"I've spent a lot of years doing roles where I'm the third person in a love triangle, … and the lead soprano almost always has to kill herself, and those stories are 1,000% created by the patriarchy, and I'm not interested in them anymore." - The Guardian
At minimum, percussion students need a room to practice in — usually in a large single family home and not an apartment — over $10,000 for instruments, and $6,500 per year for lessons. And this is to say nothing of other crucial training opportunities, which come at an additional cost. - I Care if You Listen
Adaptations from well-known sources go right from the beginnings of opera as a distinct genre circa 1600 (Peri's Euridice and Monteverdi's L'Orfeo) to the remarkable flowering of new opera (especially chamber opera) in the US today. And there are good reasons for that. - Van
“We have been here for 35 years. We have made 300 creations, several international tours, 11 Canadian tours, and 70 concerts across the country. Before, the word “fatigue” was not even a reality for me, but time does its work.” - Ludwig Van
Korea accounts for 20 percent of worldwide classical music sales, with a much younger audience base than in the West. The K-pop juggernaut needs no elucidation. Koreans have embraced Western music and elaborated on it. - 3 Quarks Daily
When it comes to established and continuously active opera companies in North America, there is the Metropolitan, founded in 1883 ... and then San Francisco Opera. - San Francisco Classical Voice
As of January 1, shortly before his 49th birthday, the Peruvian will take the reins at the event where his international career was launched: the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Italy. He succeeds his longtime mentor and manager, former tenor Ernesto Palacio, now the festival's superintendent. - OperaWire
His sabbatical will run from Dec. 19 to Jan. 10; he has withdrawn from the Met's January revival of The Marriage of Figaro and the Philadelphia Orchestra's New Year's concerts. - The New York Times
The piano is the instrument of expressive individualism; the harpsichord is the instrument of a vibrant, discursive life of the mind. It is the glorious vestige of an era when music was free from the impossible burdens that Romantics placed upon it. - First Things
The Brit Awards announced they "would do away with gendered awards categories entirely, following in the footsteps of the Grammy Awards, the MTV Video Music Awards and the Juno Awards." A big concern: Women performers may get shut out once again. - CBC
"It seemed important to hold a space for folks to feel whatever they needed to, to sing and cry and laugh and be with people who understood what a loss this was to those who love theater." - The New York Times
Film music may be a genre, but all that means is music used in a film. Other than that, anything the director will let a composer get away with goes. - Los Angeles Times
Felix Klieser, 30, was born without arms. Even so, he graduated from a German conservatory and made a recording at age 22 that won him an ECHO Klassik prize. His fifth CD came out in March, and he's currently the Bournemouth Symphony's artist in residence. - BBC Music Magazine
Louise Toppin is on a mission to recalibrate who, what, and how we program our concert seasons to enable a more equitable representation of music from composers of African descent. She is seeking a sustained and systemic cultural shift. - Classical Voice North America
"The 87-year-old's farewell took place in Sage Gateshead, directing the Royal Northern Sinfonia in an all-Haydn concert that effortlessly rolled back the years. It reminded us that this is a man who has changed classical music emphatically for the better." - The Guardian
