Category: music

The Danish city of Aarhus allowed popular singer Mads Langer to perform a drive-thru event at a newly constructed venue just outside the city. With six days’ notice, the event sold 500 tickets and, according to locals, went off without a hitch. – Los Angeles Times

Called United We Stream, the combined live-streaming and fundraising platform hosts live music, DJ sets, performances and other live experiences from a growing roster of venues across Europe. Patrons are invited to drop into daily events staged for the platform, and invited via on-screen buttons to donate money if they can, either by buying merchandise or by splashing out on a “virtual drink.” These donations are plowed back into keeping music and nightlife scenes alive. – CityLab

One of the last songs at this winter’s Youth Traditional Song Weekend emphasized standing together in song. Now, “the act of gathering to sing feels like something for a tenuous tomorrow. One can always sing alone, but social singers relish the exchange. The learning new songs from others, the jumping in with an impromptu harmony, the spontaneity, the shared emotion, the bad puns. (Always, the terrible puns.)” What’s a singer to do? – The Boston Globe

The concert hall was empty; the musicians were greatly reduced in number and sitting far from each other; they wore masks backstage and were tested before the event. “Though the seating arrangement was strange — and it was momentarily odd to see a conductor and concertmaster bow to each other rather than shake hands — it was also inspiring to see musicians trying to find some way, however awkward, to keep making live art.” – The New York Times

“The performers … feel abandoned by the Met. … The sense of drift has been compounded by what musicians call a lack of communication and leadership from the Met’s management. Music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin has sent the group hopeful video messages, but updates from [general manager Peter] Gelb and the house’s human resources department have been practically nonexistent.” – Van

Dave Voorhees estimates that the store’s chockablock bins hold half a million recordings of rock, R&B, jazz, classical, country and other musical genres — an inventory his business manager, Bob Jacobs, values at $3 million. About 200,000 of those records are vintage 45 RPM singles, many extremely rare. – Seattle Times

Michael Andor Brodeur: “Lately, my social media feeds are filled with musical experiments that take a head-on approach to the current crisis, or works composed before the outbreak that resonate anew in the context of covid-19. Rather than escape the moment, they arrest it. Here are four works, new and recent, that you can stream (and, in some cases, sing) over the next several days.” Top of the list: David Lang’s Protect Yourself From Infection. – The Washington Post

Talk to a fan or performer, and they usually have a moment, a performance, a recording that got them hooked on whatever the art was. The Times asked 14 famous opera-lovers what their moments were. – The New York Times

The albums released by London-based Electric Recording Co., “assembled by hand and released in editions of 300 or fewer — at a cost of $400 to $600 for each LP — are made with restored vintage equipment down to glowing vacuum-tube amplifiers, and mono tape systems that have not been used in more than half a century. … Even its record jackets, printed one by one on letterpress machines, show a fanatical devotion to age-old craft.” – The New York Times