"After a two-year stalemate that sparked a feud with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra," — which cancelled several concerts this fall because of the standoff — "Strathmore has reached a tentative agreement with its unionized box office staff that extends their contract through June 2024." - MSN (The Washington Post)
David Finckel: "People have a hard time sitting still. Attention spans are getting shorter. The only thing this doesn’t change is the length of a Schubert trio. You can’t make it shorter, and you can’t play it faster. You can’t cut sections out of it." - The New York Times
A longread on how the Metropolitan Opera's general manager is handling the company's reopening and its long-term problems, what people inside and outside of the Met think of him, and what he thinks of what they think of him. (He's fairer than you might expect.) - New York Magazine
Morlot, born in Lyon in 1974, will replace Kazushi Ono. The contract with the OBC is for four years, with a minimum of eleven weeks of work with the orchestra each season, of which eight would be for seasonal concerts, two for recordings and one for festivals. - Ara Balears
Many musicians have watched, cringing, as the term “gig economy” has become a defining term of the national economic Zeitgeist. Not just because the word “gig” is our word—it originated with jazz musicians in the 1910s—but because, in a larger sense, we are the original gig workers. - Brooklyn Rail
John Mortensen has made a thorough study of how music students in Baroque-era Naples were taught to improvise harmony and counterpoint, then a basic skill. And he's seeing interest from present-day students who don't want to play the same hundred pieces everyone else does. - Early Music America
In fact, there have been composers in China writing for European instruments for over a century. Since the end of the Cultural Revolution, though, the country has produced several generations of accomplished composers — and developed an audience eager to hear new scores. - Prospect
"We have new brain-based evidence that autobiographically salient music -; that is, music that holds special meaning for a person, like the song they danced to at their wedding -; stimulates neural connectivity in ways that help maintain higher levels of functioning." - News Medical
Research was completed by an organization that specializes in analyzing local music scenes — Sound Diplomacy — which has come up with strategies for major music cities such as London, England and New Orleans. - CBC
There's massive stress on the resurgent medium, and for Adele's new album, producers ordered half a million LP discs. (Who could have predicted this in, say, 1990?) - FADER
These players developed their talents in small venues across the UK capital in the 2010s, from Total Refreshment Centre in Dalston, east London, to Mau Mau in west London’s Ladbroke Grove. - The Guardian
"Even before the digital age you could access the World of Music through recordings, via the radio or the local music shop or even the Columbia House Record Club." And now? Livestreaming! - Oregon ArtsWatch
For one thing, give the conductor a look. For another thing, hope the concertmaster is alert. Watch Thursday's cascading violin exchanges and fixes on video from Seattle's Benaroya Hall. - Seattle Times
One singer: "We have the power to uplift someone. ... It’s something I hope fellow musicians realize, appreciate and that they don’t forget, even if we’re in a very challenging time. The worst thing that can happen is for you to stop." - Los Angeles Times
