Like the qwerty keyboard, sitting through a three-or-more-hour performance in a language we don’t understand is a peculiar cultural phenomenon we accept only because it’s often the only option we’re given. It’s happenstance. And it’s a big part of what keeps opera from reaching more people. - The New York Times
Sales have held steady at around 31,000 a year for the past decade, but in 2024, fewer than 18,000 were sold, according to an industry census conducted by Music Trades. Upright pianos have been largely replaced by digital pianos. Over 188,000 were sold last year, according to the Music Trades census. - KERA
If the past tells us anything, it’s that seismic technological shifts have often served as a precursor for a changing of the guard at the record companies. - The Hollywood Reporter
While 33-rpm vinyl reigns supreme in popular culture and the central role of LPs in hop-hop sampling and scratching, 78s were by far the dominant recording format from about 1910 until the late 1950s — which means that just about every 20th-century American musical idiom that coalesced before the election of John F. Kennedy. - San Francisco Classical Voice
It turns out that X-ray film was just soft enough to be etched on by an electromechanical lathe. So one could take exposed X-ray film (with images of bones), trim it into the shape of a vinyl record, then use a recording device to cut a bootleg recording onto the film. - The Conversation
Classical institutions like to talk a big game about making social justice a part of their mission, but the South Dakota Symphony and the Lakota Music Project — which commissions works for combinations of Native and non-Native musicians and tours the state — have committed more deeply than most. - The New York Times
Donald Palumbo, 76, is credited with revitalizing the Met chorus during his 17-year term (2007-2024) and, before that, the chorus of Lyric Opera of Chicago (1991-2007). He will be only the third director in the CSO Chorus’s history, following the tenures of Margaret Hillis (37 years) and Duain Wolfe (28 years). - Chicago Sun-Times
“The Philadelphia Orchestra is a nonprofit organization that believes in the power of music to bring people together, create understanding, and speak to the human spirit. Earlier this month, the National Endowment for the Arts rescinded critical funding for our Pride Concert, taking place on June 4.” - OperaWire
“(Her) years-long saga to win back the rights to her first six albums will go down as one of the most significant storylines in the history of the modern music business, as the dispute brought the complex, often dry world of copyright and master ownership further into the national consciousness.” - The Hollywood Reporter
"When Domingo Hindoyan, the Venezuelan chief conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, made his debut with L.A. Opera last November with Roméo et Juliette, Times classical music critic Mark Swed called it 'a coup for the company.’” Now comes an even bigger coup for the opera. - Los Angeles Times
Swift knows why: "Every time a new artist tells me they negotiated to own their master recordings in their record contract because of this fight, I’m reminded of how important it was for all of this to happen.” - The Guardian (UK)
At the 20th anniversary party’s live soundtrack piano performance, “a hush swept through the room, and people held up their phones to record. Two friends held each other and cried; one took a video as the other wiped away her tears.” - The New York Times
