“Whatever we do right now,” Gustavo Dudamel said, “has to have an impact not only in the time we are living but also to help us achieve what we can do in the next years. That’s why we were not rushing to do a thousand things, to do this or that. We went to the heart of what transformations we need to make and what we think can work.” – Los Angeles Times
Category: music
Nine Black Classical Musicians Talk About How To Change The Field
Conductors Thomas Wilkins and Roderick Cox, clarinetist Anthony McGill, bassoonist Monica Ellis of Imani Winds, singers Lawrence Brownlee and Latonia Moore, and composers Tania León, Jessie Montgomery and Terence Blanchard offer their ideas. – The New York Times
Stop Blind Auditions, Says New York Times Chief Critic, Or Orchestras Will Never Become More Diverse
Anthony Tommasini: “The status quo is not working. If things are to change, ensembles must be able to take proactive steps to address the appalling racial imbalance that remains in their ranks. Blind auditions are no longer tenable.” – The New York Times
Opera Must Stop Ignoring Its Race Problem, Offstage As Well As On
“In 20 years, I’ve never been hired by a Black person; I’ve never been directed by a Black person; I’ve never had a Black C.E.O. of a company; I’ve never had a Black president of the board; I’ve never had a Black conductor,” says bass Morris Robinson. “I don’t even have Black stage managers. None, not ever, for 20 years.” – The New York Times
On Opera Over The Phone, Just For Me
It wasn’t quite like being in a recital hall, but it did give me a chance to enter another romantic world in real time with a real person on the other end of the phone line. – NPR
‘Take Me Out To The Ball Game’ Was Actually (In Its Way) A Feminist Anthem
The words that everyone knows are just the chorus. There are verses about a baseball-mad woman named Katie Casey who went to the stadium, sat in the front row, loudly cheered the players and argued with the umpires — all things women did not do in 1908, when the song was written. And the inspiration for Katie was almost certainly the lyricist’s then-girlfriend, a famous actress and suffragette. – Smithsonian Magazine
How Music Lessons Have Adapted Online
“It was a novelty for a week or two,” said Catherine Keen. “But it was really tough on the kids. They were on their computers all day with their home classes. And then to have to come to an online voice lesson was really hard. Some of them did well. But others . . . “ She doesn’t go into specifics. But clearly, some of her students were struggling. – Movers & Makers
How Classical Crossover Ran Amok And Ran Aground
The Three Tenors franchise was hardly great opera, but it was effective, and Yo-Yo Ma’s various crossover projects are genuinely good. So how did we get from The Silk Road Project to Hildegard von Bingen club remixes to The Shirtless Violinist and the quartet Well-Strung? Basically, writes James Bennett, II, blame the suits. – WQXR (New York City)
Seattle Singer Lady A Sticks Up For The Right To Keep Her Name
The black Seattle blues singer has been in talks with the band [formerly known as Lady Antebellum] for weeks about using the name, maintaining that she doesn’t want to share the Lady A brand and that she shouldn’t have to fight to keep a name she’s used for more for 20 years. With a newly filed lawsuit from the band, she now may have to fight in court for it. – Rolling Stone
Britain’s Choirs Are Conducting Tests To See If It’s Safe To Sing
This week, in an operating theatre at the government’s science facility at Porton Down, a small group of guinea-pig choral singers, some professional and some amateur, are taking part in experiments to measure what happens to those aerosols — droplets measuring five-thousandths of a millimetre or less — when they are emitted by the singing voice. – Spectator