"The Grant Park Music Festival has long had a tradition of bold, adventuresome programming. But none of the festival’s leaders have done more than Carlos Kalmar, who has made offsetting familiar classics with intriguing combinations of new and unusual works from the past a defining hallmark of his tenure." - Chicago Sun-Times
"After 18 years at the Boston Globe, I am moving on from my position and joining the faculty of Tufts University, where I’ll be taking up a newly created professorship in music history and public humanities, beginning this fall." - Twitter/X
It is problematic to foretell who will attend the revivals of modern operas. New York visitors? Somebody who missed it the first season? The opera house cannot rely on that. This simple fact is that modern operas are not an optimal financial base for the house repertory the size of the Met Opera. - OperaWire
"The general manager is responsible for everything," he insists. If the artistic director doesn't agree, if he doesn't want to collaborate, that's when we find ourselves in a dead end." - Le Courrier du Sud
Salonen had been pushing for the orchestra to do more, not less, to try to forge connections with new audiences. He had become passionate about an idea to build two performance venues, designed by Frank Gehry, on Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay. - The New York Times
For the uninitiated, this may seem like merely an intra-classical-music-world squabble, a fight over the esoterica of contemporary music versus old and pampered performers versus penurious patrons. In fact, it’s bigger than that. It is a dangerous warning sign that yet another prestigious institution in San Francisco has lost its way. - San Francisco Standard
Crumb’s “scores — created by hand and themselves works of art — are rife with exacting instructions to performers: how to thread paper between the strings of a harp, or how string players should use the thimbles on their fingers.” - The New York Times
"The city, which leases Harrison Opera House to Virginia Opera, says the organization owes $270,000 … for (2019-2024). … Virginia Opera leaders dispute those claims, said Peggy Kriha Miller, general director. … When asked why opera leaders do not believe the organization is behind on rent, Miller declined to comment." - The Virginian-Pilot
Aside from merely making a copy of a voice, MicDrop purports to offer a voice-to-instrument function, similar to the features that can make keyboards sound like a guitar or drum. - Rolling Stone
A 34-year-old Singaporean-Australian who is currently music director of the Wyoming Symphony and resident conductor of the Colorado Symphony (jobs he will retain), Christopher Dragon begins his term with the upcoming season. Chelsea Tipton has been named principal guest conductor. - The News and Record (Greensboro, NC)
"Sometimes we associate the word 'operatic' with big, extreme feelings. But I think mixed emotions — ambivalence — are what opera does best. It conveys the complexity of emotions that might be hard to hear in everyday speech. The book (Fellow Travelers) had a lot of that." - San Francisco Classical Voice
"She began her position in 2021 and was instrumental in reshaping the resident program and was responsible for principal casting for mainstage and concert productions. She also worked with the development team to secure funding for the resident program, among others." - OperaWire
The Metropolitan Opera revealed its finances for 2023-24 season, including the fact that it had sold 72 percent of available tickets. The number was up from the previous season which only saw 66 percent of available tickets sold. - OperaWire
Maybe! There’s “the sense that the theater has so fully reconciled with pop, rock, R&B and country — you know, the music that’s been filling the Billboard charts since the mid-1950s — that it’s finally comfortable enough to take liberties with them.” - Washington Post
