The Pittsburgh Symphony was looking to buy a new Steinway concert grand for its concerto soloists. The price: $198,000. Fortunately, Emanuel Ax was there to play a concerto that week, so he was able to help music director Manfred Honeck and others make the decision. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"A new study by Vanderbilt Genetics Institute researchers ... found a genetic link to our ability — and inability — to move to musical rhythm in time. Using data from more than 600,000 participants, the study identified 69 genetic variants related to the ability to move in synchrony with music." - Mel Magazine
The initiative on this year's general election ballot "would require the state to find a source of revenue to fund K-12 arts education equal, at a minimum, to one percent of the total state and local revenues that local education agencies receive from Proposition 98 funding." - San Francisco Classical Voice
"Compositions by women and people of color now make up about 23 percent of the pieces performed by orchestras, up from only about 5 percent in 2015, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Institute for Composer Diversity at SUNY-Fredonia." - The New York Times
"In a statement, Charlotte St. Martin, president of The Broadway League, said audience members were still encouraged to wear masks, but would not be required to beginning July 1. The policy will be re-evaluated on a monthly basis going forward." - Gothamist
"Cutting us back because of where our postcode is will have a direct and negative effect on the nationwide work that this move is designed to address," said NT director Rufus Norris. "It will have the exact opposite effect of their stated intention." - The Guardian
"Museum officials from Sudan are calling for the repatriation of cultural artifacts and human remains that were stolen by British soldiers and other colonizers in the late 19th century. Many of the items in question were taken as trophies after the Battle of Omdurman in 1898." - Artnet
It was unusual for a K-pop group to start from a base of rap and hip-hop. It was even more unusual for a group to speak and sing openly of the struggles of youth. - The New Yorker
Where we’ve arrived instead is somewhere more foreign than artificial consciousness. In a strange way, a program like PaLM would be easier to comprehend if it simply were sentient. We at least know what the experience of consciousness entails. - The Atlantic
On the one hand, if we are solely responsible for the things we do wrong, some genuinely malevolent parties get off scot-free. On the other, if we locate responsibility entirely outside the individual, we relegate ourselves to sentient flotsam buffeted by currents beyond our control. - The Guardian
She’s taking over from Sasha Suda, who has been at the gallery’s helm for three years but is leaving for the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Angela Cassie previously served as the gallery’s chief strategy and inclusion officer. - Toronto Star
So, this is my answer: if I am being canceled I want my friends — and this includes not only my closest associates, but anyone who considers themselves friendly to me — to stand by, remain silent, and do nothing. If you care about me, let them eat me alive. - The New York Times
Cannupa Hanska Luger’s theory is that it has to do with their trauma of becoming American, which meant severing all ties to their own ancestral lands — a trauma that has left them with a longing for what Luger calls a “deep time connection” to the land they now inhabit, which is, of course, someone else’s ancestral land. - The New...
Returning to Barbados after university in England, "(he) became a moral, political and intellectual force for a newly independent country seeking to tell its own story. ... His calling was to address the crimes of history, unearth and preserve his native culture and forge a 'collective sense' of the future." - AP
This would be Ulysses, by James Joyce, which came out 100 years ago, and has been commonly heralded as the Best Novel Ever Written. I feel like I should underline and bold that for effect, or you can just imagine me using my best voice-of-God impression. - The Smart Set
