Category: music

Zachary Woolfe: “For someone who’s never grown quite used to my late-night subway journey home after an opera, it was hard to turn down a performance that would take place a few steps from bed.” – The New York Times

A billion dollar industry dependent on one factory in California? That’s physical manufacturing, so perhaps not. The factory, where 75 percent of the world’s blank lacquers were made, burned in early February. “Pressing plants and mastering engineers are assessing the future. Some have expressed fear that the fire will disrupt the global production of new album releases and slow the seemingly endless supply of reissues that major labels churn out.” – Los Angeles Times

Massey claims the separation of ways was a mutual decision and adds that “the job was not what he expected when he came to Louisville a year ago from Florida, where he had been the president and CEO of the Jacksonville Symphony for four years.” – Louisville Courier Journal

The stakes are high. Not only does a musician have an emotional connection to their instrument, but a break, even if it is repaired to pristine condition, can bring down a valuable instrument’s price. It is also highly likely that a musician traveling with an instrument is on their way to their next gig. – The Guardian

Hildur Guðnadóttir is actually three-quarters of the way to an EGOT: she has an Oscar (and a Golden Globe) for her score to The Joker and an Emmy and a Grammy for her music for HBO’s Chernobyl. “But it’s on her own, and in the occasional duo or trio setting, that Guðnadóttir has established her signature sound: a moving fusion of ambient drone and contemporary classical that places an emphasis on her exceptionally controlled tone; she’s capable of conjuring entire worlds out of just a few carefully chosen notes.” – Pitchfork

The news of a planned stock market flotation of Universal comes hot on the heels of a similar announcement by its smaller rival Warner Music Group. – BBC

The 81-musician orchestra, based in the Russian city of Krasnoyarsk (a few hundred miles northeast of where the borders of Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, and Russia meet), was to have made a two-week tour in February and March of regional cities in California, Florida, Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. U.S. Customs and Immigration Services gave no reason for the denial of the visas. – Orange County Register (California)

The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland has vowed to act after an independent review of one of its leading degree programmes highlighted allegations of “bullying, favouritism and misuse of authority”. – The Scotsman