categories (Mellow, Unpretentious, Sophisticated, Intense, and Contemporary). - Ludwig Van
It's called the organetto, and though no originals survive, there are hundreds of depictions of the instrument in art and manuscripts of the era. Based on those pictures, makers have begun building organetti. There's even a star performer on the little keyboard. - Early Music America
“We used to play shows in Sydney, we can’t really get them much any more. There are no venues to play at. It’s a really hard city to crack. I don’t want Melbourne to be that. That’s terrifying to me. Because what do we do then? There’s nowhere to play.” - The Guardian
"Eva B, once a little-known rapper from (a) Karachi urban-slum settlement" — and who now draws millions of viewers on YouTube — "says her brother had told her if she wanted to rap she had to wear a veil, but that it is now a part of her identity and personality as a musician." - The Guardian
The extravaganza, prosaically titled American Song Contest, will see musicians from all 50 states, five US territories and Washington DC compete against each other, in a format borrowed from its long-running European cousin. - The Guardian
"Grete Minde, a late-Romantic opera of 1920s jazz-inspired melodies and large orchestral sounds, was the work of Eugen Engel, a Berlin-based Jewish textile tradesman in his day job, who gave his handwritten sheet music to his daughter for safekeeping when she escaped to the United States in 1941." - The Guardian
The former music director of the Toronto Symphony and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (and, before that, longtime first violinist of the Tokyo String Quartet) was this orchestra's principal guest conductor from 2003-2006. He and the CSO have some changes planned. - Colorado Public Radio
